Heaven In His Arms (King's Girls Series) Paperback – April 7, 2016

REVIEWTo date, I have loved and enjoyed the light lyrical works of Lisa Verge Higgins’ Historical Romance novels and novellas. In His Arms left the “light and lyrical” behind to delve into the realms of a realistic historical fiction that covered an Era and place that are typically overlooked by historical fiction writers. True to Lisa’s style, the novel maintained the deep emotional and lyrical rhythms of the bedroom that she is famous for and does so well. But this time, she left the civilized world behind and planted the hero and heroine (Genny and Andre) in the deep northern woods of colonial Canada, during the 1700’s when it was still a wild and unexplored territory.Just as you reached a point in your reading, when you thought that you might know the back story for Genny, a turn of the page revealed a new clue leading you down an unexpected path out in the wilds. But these wilds were not fraught with blood-curdling, heathens who would lift your scalp (even if Andre tried his best to get the socialite upper-class French Courtesan to believe him).In truth Genny was made of the stuff, and had the moral caliber and fortitude that women of that day needed to live and survive in the remote backwoods and wilds of a wilderness. Or, was she running from a bigger monster that anything that the wilds of the Canadian wilderness could throw her way?Just like in real life, no matter how determined you are to lock your heart and mind away, if you continually find it in close quarters with a wildly enticing creature for days and weeks on end, whose very essence and being start to seep and creep into your pores, you wear down. Much like a strong rock wall held together with old mortar and daub, the fortification slowly crumbles as love and friendship seep down through the cracks and daub. Finally, one hard knock (a crisis of potential loss) sends all the final reserves tumbling into a pile of defeat.I loved the questions that were raised in the story line, the fact that the ebb and flow allowed each of the readers to draw their own conclusions to what really happened in Andre and Genny’s past, and outside the written pages of the novel. I do hope that a sequel to In His Arms will come along before long, because there are many twists and turns, and discoveries waiting to happen; along with much more history waiting to peek out from behind unexpected corners, providing terror and potential reward.Lisa gives her readers strong, independent heroines, who are capable of conquering their worlds and making their own way through adversity. At the same time, she knows how to provide strong and stalwart heroes to serve as supporting cast, without being wimps and bedroom eye-candy. On the other hand, her cast of villains is varied and crosses the gender lines. They are as likely be pulled from places you would expect supporting characters to come from as from the gutters and barrooms of the back alleys. What she shows is that goodness and evil prevail in all walks of life. Just like in real life, you never know where your help will come from, nor where the nefarious blackguard will leap out from to destroy your world.Lisa, has left the soufflé romance in the dirt, with this wonderful piece. I give it a FIVE STAR rating for story-telling, character development, and romance.

Genevieve Laland, captured when found living on the streets of Paris in 1667, has since been "imprisoned" in the Salpetrie're for 3 years, working as a laundress while living in an area ruled by brutal guards. Abhorring her situation, she manages to exchange places with a girl of impoverished nobility who, dowered by King Louis XIV, is unwillingly being sent on a voyage to Quebec to marry a strange man. This girl, Marie Duplessis, has plans of escaping to marry the musketeer that she loves. After a 3 year absence from Quebec, Andre' Lefebvre, a fur trapper and trader who has dreams of opening a fur-trading post, returns from France to learn of the King's ordinance that all single men of the colony must marry within a fortnight of arrival of the King's girls, if to obtain a hunting, fishing, or fur trading license. Furious, but with no other good option, he marries one of the newly-arrived, but ailing King's girls, assuming that she will not survive. Of course Genevieve survives and fearful of being caught, refuses to be left in Quebec when Andre' leaves with his men to lead an expedition 1500 hundred miles into the unchartered territory of the interior. Andre' is determined to not consummate the marriage so that he can eventually obtain an annulment, but of course is drawn to Genevieve, creating sexual tension. The trek involves sleeping under canoes, eating cornmeal mush for most of the trip, traveling down rapids by canoe and traveling by land as well for months, with rugged men as Genevieve's companions. The story is engaging and most of the events depicted seem very real, as do the characters of Philippe,Tiny, Wapishka, and Julien particularly. It's unlikely that Genevieve could possibly have survived the arduous trek and with only a few blisters and a little exhaustion, much less having done so only a few weeks after having been near death, making this aspect of the book almost ridiculous. It is also absurd that Andre', with he and his men wearing soft, deerskin slippers, would not have realized that Genevieve could not possibly make the journey in her shoes. However, the author's telling of the history, geography, peoples, and culture of the time reflects significant research and results in a captivating story filled with suspense, angst, romance and interesting characters. Other than Genevieve surviving the expedition, the only other significant flaw is the explicit sex, which seems artificially threaded into the story.Unfortunately either explicit sex scenes sell more books or are believed to sell more books, therefore authors who have limited ability to create romance without explicit descriptions of sex scenes, tend to put numerous such scenes in most or all of their books.. As with other scenes, explicit sex scenes should be seamlessly included when needed for cohesiveness of the story.

