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The Waterlord

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Escaping from her abusive father, Lady Rebecca is rescued by a mysterious stranger who, claiming to be a foreign count, is actually a creature from the otherworld who has come to seduce both her body and soul. Original.

342 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2006

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138 people want to read

About the author

Dawn Thompson

47 books62 followers
Dawn Thompson was a regular columnist featured in women’s special interest publications world and nationwide for over thirty years, one of which CROCHET WORLD, published by House of White Birches, since its inception over twenty-five years ago. She was an award-winning poet, artist, and needlework designer and illustrator, specializing in vintage concepts for today’s woman.

Dawn wrote historical fiction under her own name and that of penname Dawn MacTavish. She primarily wrote Regency Romance, writing both traditional Regencies, and Regency-set historicals and paranormals. She also wrote paranormal romances for both Kensington Books and Dorchester Publishing. Some of her other works include historical paranormals, and Celtic and Norse Medievals, incorporating the history, theology, legend, and lore of her heritage, which was the ongoing focus of her research over the past thirty-five years.

Dawn lived on Long Island, New York until her death, with her double-coated Tuxedo cat, Shadowfax (alias, Miss Fuzz), and Espirit, her scandalous Senegal parrot, an incurable flirt. Since her death, Miss Fuzz resides with author Deborah Macgillivray.

Her favorite books was "Green Darkness" by Anya Seton, and as a tribute, Dawn's books always contained the phrase "green darkness" in some passage of the book.

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5 stars
67 (37%)
4 stars
27 (15%)
3 stars
39 (21%)
2 stars
30 (16%)
1 star
17 (9%)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~.
Author 20 books567 followers
December 28, 2017
This book started off fine. The premise was interesting (can't think of another HR involving a fey/water spirit hero), and it was well-written. But the leads developed feelings too quickly, given that they'd shared only shallow interactions after Klaus saved Becca's life. They were rather boring together, and neither had a memorable personality. They were nice enough, but Klaus displayed some shady behavior by giving Becca fey wine, which made her believe she was dreaming (allowing her to respond to him physically, when she might not have otherwise). There were too few side characters and they didn't get much screen time (nor were they very interesting). I just wish there had been more to this story, because I really wanted to love it.
Profile Image for Marie.
31 reviews2 followers
June 15, 2012
It's a good fantasy read.
Profile Image for Amy Dale.
621 reviews18 followers
September 27, 2021
3.8 stars. I really enjoyed this volume by on of my favourite authors,it was very unique and lovely,but it felt slower than some of her others.

I Loved the idea for this one,a Swedish water spirit is definitely not the usual hero in PNR books and I loved how much of the story took place at waterfalls in the moonlight, what could be more romantic!? I also loved all the fairy lore and that we had a siren as a side character.
Both main characters were lovable though I did find them to be a bit underdeveloped and I felt like I didn't get to know them very well until much later.

As I mentioned, even though I was really enjoying it,the beginning seemed slow and even though it was good,I wasn't riveted to keep going. But once you get halfway, it's amazing and I didn't want to stop.
My only other thought is that there was a large amount of scenes with the characters just missing each other as they go back and forth between realms and such and you wonder if they'll ever get sorted. That also cuts into the amount of time the couple spent together. I felt that the character Henrik,a sort of advisor to hero Klaus, repeated himself and was annoying.

This is an instalove story, which I love. You don't get any real steam until near the very end,but there's plenty of anticipatory steam all the way through and lots of delicious 'dreams' that Becca doesn't know are actually happening. Very sweet, chivalrous, romantic hero and sweet pure heroine.

I wish Dawn Thompson was still around to write more dreamy books.
Profile Image for Griffinyarn.
192 reviews22 followers
February 27, 2018
I think if I'd read this maybe 15 years ago, I would have given it a higher rating. But the story and characters came across as melodramatic and the motivations and actions as unrealistic and illogical. I could barely stomach the heroine, who is best described by Henrik (the hero's butler?)
“... she is headstrong and is possessed of a stubborn independence that defies reason."

Part of the problem was the dialogue. Don't get me wrong, I love period novels - Georgette Heyer is one of my favourite authors and I've read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre more times than I can count - but the "ye olde English" felt so forced and unnatural, like Americans trying to imitate a British accent.

