Review: On Wings of Devotion by Roseanna M. White
Lately, I’ve seen a lot of people posting about just recently discovering and falling in love with Roseanna White’s books. When you love an author and have followed their career for several (or many) years, it’s easy to assume that everyone else has heard of them and likes their books, too. So I was surprised by how many fellow book lovers that I follow had never read anything by Roseanna until now—but it also made me super happy because it means Roseanna’s fan base is still growing! It made me excited for the readers themselves, as well, knowing they are discovering some amazing stories that I personally love. Roseanna’s writing is so unique and fun while still being deep and every book is consistently fabulous! It’s so worth falling in love with and sharing with others!
Roseanna’s 2020 release, On Wings of Devotion, is absolutely no exception to the “consistently fabulous” rule. It was so completely fabulous and well-written and gave me all the happy, squeal-ly fan-girl feels!
All of England thinks Phillip Camden a monster—a man who deliberately caused the deaths of his squadron. But as nurse Arabelle Denler watches the so-dubbed “Black Heart” every day, she sees something far different: a hurting man desperate for mercy. And when their paths twist together and he declares himself her new protector, she realizes she has her own role to play in his healing.
Phillip Camden would have preferred to die that day with his squadron rather than be recruited to the Admiralty’s codebreaking division. The threats he receives daily are no great surprise and, in his opinion, well deserved. What comes as a shock is the reborn desire to truly live that Arabelle inspires in him.
But when an old acquaintance shows up and seems set on using him in a plot that has the codebreakers of Room 40 in a frenzy, new affections are put to the test.
Phillip Camden had me at “Woof”. Well, actually, I’d already been falling pretty hard for this reluctant hero long before he declared himself Arabelle’s personal guard dog. But once this scene came along I was thinking, “Oh, yeah. Now I know I like this guy.” Camden isn’t your typical perfect hero. He’s actually quite a mess until Arabelle starts to influence his life. But I couldn’t help but love him from the start! What can I say? I’m a sucker for the moody, misunderstood hero. Yeah, he may seem like a jerk at the beginning, but under that gruff exterior, he’s really got a heart of gold (Mr. Darcy, anyone?).
Arabelle was the perfect balance for Cam’s seeming bad-boy exterior. I loved the way Roseanna wrote her and I was able to relate to her in many ways. As usual, the rest of Roseanna’s characters were equally well written. They are always just as well crafted as her main characters. My favorite secondary character this go around was Ara’s explorer father—think Indiana Jones, but much older and delightfully eccentric. I found myself wishing and hoping I could follow along on his promised post-war expedition to the wilds of South America with Arabelle and Camden in tow. **Clears throat** I’m looking at you, Roseanna. We need a special novella or, even better, a full novel about this!
I loved that Ara and Cam started out becoming friends, best friends, before they fell in love, especially since they were considered such an unlikely pair (the handsome ex-womanizer and the “not pretty” girl that’s usually only liked because of her money). I also loved how Ara chose to believe in Cam from the start, standing up for him and believing that he wasn’t guilty of the awful crime he’s being accused of, no matter what consequences that might mean for her. Once again, how Roseanna crafted the individual character arcs and integrated them into the intricately woven plot was absolutely fantastic. I still stand behind my previous statement (from my review of The Number of Love) that she is a story GENIUS!
Please, if you know what’s good for you, run to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever you prefer and get this book! While you’re at it, get Book 1 in this series, The Number of Love, too! If you like intricately crafted stories with deeply rooted themes and a healthy dose of humor, fun and unique characters, and/or WW1 history, I can promise you will love this 5/5 Star book and this series.
I’m eagerly awaiting Book 3, A Portrait of Loyalty, which will center around two secondary characters from this book—Lilly and Zivan. I am interested to see how Roseanna develops the quirky and stiff exiled Russian cryptographer into a swoon-worthy hero, though I trust Roseanna’s writing enough to know I’m going to love him in the end. I don’t wish for this year to fly by, but why does September (the release date for Book 3) have to be so far away?!
Before you go: check out my review for The Number of Love!