Outlaw King (Renegade Scots #1) by Julie Johnstone-Dual Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

OUTLAW KING
Renegade Scots #1)
by Julie Johnstone
Release Date: August 31, 2018
Genre: adult, historical, medieval, romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 31, 2018

She’s the weapon intended to destroy him. He’s the key to her freedom.

Dark days have come to medieval Scotland, and fierce warrior Robert the Bruce would do anything to release his country from English rule—and not just because he’s the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. As the bloody war rages on, enemies on both sides of the fight surround him, and Robert must dance a dangerous line between truth and deception. One misstep could topple his nation and cost him his life, yet one woman tempts him—and threatens his mission—as no other ever has.

Elizabeth de Burgh longs for freedom in a time when women have none. So when she finds herself ordered by her ruthless father and her godfather, the King of England, to seduce the leader of the Scottish rebellion and reveal his secrets, she yearns to fight back against their cruel plot. But they threaten to kill her beloved cousin, leaving her no choice but to comply. As she grows close to Robert and the mask that hides the man who would be king is peeled away, she cannot imagine aiding in the destruction of the noble Scot bent on liberating his people.

Bound by duty and honor but ensnared by passion, Robert and Elizabeth must determine if they are each other’s biggest threat or greatest source of strength. And moreover, they must decide how much they are willing to risk for the one thing neither ever imagined they’d find with the other—extraordinary, boundless love.

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Georgianna’s REVIEW:Outlaw King is book one of the new Renegade Scots Series by Julie Johnstone. It’s a historical romance that relies on historical research and a bit of literary license by the author to make the story flow and engaging to the reader.
This is the story of Robert the Bruce and Elizabeth de Burgh.

It begins in 1296 AD in Northern Scotland. This is a complicated story of not doing what you want, but what you must do to survive. Robert the Bruce’s father is old and probably soon to die. Bruce, the elder is basically a coward and refuses to fight the English. As his son, Robert is required to serve the man his father is allied with, so he’s in the process of helping the King take strongholds in Scotland. During this battle, Robert decides he is on the wrong side of the fight. It’s during this battle that Elizabeth de Burgh, disguised as a squire, helps to save many Scots from being burned alive by her father’s order. She must then return with her father and face his wrath, but first thanked Robert for aiding her… and that began their story.

How they managed to actually fall in love, despite the circumstances was a remarkable story. The writing is excellent, the history interesting, the romance and love scenes hot, the action not too brutal.

I loved this story and look forward to the next in this series. For me there’s no high as outstanding as a highlander renegade Scot.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Georgianna

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Julie’s REVIEW: Books that are based in fact are always tricky. Do you believe everything you read ? Or do you just go in and read it for what it is ?

Robert the Bruce was an actual character in history as was Elizabeth, so with bated breath I opened my kindle …..

Beautifully written and very descriptive, I could imagine roaming the hills.

Elizabeth has a job to do …..seduce “the Bruce” and finds out all she can about his army and intention’s towards England.

But Elizabeth isn’t happy with that deal, she is ordered by both the king of England and her father to do her duty (you have to remember that women had NO SAY in what they did in those days) all she wants is a quiet life, and when they threaten her beloved cousins life, Elizabeth sees no other choice but to do ask they demand.

But the legend is nothing like the man, and Elizabeth must make a choice …. the man or her family ??

Robert wants his Scotland free from the tyranny of England, and soon a bloody war erupts, so he has enough on his plate with war and feuding clans, the last thing he needs is Elizabeth ruining his concentration, but she does that, and soon Robert will need to reveal to Elizabeth his plans …. can he trust her, or will she betray him ? And will he use her to fool the English, ensuring she hates him forever ??

Reviewed by Julie B

 

How much do you really want to know?

As a writer of historical romance when I’m developing my story I often have to ask myself how important is historical accuracy. You may be surprised to learn that is not such an easy question to answer for every aspect of the story. Sometimes, I feel like a circus tight rope walker balancing precariously on a very thin cord. To my left sit readers who think they want complete accuracy in their historical fiction novels, but to my right fall the readers who want a dab of accuracy here and there. I’ve learned this through 22 published historical romance novels.