And then the romance (ye gods, the romance!) was shoved in your face, cream pie style. No actual development, just little gems like
“The awful thing is, he has bewitched me, Maud. I shall die if I never see him again. . . .”

and

“She is an innocent, and I have awakened her to life, Henrik. She feels as I do—I know it."



Not recommended.
Profile Image for SuzyHD.
1,229 reviews3 followers
November 14, 2020
Exciting & Intense

In a dangerous and compelling way, the Waterlord, Klaus has come to fall deeply in love with Becca. This adventurous romantic love tale will keep your interest to the very end of the story. Highly recommend.
3,332 reviews42 followers
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October 14, 2017
Although parts of this swept me up, others just left me cold. The heroine is either intrepid or just stupidly reckless, and her hapless abigail is irritating, but not quite as irritating as the way the heroine treats her. It's an interesting storyline, but I was not as enthusiastic as I might have been. I'm not sure why - I have greatly appreciated books by this author writing under a different name.
Profile Image for Brandy.
8 reviews1 follower
June 21, 2012
**Spoilers toward the end.** I truly loved this book. I enjoyed it much better than the last (and first) book of hers that I read: The Falcon's Bride. Having now read two of Dawn Thompson's books, my main criticism deals with the lack of relationship development. In both stories I felt that the undying, deep love was just thrown at me all at once. The characters seem to fall in love with each other before I was even able to fall in love with them! Other than the difficulty she has in properly developing a deep relationship, I think she's great! Judging by the two books of hers I have read, and the third book of hers that I have just begun, I say that her stories are different, original, and entertaining. I really "feel" part of the worlds she creates.
As for the Waterlord
Pros:1. Love the story, very unique.
2. She develops her fantasy world beautifully.
3. Klaus - loved him.
Cons:
1. Not sure why the characters are so in love so suddenly, you just kind of have to go with it.
2. Not a lot of interaction of the characters WITH each other. Many scenes(and in my opinion, too much time) deals with the characters separated, but thinking of each other.
3. Felt Becca to be a little on the rude side in dealing with her servant - I've noticed the author dealing with servants in a less than positive manner in other works,as well....so perhaps author is just trying to be true to the role women played in regards to their servants for that time period, respectively. I don't know, in some cases, I still felt Becca came across as harsh, rude, and a little snobbish in dealing with her servants.
4. Back and forth, back and forth - scenes change, we go from one world to another, one place to another quite a lot. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I like being exposed to different places, particularly the fantasy world, but sometimes I wish characters would have stayed in one place a little longer and interacted with each other some more. Really wish she would have developed their relationship better before making them truly, madly, deeply in love with each other.
5. Would have like to have known a little more background information on the main characters. Becca - mother's death, why, how her father was lead into what he became; Klaus - his father's entire story regarding giving up his immortality, more about his mother, more about him finding out that he was of the fantasy world and how the elder came to be his guardian and teaching him his true identity.

I know it seems that my negatives here far outweigh my positives, but I still overrall really enjoyed the book. It is just easier for me to nitpick the things I didn't like and talk about them. If you like to be taken away to another time and place with historical romance and fantasy/magic then you won't be disappointed.
Profile Image for Paranormal Romance.
1,315 reviews46 followers
August 15, 2025
Rebecca knows the risk of venturing out into the storm in the dead night but she has no choice. Fleeing her degenerate father who wishes to marry her off to a slob in order to clear his gambling debts, Rebecca aims to reach Ireland and become a nun before she can be captured and brought back. Her plans don’t work however when her carriage crashes and she very nearly died by falling from a cliff. Only she’s saved by a very handsome man who takes her back to his castle. This man, a foreigner, is charming and welcoming and cares for her injured maid as well as he cares for her. Sure, there’s some sketchy things going on, like her witnessing him walking naked in the garden or all those erotic dreams that she’s not quite sure are dreams. But Klaus is handsome and inviting.

Klaus is not what he portrays himself as. He is Faerie prince, half human and half Fae. He lives amongst the humans to break up the boredom of immortality but also because he has a responsibility to impregnate a human female so their son can travel to the otherworld and live amongst the Fae. Klaus doesn’t enjoy this task and now that he’s fallen in love with Rebecca, he’s willing to give up everything to be with her.

