Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Love, Ever Strong: A Romance Novella is an historical romance novella written by Ronnda Eileen Henry. In the ongoing conflicts between the regions of Selby, Tenby and Crozby, Tenbian lords waged battle against neighboring Selby, mounting a siege against two castles and razing the surrounding villages. Any villagers who survived were enslaved, and their former holdings were demolished. A monk came upon twenty small child survivors as he traveled through the ruins of those Selbian villages on his way to his monastery. As he proceeded, he was able to find homes for all but six of them in the villages he passed through. Old Grayam of Tosside was in the final town where the monk found homes for all but two of the children. One was a little girl who was only two years old and the other a ten-year-old boy. Old Grayam decided to take them both and share his home with them. The three of them became a family, with Rose and Conor forging a bond that would survive their eventual separation six years later when Conor entered the King’s service. Twenty years later, their paths were destined to cross again.
Ronnda Eileen Henry’s historical romance novella, Love, Ever Strong: A Romance Novella, is a sweet and memorable romance about two child survivors of military conflict who find each other after decades spent apart. Henry deftly builds the courtly world that the adult Rose and Conor find themselves a part of, complete with palace intrigues and battles for dominance, and counters it most wonderfully with that simpler life their parents enjoyed before disaster struck and that Old Grayam gave them as they were growing up. As with her other historical novellas, it’s quite easy to immerse yourself in Henry’s alternate world and time period, which has a distinctly Arthurian feel to it. Her characters are well-defined and memorable, and her romances flow beautifully. Love, Ever Strong: A Romance Novella is most highly recommended.