So just how important is accuracy in historical fiction when you are trying to please two different mindsets of people? For me, accuracy is very important because I want readers to get a true picture of what was really happening in the time my book pertains to. However, I’m very aware that I cannot be totally accurate with every single aspect of history.

Take for example my Medieval books. If I wrote the books in Gaelic, as the Scots spoke in Medieval times, the modern day reader would not even understand the book. The same holds true for my Regency books. If I used all of the words that they did in the Regency period many of them have gone completely out of use. The modern reader would not grasp the meaning of my sentences. I have to pick and choose the words I use in my historical books very carefully. I like to pepper in actual words that were used during the time for authenticity without sacrificing accuracy.

On the flip side of using words no longer in existence, I have to be very careful not to use words that seem too modern and would pull the reader out of the time period of the story. I actually have a word bank that my editor and I have developed which contains thousands of words and expressions that were not in use in the Medieval and Regency period. We spent countless hours finding substitutes for these words so that my stories would be as historically accurate as possible while not causing the reader to stumble over a word.
Sometimes the historical accuracy of what I know about certain words as a researcher can come into direct conflict with the history that I realize many readers think they know of a term. For example, I would never use the word ‘claymore’ to speak of a sword in my Scottish Medieval books because the word was not used in reference to swords until the 18 century, yet many readers believe that all swords should be called claymores. Thanks, Hollywood. ☺

I have to make decisions all the time about whether to go with what I know to be the absolute truth or what I know to be reader expectation. I make these decisions on a case by case basis. Another example is bathing. Most people do not want to hear in stories that your character has not bathed in quite a while, so I chose to bend historical accuracy in this instance and make all of my character hygienic. Now, you will not find a laird in a modern day bubble bath day after day, but he will take a dip in a loch more than once a month. See how niftily accuracy can be bent just a tad while maintaining as much historical integrity as possible and delivering a wonderful reader experience.

Another fun example is clothing. I always put my characters in historically accurate clothing, but when it comes time for the steamy love scenes, those many layers of clothes are going to come off a lot quicker than they would in real life. If stayed completely accurate with how long it really took to disrobe, I fear my readers would get bored. However, a caveat to this statement is that I have often taken off layers of clothing on characters while working in a kiss here, a caress there or even turned the disrobing into a game of seduction where each layer removed increased the tension in the room. But sometimes this is not possible, and the clothes just have to go quickly!
As far as dates and actual events that take place, I like to stick to the facts and not change these things. I will never put a historical battle at a time or place that it wasn’t, but I will certainly make up characters that didn’t exist and put them there. However, the characters I create from my imagination could have existed, and that makes all the difference.
Whenever I use events or places that existed, I put in hours of countless research to make sure I am historically accurate because I feel there should be no bending on this type of thing. But sometimes, I have been known to make up a castle or an event, which is why what I write is called fiction. ☺

In my newest book, OUTLAW KING, RENEGADE SCOTS, Book 1, I like to say it is a marriage of historical accuracy meets author imagination. I hope you will consider reading it! I could go on about historical accuracy forever, but I have to go write my next book! How important is historical accuracy to you as a reader? One commenter will win a digital copy of OUTLAW KING.

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Author Julie Johnstone first fell in love with romance fifteen years ago when she picked up her first romance novel in an airport gift shop on the way to Conroe, Texas for a family reunion and spent her whole weekend reading rather than water skiing, which up until then was one of her favorite things to do.

Julie is staying up way too late and typing furiously on her keyboard to finish her next book or blog with her fellow authors at Ladyscribes. Julie is married to an amazing lawyer and when she is not running her two precocious children to one activity or another she is trying to seek out some time to stay in shape and see her dearest friends.

Julie Johstone is graciously offering an ebook copy of OUTLAW KING to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

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