Anchor and Storm by Kate Poole

Kate Poole - Anchor and Storm - Ellora's Cave

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Category: Lava Cake - reads like warm Chocolate Lava Cake... à la Mode... sprinkled with nuts. (A,A-)

Flame Height: 6" out of 9"

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From EC: "Edgar Armstrong, Earl of Callander, had not given much thought to marrying and producing an heir…until he meets Emily Sinclair. When their easy companionship grows into love, they learn that Edgar's progressively debilitating disease could be passed on to his children. As their joy turns to despair Edgar finds a solution. If he can't get her with child he knows just the man who can. But will Emily agree to his plan?

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Angus MacNeill, Lord Callander's groom, thinks Emily married Edgar for his title, his money and the security he can give her. And when Edgar approaches him with a very unusual request Angus questions his master's motives. Still, it doesn't stop him from accepting Callander's terms — it's the only way he can be with Emily, even if only until she conceives.

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Deeply in love with Edgar, Emily will do anything he asks of her. But she never suspected he'd ask something like this! Despite Edgar's reassurances she worries that his plan could destroy their marriage rather than strengthen it. And when she makes her choice, Emily wonders if there's room enough for two men in her heart — and in her bed."

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I wish I could remember who recommended this book to me, because I want to thank them. I bought this book because it was historical and a menage, but it turned out that this was one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever read. Even the erotic scenes transcended sex and became some of the most emotionally exquisite scenes I've seen.

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Underlying all of this book was a sadness in each character. A great sense of loss. Edgar felt the betrayal of his body as it slowly gave away on him, then felt the loss of the years he longed to spend with his beloved Emily. Highlanders displaced after Culoden and the Jacobite uprising, both Angus and Emily felt the loss of their way of life, their freedom, and all that they held in their hearts. The love the three of them unexpectedly find, is their one shining prospect to gain peace for their souls.

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While Anchor and Storm does not end with a traditional HEA, the bittersweet ending left me with a feeling that their three lives had followed the course that was meant to be, they were fated to be together if only for a finite amount of time, that there could have been no other ending to their story.

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Thank you, Kate Poole. The chance to read a story as beautiful as Anchor and Storm is a major reason why I read Romances.

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(BTW, if anyone knows the address of Kate Poole's web site/blog, please let me know because I've been unable to find it)

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Update: In her response to the fangirl email I sent her, Kate says she is currently working on getting a website or blog up. She's also planning on attending next year's RT Con in Pittsburgh- I'm looking forward to meeting her.

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Update: It was Jess and Natalie who pimped this book on Lora's board right after it was released. Since then, a lot of us over there either have it on our TBP/TBR lists or have read it and love it as much as I do. I think we've now even convinced at least one non-historical reader to buy it!