*This book was sent to me for review purposes by the author. All opinions are my own.

I was so happy when Nadine C. Keels reached out to me about reviewing her newest book, Reviving the Commander. I’ve reviewed one other book by her, Eubeltic Descent, and I really enjoyed it. Reviving the Commander and Eubeltic Descent are both spin offs from her original trilogy, The Movement of Crowns. I have not read the trilogy but I did recently purchase it so I will be reviewing it soon. Reviving the Commander is releasing TODAY and you can purchase it from Amazon by using this link. Since this is a new release, I will keep my review spoiler free. Let’s get into the synopsis and my thoughts!

Synopsis

She isn’t a beautiful young maiden hoping to erase the Commander’s memory.

Opal Whilstead knows she has a reputation: a reputation as a bright, giving, upright woman—smiling and laughing her way through hopeless spinsterhood. It’s been so long since she’s had serious feelings for a man, but now she finds herself taken with the Commander Exemplar of Diachona’s army.

And she regrets it.

Not only is the Exemplar a widower still longing for his wife, but he’s the father of the reigning king. Even if a man of such prestige could find love again, he’d be unlikely to search for it among the kingdom’s old maids. Besides, Opal dreads being found, due to a grievous secret she carries…

My Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The more time I spend in Keels’ fictional world, the more I love it. Her stories stand out because they’re so unique. The genre that they’re in is inspirational historical fantasy. It’s a unique mesh of genres that allows for a lot of creative freedom. This is not specifically a Christian, historical or fantasy story so Keels’ is able to totally create her own world and isn’t bound to the typical “rules” or expectations one might have when writing in those genres. I feel like this allows for a wide variety of readers to enjoy her books.

Our two main characters are Opal Whilstead and Staid (pronounced stayed) Alexander. I really loved both of them. If you read any of my book reviews, you’ll know that I place a ton of importance on character depth. Detailed characters, or lack thereof, can make or break a story for me. Depth is not an issue here because both of the main characters are very well rounded. They have their wonderful qualities but they also have flaws and issues that they’re dealing with. A bonus is that they’re both middle aged. I find, at least in the books I read, that that’s not typically common for romance novels and it was a refreshing change of pace.

This book is appropriate for preteens and up. As with Eubeltic Descent, I really recommend Reviving the Commander for lovers of clean romance, fantasy and history. There will be a sequel but I’m not sure when that will be released. Does this book sounds like something you’d enjoy? Let me know! Thanks for reading and have a great day!