Lord of Midnight (Signet Historical Romance)

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I have read my share of historical fiction and it is terrible how many really bad authors are out there. Jo Beverley is not one of them. This book is well researched, honest and very believable. I agree that with the previous reviewer that marrying your father's murderer would be wrong but, frankly, if you read the book you would see that this is exactly the dilemma faced by our heroine. In the bloody days of the medieval era the rules of society were not quite the same as ours. And when one understands the role of the King's Champion it changes matters even further. What can I say? Read the book. The hero is wonderful. . .understanding, gentle as well as the big bad plundering wolf that the heroine thinks he is. In a genre that used to be full of controlling and almost abusive heroes, this one is a charmer I'd like to meet today!!

I just love Jo Beverley! She never fails to move you into the period and into the hearts of minds of her main characters. Here you have the story of Claire Summerbourne, anxiously awaiting the return of her father from a rebellion to overthrow the upstart king Henry Beauclerk. Instead, who rides up to the castle but Renald de Lisle, kings champion, to bring her fathers body home and assume ownership and title to Summerbourne.He has won the prize of Summerbourne, along with the kings orders to wed without delay, one of the three maidens living there and to care for the rest of the deceased Lord Summerbournes family. Meeting Claire Summerbourne, he is immediately taken with her and as much as she would admit to herself, she finds him physically disturbing. The plot goes on with Renald trying to wed the lovely Claire before she discovers his awful truth. The characters are so well fleshed out, you can feel all the emotions and struggles each has in their hearts and soul. Again, a most magnificent story set in and during the reign of King Henry. I also love the way she reintroduces characters from previous novels so that the flow of these books brings you back to revisit the other characters that you hated to lose track of once their stories had ended.

For some reason, I am less keen on mediaeval romances than on those set in the Regency or Georgian period. However, with books like this one, and Mary Jo Putney's Uncommon Vows, I might read mediaevel more often!Renald de Lisle, the new King's Champion, fights in a tourney on the king's behalf, and kills his man. As a reward, he is given the dead man's estate, Summerbourne, but the king asks him to marry one of the unmarried women on the estate. By process of elimination, he chooses Claire Summerbourne, the dead man's daughter, as his wife.Claire - still in mourning for her father - is deeply distrustful of de Lisle: she is wary of him because he is a warrior by profession, and she resents his acquisition of her father's property. She doesn't want to marry him, but has little choice. However, by the day of their betrothal the two have come to understand each other, and by the following day - their wedding day - they are ready to admit that they love each other.However - as the editorial review above makes clear - it's at this point that Claire discovers Renald is the man who killed her father, and she realises that she cannot commit to him. The remainder of the book deals with Renald and Claire coming to terms with the harsh knowledge which lies between them, made all the more difficult by Renald's feeling that he did nothing wrong; he was acting lawfully and in accordance with the king's instructions. How Claire comes to understand and forgive, and to reconcile her love for Renald with her love for her father, is told very well and very convingly by Beverley.The historical detail is also very interesting, as well as being accurate; I certainly learned a lot from this book.My only complaint is that - typically - there was no indication on the book's cover, or even inside before the start of the book, that this was a sequel to another mediaeval romance by Beverley, Dark Champion. While reading Lord of Midnight, I kept coming across references to Imogen and Fitzroger, and when eventually these characters were encountered, it did seem as if readers were supposed to be familiar with them. Beverley's postscript then revealed that Lord of Midnight is a sequel to Dark Champion. I wouldn't say that it's essential to read Dark Champion first, but I did feel that it might have been useful to have read it. I do wish publishers would be honest when one book is a sequel to another!

The characters are easier to relate to. Renald is everything you look for in a man. He is intelligent, strong, witty,passionate and most of all patient! Claire is everything you want to be as a woman. They were meant for each other! I loved it!

In 1101 England, Lord Renald de Lisle, acting as the King's Champion, duels and kills the peace loving Lord Clarence of Summerbourne, a traitor who refuses to pledge fealty to the throne. King Henry grants the Summerbourne estates to Renald with the caveat that he marry one of the three maidens residing there. When Renald arrives, he receives a cold reception from the residing four women, but marries Clarence's daughter, Claire. He soon falls in love with his bride, but worries that when she learns the truth about her father's death, she will hate him forever. She reciprocates his feelings of love until she learns the truth on their wedding night. Can their love be strong enough to overcome the fact that he killed her father? LORD OF MIDNIGHT is an extremely enjoyable Medieval romance that fans of the sub-genre (and for that matter historical romance readers in general) will relish. The story line is an intriguing period piece and the battling lead protagonists make a fun to read couple. Jo Beverly is clearly one of the leading writers lighting up the Dark Ages. Harriet Klausner