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Gentle Warrior
Gentle Warrior
Gentle Warrior
Audiobook10 hours

Gentle Warrior

Written by Julie Garwood

Narrated by Anne Flosnik

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

In feudal England, Elizabeth Montwright barely escaped the massacre that destroyed her family and exiled her from her ancestral castle. Bent on revenge, she rode again through the fortress gates, disguised as a healer…to seek aid from Geoffrey Berkley, the powerful baron who had routed the murderers.

He heard her pleas, resisted her demands, and vowed to seduce his beautiful subject. Yet as Elizabeth fought the warrior's caresses, love flamed for this gallant man who must soon champion her cause…and capture her spirited heart!

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 27, 2010
ISBN9781441812162
Author

Julie Garwood

Julie Garwood (1944--2023) was the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Fire and Ice, Shadow Music, Shadow Dance, Murder List, Killjoy, Mercy, Heartbreaker, Ransom, and Come the Spring. There are more than thirty-six million copies of her books in print.

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Reviews for Gentle Warrior

Rating: 3.88354038757764 out of 5 stars
4/5

322 ratings14 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Love Anne flosnic. I don't understand the reviews saying her narration was awful!? She is one of my FAVORITE narrators. I first fell in love with her voice in the Sherbrooke Bride series. Her male and female voices are excellent as well as children, butlers, maids etc. She also does a great job with different accents.
    THE ONLY THING I CAN THINK OF IS MAYBE THEY ARE LISTENING AT NORMAL. SPEED. I ALWAYS LISTEN AT FADTER SPEEDS NO MATTER THE NARRATIOR , NORMALLY I LISTEN AT 1.5 BUT SOMETIMES 1.2 AND 1.8.
    BUT I LISTENED TO CATHERINE COULTER S SHERBROOKE BRIDE SERIES BACK IN THE DAY ON ONE OF THOSE PORTABLE CD PLAYERS. SO MAYBE THE NARRATION ON HERE IS SLOWER THAN THE HARD COPY .
    WHO KNOWS ?
    BUT I LOVED ANEE FLOSNIKS NARRATION AS WELL AS MARION HUSSEY , ROSALIND LANDOR AND SUSAN DUERDON!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I could not listen to this book. The narrator's voice was very grating to my ears. She spoke perfectly I simply couldn't handle her accent and tone. I tried twice in 6 months to listen to this and I couldn't. I think you should try it because some people love her voice.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book years ago. I loved it then and I loved it now. It's an awesome story of pain and devastation, betrayal and greed. It was also a story of love, strength and loyalty. I loved Elizabeth's grandfather. Great book
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Great book, i read it way back.... but the narrator should juste stop narrating, her accent is horrible and the dragbin with words is just cringe
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The story was interesting enough. The hero was simply to callous for my liking.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What a book, it was so good I could hardly get any work done it kept me listening so that I didn’t want to stop eat.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I believe I would’ve liked this book if not for the narrator. She is horrible. Does everyone droll their voice like she does in that century? I wouldn’t of minded it so much, but she uses it for the two main characters too. Can’t imagine how the female and male both would grow up speaking the same way (carrying their last word long and slow. ) I’ll have to read this one.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    First let me say that I love Julie Garwoood & have read/listened to many of her books.
    While this story was a good one, I must say that the narrator TOTALLY ruined it! Thus the 1 star rating. I was only able to listen to it by simple will power & because of my love for the author’s other stories. I will NOT listen to another story by this narrator, regardless who the author is.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Gentle Warrior was Julie Garwood's first published romance from way back in 1985, and although I mostly enjoyed it, I would have to say that it showed some of her greenness as a writer. There are many of the trademark Garwood elements here such as a temperamental alpha hero who has a gentler side; a feisty, independent heroine; lots of spirited, humorous banter between the pair; and love scenes that were pretty steamy for the time period in which they were penned. However, the book is written in a style in which the points-of-view (POV) sometimes slip back and forth between various characters every few paragraphs within the same scene rather than there being longer passages in one person's POV and then having a scene break before switching to another character. I'm not sure if this is just an older style of writing that was more common in the 1980's or one of the signs of the author's inexperience, but for me, it was a little confusing and made it more difficult to get inside each character's head. In my opinion, it also gave the narrative a more passive tone that had a telling rather than showing feel to it. Additionally, there wasn't quite enough details in any area of the book to fully satisfy me.As I mentioned, Geoffrey and Elizabeth are the typical Julie Garwood character stereotypes. Geoffrey is an intense, stubborn alpha warrior with a hot temper, but in the bedroom is usually quite gentle. Elizabeth is a brave and fiercely independent young woman who was taught more masculine pursuits such as hunting and riding by a father who longed for a son and didn't get one until later in life. Even though she isn't very good at more feminine things such as sewing and household maintenance, Elizabeth still had a tender side