Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: A Knight's Vengeance
Author: Catherine Kean
Publisher: Medallion Press
ISBN: 1-932815-48-1
Release Date: September 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Historical Medieval Romance
Year/Setting: 1192/Scotland
Overall Rating: 4.8
Sexual Content Rating: Sexual
Language (Profanity) Rating: None (except very mildly in the time period)
Violent Content Rating: Mild
Catherine's Website: www.catherinekean.com
In 1174, a young Geoffrey de Lanceau held his father’s in his arms and watched him pass away. He watched the anguish his father experienced. That anguish was caused in only a small part by the fatal wounds the man had received. The larger portion was caused by dying believing that the king thought their family was led by a traitor to the crown. Geoffrey’s father had lived his life for his king and to now know that someone had taken that away from him broken both of their hearts. One passed away believing while the younger was left to deal with both of these deaths and to vow vengeance for them.
As an adult, Geoffrey is finally in a position to find that vengeance. He has re-proven himself to the king during the Crusades and been given a keep near his ancestral home, Moydenshire. He has also come up with a plan to regain Moydenshire and destroy Lord Brackendale – the man who took his father away. This plan was quite clever. Geoffrey would send a messenger with a false message which would get the lord and his men away from the keep. Then he would go in with his faithful band of men to take the one thing that meant something to Lord Brackendale - - Lady Elizabeth Brackendale, his only child and only family member. Yes, he would send a ransom but there would be so much more involved in this little plot. The lord and lady would never see it coming.
While the lord and lady were surprised, Geoffrey was in for the bigger surprise. Yes, he accomplished the first steps of the plan. He was able to divert the lord and his men; he was able to kidnap the lady (he even got her lady in waiting); and he got them back to his keep without being spotted. What didn’t go according to plan was the lady herself. Elizabeth wasn’t what he expected. She has a lot of fight in her but she has a great deal of compassion and he finds himself opening up to her about things he never dreamed.
Elizabeth and Geoffrey represent a couple who are carrying all of the baggage from their childhood – most of which isn’t truly theirs to carry. Geoffrey is dealing with the loss of his father and having to regain what he views as lost. Elizabeth is living with the parameters set for her by society. She is engaged to be married to a man she doesn’t love simply because of the property’s owned by both families. While he isn’t a bad man in her eyes, he can’t live up to the larger than life picture created by Geoffrey. Each of them has so much passion that it practically jumps off the page. Yes, for each other but also just for life itself.
A Knight’s Vengeance caught my attention from the first chapter and I have to admit that historicals aren’t my first personal choice to read for my own entertainment. Catherine Kean has a marvelous way of grabbing one’s heart and interest and keeping you in the game until the very end.
Lori
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