SHADOWED KNIGHT - Jan Alyce Avery
Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1-59998-703-1
December 2007
Historical Romance

Warnmark, England

Baseborn knight Sir Richard Berenger survived deprivation and cruelty at the hands of the man who spawned him. Richard’s gentle mother, a kitchen maid, did what she could to protect her son. Neither received any mercy from Alain Searcy. When his mother died, Richard left the place of his birth with bitter memories. Sir Andrew Berenger found the young man eating grain with the horses and took Richard in, first as a servant, then as a squire. When Andrew died, he gave Richard his horse, armor, weapons, and name. Now in service to Baron Ware, Richard has been ordered to go to Warnmark and marry its liege lady, Margaret D’Arcy.

Margaret can trace her ancestry back to a knight who came to England with William the Conqueror. Her father and brother were killed by outlaws, and she has kept Warnmark from ruin without the help of men-at-arms. She rescued her cousin, Ann Conroy, when Ann’s abusive, much older husband died. Margaret brought her to Warnmark as a chaperone. Margaret is furious at the orders from the implacable baron to give herself and her home to a bastard.

From their first meeting, Richard and Margaret fire insults and exchange murderous looks. Neither is willing to compromise, and it is only through the careful intervention of Ann and Richard’s best friend, Sir John Fitzwilliam, that the two do not kill each other. Margaret and Richard are both surprised that their preconceived notions of each other are very wrong. Richard is not a carouser, or gambler. He knows how a keep is run. He knows crops and stables, and is a demon on the battlefield. Margaret is not only frugal, but she knows how to read and write, something Richard wants to learn. Both hero and heroine are strong, beautiful, and so very right for each other. But, the outlaws have plans to finish what they started.

Everything works in SHADOWED KNIGHT; the characters, settings, incidents, and the presentation of how things were are well done. Jan Alyce Avery has a matter-of-fact style that reads as if she were really there and was a first-hand observer. I want a Richard Berenger of my own.

SHADOWED KNIGHT is a perfect romance, one I highly recommend.

Vi Janaway