which made her more relatable to me. She witnessed her entire family, with the exception of her little brother, be massacred by greedy men who wanted her father's land, and is now hell-bent on seeking vengeance against them. Needless to say, Geoffrey and Elizabeth have a clash of both personalities and wills as they try to create a lasting, affectionate marriage. The moments where they are butting heads while trying to “teach” each other how to be a proper spouse, when each of them has a completely different idea of what that means, were quite funny. In fact, I would have to say that the largest part of this book was about them learning to compromise and come to terms with the other's inherent personality traits. Geoffrey could be rather arrogant at times which occasionally grated, but sometimes could lead to something endearing. I loved the scene in which he tells Elizabeth, “You are mine,” and she says it right back to him. I didn't feel that the hero and heroine had as much depth as they could have, but overall, they were both pretty likable.The one thing about the book that wasn't quite my cup of tea is that it is written more in the bodice-ripper style of the 1970's and 80's. While Geoffrey isn't exactly abusive like some heroes of that era in romance, he can get very intense and a couple of times he shook Elizabeth or pulled her hair in a way that was more than just a playful tug when he was angry. I'll allow though that on one of those occasions she had just confessed to doing something disobedient (although she had thought better of the idea and didn't fully go through with it), and then had followed that up with an act that scared the living daylights out of him even though it had a good outcome. The story simply had a healthy dose of a woman's subservient position to her husband which would seriously raise feminist hackles, but at the same time, it wasn't nearly as bad as some other bodice-ripper romances or the reality for women in the Middle Ages. So, overall, I guess I would say that it had a pretty good balance even if that part bugged me just a little bit.Gentle Warrior had a few significant secondary characters that helped liven things up, mainly Geoffrey's gruff vassal and second in command, Roger, and Elizabeth's precocious little brother, Thomas, and grandfather, Elslow. I really enjoyed the easy relationship that Elizabeth had with Elslow and how he is the voice of reason for both her and her husband when they are being too stubborn. The romance in the book was good, but not quite as strong as I've read in other novels. I think I simply have a preference for the relationship to solidify between the hero and heroine before they marry, or if for some reason a quick marriage is necessary, that they perhaps wait to consummate it. This way there is a slower build of sexual tension. In this story, everything happens right up front, leaving only their journey to figuring out that they have fallen in love somewhere along the way. All in all, Gentle Warrior was a pretty simple, uncomplicated romance (even the bad guys were dispatched with little fanfare which was somewhat disappointing), but in spite of its weaknesses managed to elicit enjoyment from me. I think it just simply falls into the category of a sweet, feel-good story that makes a nice comfort read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I think so far that I like her Scottish medievals better, but this was still a good read. Considering that I think this is her first book and what I’ve heard of some other old school romances, this still far surpasses others.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One thing I enjoy is reading an author's work in order written and watching how the author develops over time. In this case, I'd already read some of Julie Garwood's later work, so reading this first novel of hers was surprising. You can certainly see the weaknesses of a beginning writer. The story is indicative of the bodice-ripper variety of the times it was written in, and yet you can see the author's attempts to make it more. Although this is a cute love story with all the trappings that a romantic is looking for, it lacks cohesion. I did enjoy the tiny bits of humor that popped up now and then...there could have been more of them, but on the whole, I would love to see this story developed more. It's all about an alpha male warrior overlord who is determined, but can't quite manage his new feisty virgin bride, who is just as determined to 'help' him with his duties. There interactions stumble along, but they make it despite coming from different mindsets. Enjoy the story but don't look to deeply and don't give up on Julie Garwood. She really does get better as she settles into her craft.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Elizabeth is an irritating heroine and even by the end of the book you don't feel like you know her enough. Geoffrey is too hard, too strict, too traditional, and too awkward a hero. The story is weak and the two characters lack chemistry. The love scenes make me cringe. ("Let me drink your nectar."???) It's a mediocre read and does nothing to set the book apart from others in the genre. Considering Ms. Garwood's talents, this book falls short. Not a must-read, even for Garwood fans.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the time of William the Conquerer Elizabeth Montwright escaped the massacre of her family and now wants revenge. She dresses as a pesant and seeks aid from the baron Geoffrey Berkley who had routed the murderers. They find themselves attracted to each other and try to resist each other. All-in-all pretty typical fare, enjoyable but light.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    another great medieval romance; heroine is torn between revenge of her family's murder and her new life with husband; hero is very alpha; great story