Review: Should You Read This?  I Shout A Resounding "Aye!"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2013
Wow!  I literally just finished this novel and I'm still smiling.  Since this isn't my first novel by Glynnis Campbell, I knew it would be enjoyable.  Most certainly, I was not disappointed.There is something so special about this author's writing that it's hard to describe.  Once I start to read one of her tales, I can't stop.  Literally.  I will stay awake to the wee hours of dawn because I just don't want to break the spell. No one does Medieval Romance like Glynnis Campbell.Returning from many happy years with a kind and loving foster family, the beautiful Lady Rose is shocked to discover she is being used as a pawn by her adultress mother and her equally vile lover. As her step-father approached death, Rose's mother betrothed Rose to the violent man (who of course, she herself would continue to entertain on the side) as a way to secure their holdings and provide an heir.  The last straw....literally....comes when Rose stumbles upon the revolting pair in the stables with each other.  Fearing for her life, Rose desperately flees that very night.After a harrowing escape through a dark wood, she arrives at an inn and joins up with a group of pilgrims heading to the cathedral at St. Andrews.  There she meets a dangerously intriguing and powerful man, locked in the shackles of a felon, on a pilgrimage of pentenance.But that man is in truth no felon.  He is Sir Pierce of Mirkhaugh, a noble knight who has spent the past two years running from guilt and disgrace, offering his mercenary sword arm while enduring his self-inflicted exile. Overhearing talk of a plot to kidnap and murder the son of a neighboring noblemen in St. Andres, Blade, as Sir Pierce now prefers to be known, and his fellow knight Wilham disguise themselves and join the trek in hopes to uncover and thwart the traitors along the way.  Blade is supposed to be concentrating on the task at hand and feeling pentinent.  Instead, he can't keep his thoughts from the lovely Lady Rose.Rose tells the tale of once taming at bear at a carnival at St. Andrews when she was but a lass.  The same way that she knew the caged beast had a wounded soul, she sensed that Blade was someone to trust, and to perhaps love.The tale of the events along the pilgrimage is so enjoyable to read.  There are comic moments provided by some of the more colorful travelers in the group.  As with all of the author's stories, there are thrilling moments, great battles, and enough sword fights to keep you on the edge of your couch.  Usually, I can figure out how a story is going to end.  Not this time.  When the big reveal moment finally happened, I dropped my Kindle and said "No way!"Besides the great adventure and intrigue, this book has beautiful moments of breathtaking romance.  Never bawdy or gratuitous in her love scenes, the author can make even a simple glance cause a reader to sigh longingly.  There is a beautiful moment, for example when the couple holds hands under the table cloth that is one of the most innocently sensual and touching scenes I've ever read.  At one point in the scene she writes "...their two hands, were halves of a broken vessel, now made whole.  And if they only had this one bittersweet moment, while his fingers interlocked with hers..."That, ladies and gentlemen, is a great writer at her best.  5 Stars....more if it were possible!