SYNOPSIS
Custom demanded that Prince Urban get a love mark tattooed to the side of his left eye as an infant, just like the rest of his people, but to him, the stupid things have only brought on the scorn of his father, the misery of his siblings, and caused his entire kingdom to go broke from fighting so many wars over the irritating ink stains.
When Urban’s sister must travel to Donnelly, the kingdom within the sand, for her arranged marriage to align two realms, he goes with her. But he no sooner steps foot inside their castle than his mark starts itching like a son of a bitch, telling him his one true love is near.
It just figures, though, that the woman meant for him is completely forbidden. Now he must decide if he should ignore the persistent mark, telling him she's the one, in order to avoid a possible war between kingdoms, or if he should discover whether she's worth risking everything for so they can be together. Either way, his life gets sucked into chaos with threats of beheadings, dark magic lurking, castle traitors scheming, and sword fights eminent.
Who knew one little tattoo could cause so much trouble?
One True Love by Linda KageMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Title: One True Love
Series: Love Mark #1
Author: Linda Kage
Release date: June 6, 2018
Cliffhanger: No
Believe it or not, this is my first read by Linda Kage! I've seen her books around the blogosphere and goodreads for a long time now, but never had the chance to check any of them out. When I saw her announce her first fantasy book, I immediately perked up and added it to my TBR. I loved the idea of the hero being able to spot his soulmate/one true love, but finding out that he was forbidden to be with her. If you're a fan of the forbidden romance trope, I highly recommend this one. Even for readers who don't typically venture into fantasy.
I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about who the heroine is, because revealing why she's forbidden to him is taking away from the experience the author was trying to create. Here's what I will say: she was loyal, courageous, had a fabulous sense of humor, and was determined to live by her set of morals and honor even when those around her proved to do the opposite.
There were two people in particular who took advantage of her kindness, and I wished that she stood up for herself more and refused to take their consistently horrible disrespect. Not saying that she never did so, but she continued to make excuses for their blatantly abusive treatment which I didn't really get. Yes, she was the peacemaker and diplomat, but it seemed like she, along with several others were determined to stick their head in the sand and refuse to see what was right in front of their faces. It was very clear to me from the very beginning who had malicious intentions, and it seemed like it should have been obvious to them too.
When three sets of royal parents die in a short amount of time, how do you accept that as accidental? I don't understand how nobody would have gotten suspicious that there was a traitor/enemy amongst them committing murderous power plays. It seems as if Caulder would make it top priority once he came to be king to investigate this suspicious chain of deaths.
Urban was very alpha in the way his possessiveness and protectiveness came out, but with a true romantic side. My heart went out to him for all of the things he had to suffer. First, getting blamed for his mother dying while giving birth to him. His father treated him cruelly his whole life for something that he had no control over. The lack of love, and the constant mental abuse were more than enough to make poor Urban feel worthless and discarded his entire life. Then on top of that, he's forced to live with the fact that his mark has identified his soulmate to him, and she is someone that he can never have. To have to live in the same castle as the person you're destined to love more perfectly than any other, and can never claim them would be unimaginably painful. But his dedication to her safety, and her happiness proved that he put her needs before his own wounded heart.
A big reason for my rating was I found their completely modern speech in a historical setting pretty odd. If you had taken these characters out of this setting and stuck them into a contemporary romance, they would have fit without any problem. Their slang, their expressions, mannerisms, were so out of place in a castle, wearing gowns and tunics, and riding in carriages...etc. I know this is a completely fictional fantasy world so it can be whatever the author deems fit, but when I'm reading historical fantasy, if it's not consistent it just doesn't feel realistic to me. I know this won't be a problem for everyone, but in my case, it caused me to somewhat disconnect with the story.
Another thing was that I started to become impatient for the H/h to at the very least have a conversation, if not get to know one another a lot earlier than they did. Yes, there was a reason for Urban to keep his distance at first, but it lasted so long that I kept wondering when we were going get to the build up of their natural feelings for one another. The love that Urban felt was basically insta-love because of his tattoo that helped him instantly identify and connect to his true love. I was fine with that, because it has paranormal elements, and like any similar type of book such as shifter mate insta-love, it works. Though, at over 400 pages, it took until almost halfway into the book for them to begin saying more than one or two words to each other. Which after a while got frustrating because Urban was so utterly devoted and tortured, and yet they knew next to nothing about each other for so long. He only knew little things that he could observe from across the room, and tidbits that his sister shared that she could glean from her. If the page length had been shorter, this might not have been quite so noticeable or bothersome.
One of the things I really liked was the dream sharing they had. It was a very smart way for them to interact with each other and explore their feelings without any consequences. The way he could sense when she was near and feel her extreme emotions and distress was a magical and romantic element that I really enjoyed. I also thought the humor was sharp and entertaining throughout the whole book, and it gave a lightness to the story that made it a very fast read. One True Love didn't suffer from the common issue of a slow pace that first books in a fantasy series tend to have, which I really appreciated.
Overall, I'm still happy with my first Linda Kage book, despite it not being a huge five star winner. I found plenty to enjoy, and I think fans of the forbidden romance trope will be very satisfied. If you're looking for a light read with love, betrayals, a magical kiss that can bring you back from the brink of death, and plenty of action and humor, this could be the book for you.
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