Sehr spannend geschrieben, es macht Spaß zu lesen !

First book I have read by this author and it was a compelling story. Set in the late 1600s it outlined the dangers taken to conquer undiscovered parts of Canada, and Desperate risks taken by the Traders to avoid certain Indian tribes and bring back the fur pelts successfully. It was a book that once started you just had to keep reading to the end and it was a very long story. Well worth a read, and I will certainly read more of this authors books. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

IT is one story to read, absolutely lovely and you will love Andre for a thoughtful, good hearted etc etc person he is and fall for Genevieve again and again. She is a strong character, a strategist and smart too.

Heaven in His Arms is what I would like all books to be - a first class story.It begins in Paris in 1670 where we meet Genevieve Lalande, a launderess in the Salpetriere, who takes the place of a King's Bride (Marie Duplessis) and continues on to New France (now known as Canada.There she marries, (as Marie) Andre Lefebvre. Andre, a fur trader, doesn't want a wife but is forced into it if he wants a licence to trade. Not a good start to marriage.The description of the journey, and the voyageurs who undertake it, is brilliant. The respect that these rough men held for a French 'Lady' and the spirit that Genevieve showed, despite how rough conditions were, are so well written that it was like watching a movie.Ms Verge's knowledge of the history of that period puts this book in a league of it's own. The fact that Louis XIV (the Sun King) sent impoverished young noble women to New France to encourage settlements is probably not well known outside of Canada and France. It is just one of the historical facts that I found fascinating.Reading this book has to make you admire those women who pioneered places like Canada, the States and, later on, Australia. And they did it in long dresses!I would have liked to be able to recommend this book to all ages as it is so full of history and wonderful descriptive passages but, unfortunately the few graphic sex scenes puts it into the 18+ category.

This is the first book I've read by Lisa Ann Verge, & I really enjoyed it. There's history, romance, strong characters, a bit of suspense. However, be warned there are quite a few sex scenes - a bit graphic, which spoilt the story for me.I have not read books of this period about Canada, but I do like historical novels, and the author's descriptive text meant I could imagine myself there.This is the story of Genevieve, a poor street urchin, who is the bastard daughter of a rich Baron & his courtesan mistress. She has been well educated & brought up in a life of luxury, until the murder of her mother, which led to her running away from home & living on the streets of Paris. After being picked up & taken to an "orphanage", she swaps places with Marie, the daughter of a rich family, & sent to Canada as a bride for the settlers there.It is there that we meet Andre, who has to marry to receive the licence he requires to allow him to hunt & sell fur. Andre does not want a wife, so he picks Genevieve, who is very ill from the sea journey from France, thinking that she will not recover.He is shocked when she turns up in his room at the inn! How will they fare in their journey into the Canadian outbacks?I found this book to be similar to Jennifer Blake's Louisiana History Collection, which is another fascinating read!