Review: A Tournament Knight

A Tournament Knight
by Marisa Chenery

To the world, and more importantly, her father, she was dead and Jacqueline meant to use that advantage to avenge herself on her father for her brother's death. She had worried at being discovered in her ruse, but it hadn't occurred to her that she might meet the one man she desperately wanted to call her own.

Sir Terric Aubrey, a landless knight, had expected to work the tournament circuit until he accumulated the money to by land for himself. He hadn't thought much beyond that. He certainly hadn't expected to find the woman he wanted for his wife facing him across the jousting field.

For readers who love knights and ladies of long-ago England, A TOURNAMENT KNIGHT will be a treat. By page five I wanted to know the fate of all the interesting people I’d been introduced to.

The heroine and her supportive family live on the Isle of Wight far from the intrigues of the English court. Yet, they are indirectly trapped in a tangled web of intrigue that finally becomes a concern of the King.

The absentee Earl, a man obsessed with greed and a desire for power, uses his family to get what he wants regardless of the pain and unhappiness it causes. Only with unconditional cooperation are the misused family and the household able to extricate themselves from the evil that threatens to control every aspect of their lives.

A TOURNAMENT KNIGHT is a story of sensual love but also a story of familial love and loyalty. The heroine’s family and household, even though not in agreement with her at times, support her pursuits to avenge her twin brother’s death, caused by their father, the Earl.

Jacquelyn, the heroine, shows amazing physical and emotional strength as she does, indeed, get revenge. Later, she seems to lose this strength when her father threatens to turn her mother out on the streets to be a pauper if Jacquelyn does not do his bidding. She succumbs to his demands and is wed to an old man who is dying in order for the Earl to gain more wealth and power.

The web of intrigue becomes more tangled in her new home and she fears for the life of her soon-to-be-born child. With stealth, she gets word to her family and they begin to weave a web of their own to negate the plans of Jacquelyn’s husband as well as the plans of the Earl.

The love scenes are very spicy, and there is no denying the sensual love the hero and heroine have for each other.

I enjoyed the trip back into 14th century England and, of course, enjoyed the unraveling of the web that allowed all the “good guys” to live happy-ever-after.



Reviewer: Camellia