But between Rebecca’s awful father, Klaus’s own lies and females fighting for Klaus’s attention, a lot of obstacles lay between them.

There was a lot of this book that I didn’t like and sadly, not much that I did. I enjoyed the dedication to the time period…. everything else was horrid. Rom Rebecca’s persistent whining to Klaus’s very creepy rape vibes, I wasn’t a fan of this book. There was no chemistry between Klaus and Rebecca yet Klaus seems hellbent on surrendering his immortality to be with her. Sure, he was charming but Rebecca was not. She was dower and boring. She should have been a nun, really.

The plotline was repetitive and nonsensical. Back and forth to the otherworld, back and forth to Klaus’s castle. I went cross-eyed trying to care about what was supposedly happening in this book.
Profile Image for Laura.
Author 15 books613 followers
January 25, 2010
This book starts out with Becca racing from her father across the moors and her carriage overturns. Enter super sexy Klaus. he saves Lady Becca and her abigail, then takes them to his house. Really he is a prince of the water fae...a fossegrim. He must once every generation, go through a "mating season" where he has one month to seduce a maiden, and leave her with child, then he goes back to the Astral. Too bad Klaus falls in love with Becca. Instead of seducing her, as is his duty, he wants to keep her. She runs away...a lot. It got old, the amount of running she did, from him, from her father, from her betrothed, from her father, from this from that...
Also, Dawn Thompson, while a beautiful writer, describes waaay too much. How many different herbs do I really want to hear about? umm, none! I want to get back to the story! The storyline is GREAT! But, it drags....soo much unnecessary filler. The ending was a bit anticlimactic too; a water siren named Illia, the lorelei of the sirens, was Klaus' lover, but she hurts Becca, so Klaus gets mad, but even though he's the prince, for some reason, Illia keeps besting him...at the end, they still don't resolve that. It bugged me. I felt like this story could have been so much more than it was.
11 reviews
July 8, 2008
Set, as so many of Thompson's books were, in England, this paranormal was her second release for Dorchester. The firt as Gothic shapeshifter. This was old Norse lore.

Lady Rebecca is fleeing her evil father, when her coach over turns. She nearly downs but is recued by the waterlord - Count Klaus Lindegran. It is half-human, half Fossegrim. He is required to take a make to keep his realm secure. He loves Rebecca but must return to his people who depend upon him for their very survival.

Another beautifuly written tale by a talent that was taken from us too soon.
Profile Image for Marcella Burnard.
Author 11 books138 followers
June 29, 2010
I couldn't finish this book. Perhaps it's a style that I'm simply not wired to appreciate, though I found the writing to be lush and evocative. I suspect my issue stems from what I perceive as a lack of proper motivation in the characters. I didn't understand the whys and wherefores of the choices these people made. Near the middle of the book, I felt they each had the information to make intelligent choices - but then didn't and I wasn't sure why. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, I gave up and passed to book to another reader who, I hope, will love it.
Profile Image for Kathrynn.
1,185 reviews
November 10, 2008
Cleaning out my TBR shelf and remember this awful book that I intended to finish later. I'm just tossing it. This Reader found the story incredibly boring and the characters lacking any kind of depth. It used to bother me to not finish a book, but not anymore. There are too many books I want to read to mess with one that couldn't hold my interest.

Profile Image for Harley.
117 reviews21 followers
November 15, 2014
This book started with a good premise but couldn't follow it up. I found a few things turned me off enough so it became one of the few books I couldn't finish.

The heroine comes across as being mouthy and aggressive, which is completely out of sync with the time this takes place. The hero I found to be wishy-washy and lacking in dimension.

Profile Image for Terry Spear.
Author 165 books1,628 followers
October 11, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the love story and the resolution at the end. :)
Profile Image for evergreencrime.
436 reviews8 followers
July 18, 2015
I dont know if I will love this book as much as I loved it when I read it years ago but pre-BDB pre-fever series, I was always comparing paranormal books to this masterpiece.
242 reviews
February 8, 2016
Very good

I really enjoyed this book very much, I recommend to all adults to read, I enjoy this authors books very much
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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