Review: The Lion and the Crow (Historical) by Eli Easton

This story is offered for free as part of the Love Has No Boundaries Event. Sponsored by the M'M Group on goodreads. If you're a M/M lover, there are a host of free stories to do with this event here. I'm going to be reviewing some over the next few weeks.

Title: The Lion and the Crow
Author: Eli Easton
Genre: M/M Romance Historical
Length: Novella
Formats: Epub, Mobi, PDF
Price: FREE

 4 Stars

This one is a far cry from my usual tastes (no BDSM for a start, lol, and it's historical). It's a little surprising on the historical side; I have a linguistic's degree, and I'm a huge -- HUGE -- lover of language, so it's a little strange that I don't often cover this genre (too much lexical density and word order manipulation for my liking, that and issues with my English tutor back at secondary school!!). But there was some lovely hard takes on language in this that kept me focused. If I could sum up this story, it would be with:

"At least I can choose the lie.”

I loved this aspect, of accepting a bad situation and giving it some 'balls'. There were some tense elements to this that kept the heart pounding and fascinated with finding out what would happen. It was also very sweet in places, getting that "yeah, come on, just be heppy with who you are, lads" feeling going. I like the way the conclusion came about, can't say much about it because it will be a big spolier, but it was well put together and very plausible for the time period. And then there was the brother issue... quite well handled!

It is a slow burner, so if you like the lust simmering along with that "will they, won't they?", "Can they, should they?" element, then you'll like this.

Blurb:

This is a tale about two medieval English knights—Sir William Corbet, aka the Lion, and Sir Christian Brandon, aka The Crow. In a time when duty was everything, personal honor was more valued than life itself, and homosexuality was not tolerated by the church or society, how can these two men reconcile their deepest, most secret yearnings to love another man?

Sir Christian was raised in a household where he was hated for his unusual beauty and for the sake of his parentage. Being smaller than his six brutish half-brothers, he learned to survive by using his wits and developing a gift for strategy. He feels little loyalty to the system that’s abused him since birth.

Sir William, a large and fierce warrior, has pushed his unnatural desires down all his life. He’s determined to live up to his own ideal of a gallant knight. But when he takes up a quest to rescue his sister from her abusive lord of a husband, he’s forced to undertake a journey with Christian. It’s a partnership that will test every strand of his moral fiber, and, eventually, even his understanding of the meaning of duty, honor, and love.

Free for Download: here 
Author's website: here