Wonderful twist to the Medieval Tristan story and my 100th book
Arabella, a Bohemian healer, is a bit of a wildcat. She would rather be outdoors than locked indoors in the confines of a court. When she is chosen as a lady in waiting for Princess Anne of Bohemia's Wedding to King Richard, she would rather do anything else than to be taken to court, especially after her grandmother has warned her about men. When Sir Tristan Carlisle is traveling through the woods he espies a strange woman with twigs in her hair, a woman crying out in a strange voice. From that moment, he cannot get her out of his mind even though he is loathe to allow any woman to ever have power over him again. Now, dressed and in the retinue entourage to follow Princess Anne, Arabella must hide from Tristan. If he discovers her non-courtly ways, she will bring disgrace upon her family. The danger only increases as spies in the midst and attackers from outside the entourage threaten. Sir Tristan means to win lands and favor from the king so he must do everything to protect this large group of women traveling to England.
Annabella is innocent, a woman not used to talking to men and she is determined to fight the lust she feels for Tristan. She is a healer, a woman with a calling and yet the English court is suspicious of such women, calling them witches and heretics. Tristan has been burned by courtly women, and he is determined to never let lust endanger the vulnerability of his heart.
What a wonderful Medeival romance! I loved the way oanne Rock brought the Medieval Tristan story into her romance, creating a wonderful contrast between Tristan and Isolde, a couple mad with love wiho come to a tragic end, with Sir Tristan and Arabella, a pair determined not to be overpowered by love. I loved the Bohemian setting and travel--- not something overdone but a less explored part of Medieval history. I like the way Joanne Rock describes Arabella's gift of heling---she made me think of the Medical romances some in that Arabella's devotion and dedication to medicine.
My 100th book!
I chose Joanne Rock's A Knight Most Wicked on purpose to celebrate my 100th book. If I remember correctly, her book The Knight's Courtship was the first Medieval romance I read. Until I read her, I was really scared to read a Medieval romances after I had read so much Medieval literature. What if I hated them? Just because I liked Medieval literature did not necessarily mean I would like Medieval romance (though I loved things like THE MISTS OF AVALON). Well, Joanne Rock quickly put that fear to rest last year.
This book has been sitting on my bedside table from the minute it arrived and on my What's I'm Reading on the Profile Page forever as a kind of reading goal. Joanne Rock and then Carol Townend and several other Medieval romance writers really inspired me last year. At the end of last year, I just knew I wantd to build a Medieval review web site to do something a bit different...a place to combine art, reading, Medieval things and current reads. It took me months to get my ideas together to visualize it (especially the architecture) so I delayed reading Medievals...and all the while Joanne Rock's book sat there tantalizing me on my bedside table. So...that is a long story to say that my choice of Joanne Rock's A KNIGHT MOST WICKED for book 100 is is a choice of gratitude for turning me on to Medieval Romance in addition to loving this book.
So... here's to Joanne Rock and Medieval romance and Book 100!
AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus
Congrats!
Way to go, reaching book 100! And sounds like you made a great choice, too!
The D2K Paranormal Junkies 2008 Challenge
Congrats Merri!
Congratulations on your 100th read!
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Yippee! Doing a happy
Yippee! Doing a happy dance. You did it!
What a great idea for choosing that important 100th book. It is a big milestone and needs to have some way of marking it.
Congrats.
Nancy
Wooohoooo!
Congratulations! and excellent choice for the 100th. I loved the book too.
Curator for Harlequin Historicals My Space , Facebook,
Congrats!
Congrats on reaching 100!! Sounds like you picked a perfect choice. I'm past the half way mark and have no clue what my 100th will be last year I picked a wonderful Nora Roberts book as I knew I couldn't go wrong with her. I feel like 100 is best with a trusted author that way you know it will be a winner.
People who look down on others are the real freaks of this world.
Thanks! I just had to
Thanks! I just had to pick Joanne Rock for book 100. Last year it ws Rita Herron because she made me want to read romance period. It's fun to plan for celebrating book 100 with a special read. Mooonsong, I can't wait to see what you choose!
I do love Joanne Rock's books. She's got the history down but hwer books are more than that too. I like how she incorporates medieval stories into her books but I love her stories too. I wish someday she would write a Medieval Blaze. It's probably the last thing she would want to do...it probasbly helps a writer keep fresh to write different kinds of stories in different lines. I have her new SSE and some of her in non-Medieval anthologies so it will be interesting for me to read her outside of Medievals. But .... she's gotta keep writing the Medievals too because they are special.
AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus
Congrats!
Merri--Congrats on your 100th book read! It sounds like a good one. I always enjoy reading your reviews.
Mary
Congratulation on your
Congratulation on your 100th read. I really enjoyed this book. I found the trek across the continent interesting and the ending when her true identity is revealed is a real surprise. Joanne Rock has always written good historical novels and this was no exception.
Joan
Oh, wow, Merri!
Congrats on the 100 books! I agree with Mary that I enjoy reading your reviews.
I've seen this book on eHarl but I don't have it. I did, however, just receive my copy of The Lord's Forced Bride and am looking forward to reading it. Have you picked up a copy of this one yet? (I don't know why the picture shows up so big).
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
- Mark Twain
Congrats Merri on reading
Congrats Merri on reading your 100th book!!!
Tiffany
BJBC
My Shelfari Page
Thanks! I feel like I am
Thanks! I feel like I am reading so slowly this year but I think maybe I am ahead of last year. I just had to pick Joanne Rock for the 100th book since she was the first Medieval one I read last year. Last year's main discoveries were:
1. liking Medieval romance mostly thanks to Joanne Rock, Carol Towenend and Blythe Gifford.
