The Mercenary: Order of the Broken Blade: 2 Paperback – 17 September 2019

Another gem from Cecelia Mecca...interesting, strong characters, strong bonds and the underlying strong cause of the Order! The medieval age comes to life in these pages!

“Control your breathing, control your thoughts . . . and you are prepared for battle.”---"The Mercenary" is a book written by Cecelia Mecca, serving as the second installment in the Order of Broken Blade series. The story revolves around Guy Lavallais, a mercenary who also holds the title of a knight and is a member of a secretive order. Guy, who has always been opposed to the idea of marriage, finds himself coerced into a fake marriage by a rather unconventional "nun," Lady Sabine de Stuteville."The Mercenary" is a thrilling medieval romance novel that successfully balances action, emotions, and intrigue. Cecelia Mecca's storytelling prowess shines through, making this a worthy addition to the series and a delightful read for fans of historical fiction and romance alike. Highly recommended.

Guy Lavallais’ father is an English mercenary, and Guy was raised to that life even before his French mother left. He was educated, had the finest French sword master and has become well known as the best swordsman in the country. He loves his life, has allegiance to neither England nor France and fights for whoever pays the most. He does, however have an unbreakable bond with his 3 friends from childhood. Together they have formed the Order of the Broken Blade, and have sworn to stop King John from riding roughshod over his subjects.Each are trying to recruit more powerful lords to their cause, and it falls on Guy to enlist a very wealthy Bishops financial aid as he needs to buy off a French Mercenary army the king has recruited.His meeting with the bishop is overheard by Sabine who is at the abbey against her will. She blackmails Guy to help her escape in payment for her silence about his treasonous plan, and so begins their journey to meet with the mercenary army’s leader and try to dissuade him from aiding the king.In this, the second book of the series, the Broken Blades plan further unfolds, and our 4 heroes try to enrol the aid of more influential lords. The demands they are making of the king need to be documented, signed and taken to John by the Archbishop of Canterbury. If they succeed in this, will the king agree to meet with the lords, or will battle ensue? Will the handsome, easy going knight manage to give Sabine the protection she needs as well as successfully complete his quest?This tale of true friendship, trust and allegiance is unfolding into a wonderful series of books and I am loving it.

Well, Cecelia, you truly have your hooks in me with this series. I loved the first book but this one is a true adventure with all the thrills and feels that you expect of a historical romance novel. It has our reluctant hero, Guy, the consummate mercenary knight who never gets emotionally involved but never loses a battle or fails at a mission vs our heroine, who manages to get herself into a mess and blackmails our H into helping her. Clever girl that she is, manages to involve our H in her escape, force him to marry her in the process and then entrance him so that he falls in love with his reluctant wife. It is a wonderful continuance of the storyline of the Brotherhood's mission to fell King John and in the process give us a beautiful, romantic love story. Well done! Now waiting patiently for our Scot for the next installment.

Such a well written story. Strong characters mixed with danger, secrets, humor, chance meeting, nuns….. and romance. All this mixed well made this story well worth a second and third reading at a later date. Follow this author for she spun a seriously good story.

Lots of twists and turns. Kept you page turning to see what was coming next. Romance was there. And the happy ending. And info about another what seemed like another good read.