Dark Warrior: A Historical Romance Where an Abducted Woman Must Choose Between Love and Lives

Warrior #1

by Donna Fletcher

Mary wakes in the darkness of a dungeon after being abducted by a fearsome warrior. Suddenly her prison door opens to reveal a large man hidden in black shroud. He calls himself Michael, the Dark One. As a favour to his friend Magnus (from Legendary Warrior), Michael has come to rescue her. They travel across unknown territory seeking safety, and Mary falls in love with Michael's strength and kindness. But when they finally reach the protection of Magnus's home, it is to find that the warrior who had first abducted her has issued a wed him, or the innocent villagers will die. Mary now must choose between her love for Michael and the lives of innocent people. Will Michael be able to save her again...or will a dark secret destroy them both?

Genres: Historical Romance, Historical, Romance, Medieval, Historical Fiction, Scotland

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Barbara Ziblis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a good idea, and could have been a great dark-romance. But most of the way through it just falls flat and gets wishywashy. Also there's a love-at-first-sight, which can be done well. In this book it's just annoying. She's known him about two weeks and she's raising her hands to the sky and spinning in circles crying out "I love you!" Seriously.

When I first started reading I assumed the Dark One was Decimus's son, then later thought maybe his brother. The first time Mary sees Decimus's hand by the spring is when I first started to think he actually IS Decimus. It was exciting picking out clues and it as a big motivator for me to continue reading to see if I was right.

I liked this idea, since Decimus is clearly a grey character who picks and chooses and helps who he can while still doing bad things to maintain his cover. I thought it might lead to some interesting discussion and character-building/growth. Nope. Decimus says the only people he's ever killed were church people. Uh-huh. He doesn't work his way up from a nobody into a feared and respected leader in the church and government by keeping his hands bloodless. People don't fear a man when all his prisoners mysteriously escape. He can't fake the death of everyone who passes through his halls. And even if he somehow did manage it that means there's several hundred (thousand?) people out there who aren't as dead as the church believes. People talk. Decimus was one person in the church, the others would find out eventually. What of the torturer at Decimus's fortress? He clearly loves his job, can't love a job you aren't allowed to do because your prisoners all disappear or die before they can be tortured. He needed to be seen to carry out some punishments, cause as it is he seems to be all bluster. "roar roar if you do this I will have your head stomp stomp doorslam" The book glosses all of it over, pretending he hasn't done anything wrong that he fuels his power with threats and that his men are complete morons. I would have preferred him to have had to have done some horrible things in his undercover identity. And I'm sure realistically he did, but the book doesn't say so.

I was also confused by why exactly Decimus wanted to fake Mary's death and get her out of there. Apparently the plan had been for him to marry her to protect her from the church. So once they were married... she was no longer in danger. But now that they're married he suddenly wants her to go into hiding for her own protection.

[Lady Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 / 5

I have to admit, and I will, that apart from the Cree & Dawn Books 1 and 2, THIS is my favourite read by Donna Fletcher. Have to mark it down as to-buy soon, cause it's a definite re-read!

__________

We focus in on Mary, a young woman on the run from the fanatical Decimus, who tortured and killed her parents years ago, and who's been kept protected and hidden by Magnus (hero from Book 1 of this series, whose story is also quite lovely!). Anyways, at the beginning of the story, Mary's been captured by Decimus's soldiers, and merely awaits her "trial", which is sure to result in torture and then, of course, death--burning at the stake, witchcraft, etc.

Except that fate has another destiny in store for her via a quick and secret rescue by none other than The Dark One, also from the previous book. As a good friend to Magnus, he sets out to save Mary and, blending in with shadows as well as he does, he gets her away from Decimus and his men.

Love was never supposed to enter into the picture.

But once it does, and with Mary never once seeing his face, it's too late to go back.

______________

All I can say is that the second half of this book is SUPERB. I wouldn't say that the twists and turns are 100% predictable, but I wasn't particularly shocked by any of them either. But, then again, the fact that there even ARE twists and turns in a romance novel is impressive enough, and therefore I have no negative comments to make.

Again, got to buy this for myself soon, so putting a reminder to see that I do.

