Ariana's Pride

Margaret Lake

Jobree Publishing · AI-narrated by Anya (from Google)

About this audiobook

Ariana awoke to the sun shining in her eyes through the unglazed window, a slight smile on her face. She stretched her arms over her head, rolling onto her back. She'd had the most wonderful dream. A man's hands caressing her bare flesh softly, a man's strong arms around her, holding her close, murmuring soothing words into her ear. She felt the unfamiliar straw under her and her eyes flew open. She stared around her wildly, not knowing where she was or how she got there. She tried to sit up but felt dizzy and fell back onto the make-shift pallet, her hands clutching the rough blanket to her naked body.

"Dear God, where are my clothes? How did I come to be here?” she thought frantically.

It all came back to her in a rush; the soldiers, her wild ride through the forest to warn her father, her flight from the battle, the storm. Beyond that, she knew nothing. Tears started to trickle down her cheeks at all she had lost. This would not do. She had to get out of here, find help, reach Frederick.

Dashing the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, Ariana rolled over and made it to her hands and knees. She saw her clothes by the fire, hanging from sticks thrust into the ground. She remembered being carefully wrapped in the blanket and tenderly laid on the straw. Someone had cared for her, well. Perhaps she could enlist this stranger's aid in finding her way to Frederick.

But it would not do for the stranger to find her naked and weak. He must find her fully dressed and standing on her feet as Lady Ariana, daughter of the great Earl William. She would then be in a position to demand his help. After all, he was probably one of her father's peasants and, thus, owed his allegiance to her as well.

Ariana crawled over to her clothes and pulled them toward her. She managed to draw on her pantalets and chemise before having to rest against the wall. She closed her eyes and sat there, trying to catch her breath.

Ratings and reviews

Except for a few modern day terminology like "laugh out loud," and inconsistencies e.g. Ariana's age when her mom died, it was very good. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. The very intimate scenes weren't overly descriptive, no expletives. The twists and turns held me captive. Can be read as a standalone. Highly recommend this book.

Good book as a stand-alone but I can see reading/listening to the next books as well. I prefer this narrator than some of the other Google ones. A bit more emotions in her voice I suppose.

Wonderful love story. I enjoyed every minute.

About the author

Margaret Lake was born in New Jersey, but moved to Florida in her early teens and has lived there ever since.

Reading has been her favorite activity since she was ten years old. Even after purchasing a Kindle, she still had seven large bookcases filled with paper books. It took years for her to part with the majority of them.

Her other passion is history, especially English History, dating from when she first read "Katherine" by Anya Seton. When the inspiration came to write her first novel, she naturally gravitated to the Wars of the Roses because of that book.

Her favorite author is Susan Howatch, her favorite book is "Outlander" and her favorite series is Harry Potter. She led a Harry Potter book club at the elementary school and helped with the chess club at both the elementary and high schools.

Margaret rescued a nine-year old Jack Russell Terrier named Angelo who passed at the age of 15 on December 3, 2017. Now she has Mikey, a teeny-tiny two year old chihuahua mix (actually 50% chihuahua, 25% miniature poodle, 12.5% maltese and 12.5% terrier according to his DNA), adopted from the Humane Society on March 7, 2018. Mikey has gone a long way toward filling the empty space in her heart left by the loss of Angelo.