Castle of the Wolf [Mass Market Paperback]

This story is a hugely enjoyable historical romance with a paranormal touch set in the Black Forest in Germany in the early 1800s. Woven through with references to fairy tales and with evocative writing about the surroundings of Castle of Wolfenbach, this is different from the usual historical romance of gowns, balls and peerages.

Celia Fussell's father Baron Hailstone has died and her life is going badly downhill. Her father was a noted academic and shared his interests with his daughter, but now that he is dead Celia looks likely to become a spinster sister to her brother and his awful wife. But then her father's Will is read and Celia discovers that she is now the owner of the Castle of Wolfenbach in the Black Forest - but only if she weds the former master of the castle within four months.

Celia, although initially seeming rather quiet and mousy, has an intrepid side and decides to go and claim her inheritance. After all, her father was good friends with the Graf von Wolfenbach, father of the man she is supposed to marry, and he's a very good man; surely his son will also be a worthy male? Celia has a long journey to her Castle, accompanied by a kindly widow Mrs Chisholm, but as she arrives she discovers that the castle has a bad reputation. It's falling into disrepair and her welcome is hardly warm. When she meets her intended, Fenris von Wolfenbach, he is a rude, dark and mysterious man and he does his best to drive her and Mrs Chisholm away. Why is he so bad-tempered and what caused the injury to give him a wooden leg?

When Fenris's brother Leo arrives things seem considerably brighter. He's a charming, friendly, open man, the complete opposite of his brother. But Celia is learning that things aren't always what they seem, that there is more going on in this family relationship than she originally thought, and that her life and the life of Fenris might be in danger. But can she help Fenris to thaw enough to work out how they can live together?

"Castle Of The Wolf" was an excellent read from start to finish. It was a real change to read a historical romance set in Germany rather than England and with such a shadowy hero - Fenris spends large parts of the book avoiding Celia. Celia is an excellent heroine as she finds her niche in life, becomes courageous and tries her best to help those around her. She has spent her youth reading fairy stories and some of these are woven into the story in a charming way. As in most good novels the characters learn more about themselves and each other and help each other to grow and put behind them bad experiences from the past; this is mainly happening to Fenris with Celia's help - Celia herself seems to have made the decision to grow up and take charge of her life at the beginning of the story and she then works at it with great success. She's a charming heroine who will appeal to most readers.

The story is strong on description, setting and the feel of a different country in a different time. The plot is simple and there's no real doubt as to who is the 'baddie' in this story, the fun is finding out how everything plays out and how our heroine and hero end up happy ever after.

Copyright © 2007 Helen Hancox for Curled Up With A Good Book

I loved this book--loved the setting, loved the heroine, loved the hero. Cissy has 2 choices, go to Germany and marry an unknown man or stay in England and be the spinster sister. She chooses Germany and it was the right one. Her castle, which she will get if she marries above unknown man, has a decidedly Gothic flair to it. But, for readers who have tired of paranormals, there is just a bit of the paranormal about this story. It mainly focuses on Cissy and Fenris. They are together at the castle, there are no big separations, and it helps the story. The story totally focuses on them. The secondary characters are charming and non-intrusive. Cissy is my favorite kind of heroine. She is innocent, but she knows what she wants. And the way she goes about getting it is irresistible. She is never obnoxious or TSTL. It seems like you get one of those in most romances today. And Fenris is simply scrumptious. The tortured hero--he knows what he wants, but he can't have it. He was TSFW (too sexy for words!!). This book is probably a "warm" read. But, the writing makes it seem a lot hotter than that. The tension in this book is non-stop and wonderful. I read it in one sitting.

The only quibble I had with this book was that occasionally the characters would lapse, I felt, into modern slang. I read a "whatever" and a few other phrases that felt out of place to me. But I skimmed right over them and kept on reading.

This was great!

I gave this book two stars because of the unusual setting for an historical romance. The Black Forest in Germany is a dark, brooding place but it is also extremely awe inspiring and beautiful. Having lived in that area for four years it was very easy to visualize the setting. Everything else about this book just didn't work for me.

For the remainder of this review you will be reading information some may view as spoilers. As far as I can figure out, this story takes place about 1827, no specific date is given. I am positive that expressions and word usage such as "Geez", "eww", "bro" (to denote brother) were not used during this time period. I will admit that I have not done extensive research in this area, but I feel confident I'm much closer to being correct than this author was.

Why did Ms Schwab leave us to make up our own minds concerning Fenris' leg amputation? We know it was missing but was it the full leg as she seems to be saying on page 42 ("Cissy's gaze wandered over his body, over his shabby, dusty clothes, over the twist of his hip that rested the weight on his sound right leg and relieved the wooden left.") or was it an amputation above or below the knee? She never states anything plainly and I think it did matter. If the full leg, how did anyone get the wooden leg to tamper with it so that it broke? If a "peg", why would the valet or Fenris himself not notice it was almost sawn through before he put it on that day? How did anyone have the time it took to saw through the wood? Even the evil brother Leopold would have needed a darn good excuse for being alone with the leg for that length of time! And where was Fenris while all this was going on? This author made the physical disability change in its impact on Fenris to suit her whims. If he needed to move around a lot, it was of minimal impact. If she wanted to portray him in a sympathetic manner, it had a huge impact. Maybe she couldn't figure it out herself, she just used a physical disability to make the plot move forward.

This is billed as a paranormal romance. Where, may I ask, was the paranormal? Was Ms Schwab trying to make us believe the gargoyles talked/communicated with each other? Who, what, when, where, was there a/the wolf? Who/what "pounced" at the end? The aspect of the Wolfenbach Hoard was silly. No other person believed it, why did Leopold? Cissy was certainly a gullible woman to be in her late twenties. And her obsession with fairy tales bordered on the unnatural, in my estimation. But then, I didn't like her anyway!

Celia made me grind my teeth together. She called Fenris, "a total hoddypoll", "an addled-brained daftie", "a bugbear", "a total bird-witted dodo", "a bugaboo" and these were not used as terms of endearment (although by the end of the book they seemed to be used more playfully). Some of these were only used once, others throughout the entire book. I was not amused! Sometimes, when she was angry (which happened quite often) she resorted to "drat" or (my very special favorite) "dratdratdrat". A very mature image, to be sure. If the author wanted her to be mad, let her cuss! She had no hesitancy about Fenris and Leopold using the "f" word or the "c" word to denote a portion of male anatomy so why not let the heroine say "hell" or even "damn" when it would have been perfectly appropriate? Also, Cissy didn't understand why Fenris called attention to his missing leg. Well, what was he supposed to do? It was pretty hard to hide the fact that he was missing some or all of his left leg. How would she have had him not let that show? I found her immature on all sides. Did she make one grown-up decision, ever, after deciding to leave England and go on to Germany? Should she not have found out before she left that there were TWO Wolfenbach brothers? Should she not have discovered if there was ANY unmarried Wolfenbach brother? Should she not have corresponded with the Graf von Wolfenbach before beginning this journey? Immature straight up and down!

Enough. I'm finished. Read it if you want (which, of course, is your choice) but I didn't want anyone to think EVERYBODY liked it.