Let me just end with this: I really loved this one and can definitely see it as a re-read. And a re-re-read. Possibly a re-re-re-read, by which time you know I'm hooked!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 “Masked-Man” Stars!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sooo happy I finally tried a Donna Fletcher book! This one held me captive from the start. I loved that she used the hunting of heretics in her plot, simply because it’s not something I’ve seen too often in my historicals. I imagine it must have been a horrifyingly scary time to be alive when just about anyone or anything could be called out for whatever the pious church *sarcastic side-eye* deemed sinful.

I also love a masked hero, and Michael was so sexy! I did NOT see the twist coming… I started to suspect something, but I was just off by a little lol. Needless to say, I was properly shook. 😅

Highly, highly recommend this one for the historical romance fans, and I can’t wait to check out more from this authors extensive backlist! ❤️

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So... I had never read a romance novel before this one. It was my first year in college and so sick of the guys I was around that I picked up any book and it was this one. I grabbed a pint of ice cream and stayed up reading. It sure made me smile and feel better. So I gave it Five stars because it has a personal connection.

[Cristina]

Not for me. Writing style didn’t work for me.

[Vee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Tropes : historical romance, romantic suspense, grumpy x sunshine
Ending : HEA
Triggers : mention of death, murder, abuse, torture
Spice : 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Angst : 🔥🔥🔥/5
OM/OW drama : none

Hero : Michael / Decimus/ Ryan (30s)
Heroine: Mary (20s)

I enjoyed this one quite much. The plot twist was not a shocker for me since I’ve read the reviews lmao.

[Elis Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary has been hiding all her life. She's the daughter of a renowned teacher, who was branded heretic, tortured and killed along with her mother, and the church means to do the same to Mary, even though she was only a child when her parents died. You'd think that after several years not hearing a word of a little girl, they'd have given up, wouldn't you? Nope, the church, specifically an inquisitor named Decimus, has a long memory, and he still wants her.

The man who delivered her years ago, Magnus, is busy being the hero of another story, so he's sent his sometime compatriot, The Dark One, a/k/a Michael (only that's not really his name either). The Dark One is a bit theatrical, wearing a black shroud, black gloves, and even a black veil over his face (which does make one wonder how the hell he gets round in the dark—which he does a lot since he's also fond of disappearing into the shadows).

TDO rescues her, but Decimus seems to have this uncanny ability to follow. Eventually, he goes to Magnus—because, yes, he knows that Magnus was the one who rescued the girl years ago—strangely, given that he's a guy known for butchering people who even unwittingly help people he wants to butcher, he doesn't do anything about it, other than deliver a message: Either Mary is delivered to him, or he will rain hell on everyone Magnus loves, starting with his wife. Oh, and by the way, he doesn't want to torture and slaughter Mary. Nope, he wants to do even worse—marry her, subjugate her, and thus prove to the world that he's able to beat the literal hell out of any sinner.

What's a gal to do? Let innocents suffer to save her, or marry the devil?



There are a couple neat twists (you might see them coming, but they're still neat). Pretty good read. 3.5.

[StrangeBedfellows · Rating 2 out of 5]

The synopsis for this book sounded very cool, romantic, and fun. And at first, I did enjoy this story. But about halfway through things just became ridiculous and irritating. There's a surprise twist that I don't want to give away by going into too much detail, but the characters' actions in several instances made me roll my eyes in disgust and irritation. Putting the customary melodrama of historical romances aside, the story wasn't believable.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suspenseful novel with interesting characters and lots of twists and turns. Riveting story that held my attention from start to finish. I loved the action, adventure and passion. Donna Fletcher is one of my favorite authors and she doesn't disappoint here. I hope there is a third novel with Roarke's story.

[Tairy Tairy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

I fell in love with it. It was beautifully written. I was so happy and nervous and couldn't wait to see what happened next. I know that I would not hesitate to read it again.

[Rachelle Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

Once again Ms. Fletcher has done it again. The connection between the characters was beautifully crafted and told. This was a marvelous read.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has a good premise, terrible execution, bad writing, and a lame ending. Overall it was just bad.

[sivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, it kept me interested the whole way and the love plot was wonderful. The end wasn’t reliable but it’s a story after all so maybe it didn’t have to be.

