Tuesday, October 13, 2009

One Snowy Knight-Deborah MacGillivray

One Snowy Knight
Deborah MacGillivray
Zebra, Oct 2009, $5.99
ISBN: 9781420104509

In 1296 most of the Craigendan men of fighting age fell in battle at Dunbar to the English Dragons of Challon to include the keep’s laird. His widow Lady Skena MacIain takes charge of protecting their tiny surviving clan, which is too tiny for any outsider to come in the frozen winter. Still she knows her keep is strategically a prize for King Edward even though he will ignore it until the spring thaw. She needs a new biddable spouse who will not harm her children or her people before the monarch sends one of his bloody dragons to wed her.

Once a squire to the king, Noel de Servian fails to heed his royale advice to wait until spring to come to the keep he now owns. As a blizzard leaves him near death he regrets his foolishness until he is rescued by an angel. Skena saves the idiot from himself and the weather. As they fall in love, she hides her feelings that her husband is either still alive or a ghost haunting the castle while also hoping the newcomer brings joy and safety to her keep; he conceals his affinity to the king as one of his dreaded Dragons.

The latest Dragons of Challons medieval romance (see RESTLESS KNIGHT) is a wonderful enjoyable tale due to the lead couple as each hides something critical from the other. With the mystery of whether the Laird lives as a mortal in hiding or a spirit, fans will enjoy this fine late thirteenth century Scottish romance as the resolute duet prefer making love not war.

Harriet Klausner

No comments: