Ronnda Eileen Henry is originally from Michigan and was raised in California and Virginia. She read a lot of history, biography, science fiction, and regency romances when she was young. Her favorite authors are Jane Austen, Aleksandra Layland, Isabella Berdyna Zysk, and Shakespeare. Retired now, she lives in Florida.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Forged in Love is a romance novella written by Ronnda Eileen Henry. Penny was quite happy being unmarried and living with her parents in the small village of Pennington-by-Greta. Penny would have liked to have found a husband and have her own family, but it had never happened and she had just celebrated her fortieth birthday. All in all, Penny had a good life. She enjoyed both the baking she was famous for and her part time job as the Village Clerk. Her evenings were enjoyable ones spent with her parents, either reading, playing chess or working on a quilt with her mom while her father read to them.
Henry was a forty-four-year-old military bladesmith who had finally decided to retire, a welcome decision seeing that the decades-long border conflict between the neighboring regions had finally been settled. His apprentice recommended what could be the perfect opportunity for this career bladesmith. His father was retiring and was interested in selling his smithy. Henry gave the opportunity some consideration, and, after visiting the premises, decided that the smithy in Pennington-by-Greta would be a good next move for him. The villagers soon began talking, as villagers do, about the newcomer to their midst and the interest his status as a single gentleman would garner with the local widows. Some thought that it was a shame that Penny was a confirmed spinster, as she would be perfect. Penny heard the villagers say that Henry was a confirmed bachelor, and she thought he’d make an ideal friend. After all, there’d be no tension about marriage or the like. The situation seemed perfect.
Ronnda Eileen Henry’s romance novella, Forged in Love, is a sweet romance about a man and a woman who were destined to be soul mates, that is, if they weren’t so committed to the idea of being single -- or were they? Henry and Penny are marvelous characters that you can’t help but feel an almost instantaneous affection for. They’re both readers, play chess and have so much in common, even their supposed love of the single life. I particularly enjoyed the episode where Penny is delighted to learn how to forge her own paring knife under Henry’s patient tutelage. This gentle and literate romantic comedy is beautifully written, and the plot is engaging and sweet. Forged in Love is most highly recommended.
