I'm baaack!

I can't believe I haven't written anything for almost 2 months. I've been awfully busy, first with work, then with visitors, and finally I went on vacation - but the kind of vacation that leaves you more tired than when you started it!

Nevertheless, I managed to read a lot of books. However, one stands out: "For my lady's Heart", by Laura Kinsale.

I had read a couple of books by L.K. before, and even though I recognized her as a good writer, her books left me cold. Not with this one, though! I believe this is one of the best medievals I've ever read.

I often rant about how romance novels don't have that meaty epic feeling they had in the 70's, and how many of them are light reads, where it's almost like a couple from the 20th century was transported to whatever century the setting is. I like to read history and biography too, so it's physically painful for me when I read a story that has a king/queen that behaves completely out of character, so the hero and heroine can end together.

None of that happened in this novel. It's wonderful, a mixture between the knights stories of Camelot, and the devious and machiavellian politics of the medieval kings. It even has corrupt clergymen!

The chivalrous and epic part of the story is represented by the hero, Ruck. He is a knight who was wronged by the church and was saved once by Princess Melanthe, so he swears to her as his liege lady. He loves her from afar, and swears to be hers forever to command.

Princess Melanthe is a damsel in distress, but she deals with her problems the way kings did: with treachery and cunning politics. After her husband's death she is the sole heir of Monteverde, a place that gives her endless problems because it's coveted by the powerful Riata and Navona family. One family tries to murder her, while the head of the other wants to marry her. Melanthe has developed a plan to trick both families and escape to her lands in England, where she intends to live in peace.

When you're reading this book you feel transported to medieval Europe. The author also wrote the dialogues in Middle English, and it adds another layer to this complex characters. They don't sound transplanted for sure!