[Mona · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this because the premise seemed so interesting but the writing style was a lot of telling, the dialogue was so few and far between with the MCs, and just things didn’t add up so to rationalize I thought maybe this guy has some type of magic or is a vampire but nope on that assumption. I stuck it out because I kept hoping it would get better but at the 95% mark I thought, who am I kidding!?! The ending just pissed me off so that knocked a star off for me.

[Rivka · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it to 5 % or the second chapter and I think that is a first for me. The writing style grates at my nerves and I immediately want to strike through words and make comments "redundant" "cliché" "tell". My next thoughts were "When has this been written? In the 70's?"
Well, I am not going to read bad writing and also thanks to the reader who wrote the spoiler alert, I am not going to waste my time with it.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

It began nicely.. but when the truth, the secret is revealed, I didn't find it that interesting.. The secret of the hero was unexpected (I couldn't guess it). It was as if he ceased being the hero after his identity is revealed. He was no more strong for me. The heroine takes the lead, but the story lost appeal to me. I was expecting more I believe.

[Nancy Yohe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story.

I loved this story. It was full of twists and turns, secrets and love. Michael and Mary fell in love after he rescued her from Decimus’ dungeon and was taking her to safety. It is hard to say anything more without giving away to end so I will end it there. My only issue is that this is listed as book 1 when I think it should be book 2.

[Carol Jean Sparkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual Donna Fletcher's books are full of excitement and an excellent read. I love all of her books, can highly recommend her for all lovers of historical romance. I keep her books as I often read them more than once.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this more than the first book!
Keep me on edge and nail biting...I knew who it was half way the book...(swoon)
I'm glad they have happy ending! 🥰😘❤️

[Debbie Waitkus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book

Love the story. The Intimacy. The Intrigue kept you reading. I wish it had an epilogue but great book to read.

[The Duchess of Hollywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really into this book until the plot twist and then I just couldn’t care anymore. I couldn’t put the book down in the beginning, but once the reveal came everything got confusing

[Karen Albright-Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story line!

I loved the characters and the dialogue and the storyline!! She’s a great writer and I’ve liked all the books I’ve read that she wrote!!

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too insta lovey, but decent plot twist

[Jeene Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow!?! what a gripping story

This is a strong story filled with escape, mystery, and romance set at a time when the Church doggedly pursued heretics. Well written and hard to put down.

It was nice to read about Magnus, Reena, Thomas and Brigid again. The Dark One made a cameo appearance in Legendary Warrior. He returns as our hero rescuing the Mary that Magnus saved all those years ago. Much like the Legend/Magnus, there are two very different sides to Michael, the Dark One.

This pair of books is darker than most other romances I have read of late. Both also show unusual courtships. When Mary is rescued, she cannot speak because of damage to her throat. So she uses simple sign language or writes in the dirt. Michael is very perceptive about what she is trying to say.

Magnus and Michael are complex characters, harder for their women to know and love, but definitely worth fighting for. Both women had to go to extreme measures to ensure their lives with their husbands.

[Deborah Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark mood and slow to launch

I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. The story started out well but I began to lose interest in the story and characters about a third of the way into it. Fortunately, the story began to launch at that point or I would not have stayed with it. The big reveal in the book was anticipated early on so when it came it was no surprise. The book was just "so-so" for me.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason this is a 3 star instead of 2 star is because I needed a simple romance. No intertwined plotlines and insta-love. This is exactly what I needed. There is a twist in the book that had me scratching my head trying to figure out how it happened even though we get the background of it. After I finished it I just shrugged my shoulders and decided to not dwell on it. Anyway, if you want a stereotypical historical romance, this is a good choice.

[Ginny Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good romance

Enjoyed this! The story was different enough from most other romances that it held my interest throughout. Having toned down the sex it was even more enjoyable for someone who enjoys the romance!

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story much better than the first. While some parts were sort of repetitive, they were not overly annoying. I enjoyed the relationship ship between Mary and The Dark One but wished we learned a little more about how they fared. Also his true identity was pretty obvious.

[merilie Gonzales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark warrior

This story had substance, a good plot with twists and turns. It had a big surprise. I took a star away because sometimes the words of love were overly dramatic but I will be reading more books by Donna Fletcher.

[Blender · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great story, so many twists and turns. The ending did feels rushed but overall a good read.