2. Liz Fielding (got one of books on a total fluke) and discovering I loved Harlequin Romance.
3. The Medical romances!
I wonder what what I will consider to be this year's discoveries. Does anyone have new discoveries this year now that we are past the halfpoint?
I have that Anne Herries book too.
I love the cover and esp. the cover colors on that book! I have a fairly large pile of HH Medievals on my soon to read list-- this one and several by Terri Brisban and several by Catherine March. I have been eager to get to them but just had to wait until I rebuilt my web site. One thing I wish eHarlequin would do is list the periods on the book detail pages. Westerns are fairly easy to know from the covers but not Medievals. I basically plan to read every Medieval (I even ordered from the UK several of this cool 2007 Mills and Boon series "Medieval Lords and Ladies" of older reprints--if I could only find the two volumes I can't find online!!!!!!). One of my best friends is really into regency almost exclusively so she would like to know which are regencies and I would like to know which ones are other than regency. It's not that I don't like regencies.....it's just that I am soooo overloaded with different kinds of books I can't even get to in my TBR that I have to draw the limit somewhere and since regency is so popular and so many are in that period (and not just Harlequin), making some kind of choice maked my TBR feel less oppressive until I catch up more.
Anne Herries, Terri Brisban, Catherine March and more Michelle Styles are my most immediate reading goals when it comes to the historicals.
AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus
Yes, Merri...
...some bookcovers leave me guessing on the time period, too! A lot of the covers have couples who aren't in 'real' period costuming, which makes it even harder to gauge the timeframe. I've even read a few books that don't mention the date in the context either (this is extremely frustrating for those of us who are sticklers for details)!
I agree that it would be nice if they'd give a time period on the back blurb - regency, medieval, western, Victorian, etc.
Oh, and all those authors you mentioned are great choices, IMHO!
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
- Mark Twain
Thank you!
What a treat to read your review! I feel very honored to have claimed the 100 milestone. I have to say I enjoyed sliding the Tristian and Isolde references into A KNIGHT MOST WICKED. And researching medieval Bohemia was fun, too. I love that part about medievals... I get to read lots of history and call it work!
I love that cover with all the roses, BTW. A wide angle of that same artwork was used on my 05 release, MY LADY'S FAVOR and it's always been my favorite cover. The colors are striking.
Joanne
SHE THINKS HER EX IS SEXY, Blaze 2/09 * ALWAYS READY, Blaze 3/09 * THE KNIGHT'S RETURN, HQ Historicals 4/09
http://joannerock.com * http://myspace.com/joanne_rock
Way to go !!!!
I am impressed but I am not going to try Medieval books right now. I used to be a Regency Junkie but moved away from them. You asked if anyone tried anything new since the beginning of the year. I have tried NEXT, NASCAR, Love Inspired, and last night I read a Medical. I was surprised by how much I liked the NASCAR books as I don't know a whole lot about it. I was discouraged when I found out all 16 being released this year are interwoven. I really don't need another long series to read so will pass on them probably even though I own a couple of them. I am currently halfway through a Blaze and I don't read many of them either. It is so great to try out all the lines. I enjoy your book reports also . Thanks for all the interaction on the one. Here's hoping there will be lots more of us in the 100 club. Do you think we will reach 20,000 by end of July? When I joined in April we weren't quite at 10,000 and now it seems there are a lot more books being read.
When I get a little money I buy books, and then if any is left I buy food and clothes..-- Erasmus
What has been my greatest
What has been my greatest reading 'find' this year. That would have to be the Medicals. Love those books. Then there are the Desires. I have a few new favorite authors, most of them can be found writing for the Medical imprint, but they are not limited to HMRs.
Nancy
Thanks for stopping by,
Thanks for stopping by, Joanne. Choosing this book for book 100 was a natural. You have some nice book covers, esp. the covers. I have quite a few of the earlier ones and the red or blue colors are striking. I loved how you picked up the Tristan story...but even more so how your Tristan was his own man. The Bohemian history was so intriguing and fresh.
I am not sure what my discoveries this year will be. Olivia Gates. In a more vague sense, I am discovering that I like sweet romance and darker books which seems like a contradiction. One makes me like the other more. Same with short/long romances
With Medieval things, I just can't explain it. It just feels like a match. The first books I ever read read written during that time period felt like I was coming home. I had no idea if I would like Medieval set romance, but when I picked up that book by Joanne Rock last year, I had that same feeling of "Ah, home!" I love reading lots of different things but Medieval is the one thing I feel is constant ... at least since 1981. So far, there has only been one Medieval author I did not like (not Harlequin) --- it was not medieval at all plus the characters were flat.
I would love to see time periods listed on the HHs on eHarlequin. Some of them interest me based on the the period alone. I don't care about the blurb as much as the period. It's hard to shop for medievals and it is even worse for some other periods.. Some publishers don't use period costumes and that can be frustrating, esp. when the blurbs don't even list a date. That is the single most frustrating thing for me shopping for historicals--- no date in the blurb or on websites. I thought "Knight" was a giveaway that a book was Medieval but I have found that lately even that doesn't mean anything outside of Harlequin (and I would have missed the Anne Herries title as being Medieval from the title). The single most important reason why I buy RT is that they DO list the time periods---but of course they only review 4 of the 6 HHs.. Every month I get it, I immediately turn to the Historical section, circle all the books they list as Medieval and then go shopping. That is a valuable resource and time saver. I love the way Harlequin puts the time peiod on the spine of the books --- it would be nice if online book buyers had the same resource.
Back to the book. I really liked Arabella's character...much more than Isolde in the Medieval Tristan tale.
AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus