Review: Mediaeval Romance at its best. (Review Copy for RRM)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 17, 2013
With sensual prose Ms Batten sets precedence for a traditional mediaeval style romance based on a legend and the romantic chivalry of knights, and has penned this lovely novel in first-person narrative.Lady Ysabel Moncrieff reveals the tragic circumstances of a missive, which inevitably leads to a long homeward journey from Aquetaine to Moncrieff. A headstrong and wilful young noblewoman, Ysabel is forced to learn life's hard lessons en route, for her escort Gisborne incites hatred and admiration in double measures thus making his task all the more extreme in keeping her safe and alive. Nonetheless a violent encounter with vagabonds, heart in mouth and fearing the worst Ysabel rallies to action in defence of others and, Gisborne. Mutual respect thereafter abounds betwixt the pair, and one moment of bliss between Gisborne and Ysabel tilts the axis of her inner world: that is until dawn breaks and a known enemy is close at hand.With home shores reached Ysabel faces a terrible truth, and sure she has trusted her heart to a traitor she's forced to endure the humiliation of marriage against her will and to the enemy. All the while a secret she dare not reveal endangers her life further and she cannot bear to remain a chattel to a brute of a husband whom she would rather kill than submit to ever again. She takes flight in disguise, but encounters Gisborne along the way. He's no fool and when she takes flight for a second time, she has a guardian knight at her back. Fate, though, can play cruel tricks and none more so than within this beautifully crafted novel of love and intrigue. Review for Romance Reviews Magazine