My Hero

This was an enjoyable book with good characters and a interesting story. I liked reading all the books in this series, with this one being the best of the three. Will be looking for more on this author.

Garth de Ware comes from a family of warriors, but he thinks himself less than a man and turns to the Church. Lady Cynthia le Wyte has loved Garth since childhood and considers him her hero. It takes a special kind of woman to show this man the way to worldly love, but Cynthia is up to the challenge. The last quarter of this book is the most exciting I've ever read--I stayed up 'til 3:00 am to finish it, unable to sleep until Garth and Cynthia had found their happy ending. If you think you won't like a romance with an ex-monk for a hero--think again. Glynnis Campbell's book will make you wish there were more writers willing to tell a fresh and different type of story!

I got hooked on Glynnis Campbell with "My Champion" and am thrilled that she has continued the family saga trilogy with Garth's story. Garth de Ware is the youngest member of the De Ware clan and the one who has chosen the cloth (his elder brothers were the knights of Campbell's first two titles). But he meets with temptation when his path reunites him with Lady Cynthia le Wyte, a healer and head of the castle where he is postioned. It's a delightful book, one that's hard to put down. Like Campbell's other two adventurous titles, readers will be drawn in by the well-established, well-rounded characters, the interesting Medieval details and the engaging story. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this delightful author.

A marriage of convenience to the eighteen year-old Cynthia le Wyte brings life back into the elderly John Wendeville. The feeble lord knows he is dying, but he wants a companion in his final years. Cynthia is so much more than he asked for. She is a vibrant lover who brings him unexpected pleasure and fills his days with joy and happiness. Her healing herbs and potions extend his life and give them two beautiful years together. Lord John adores his young wife and before taking his last breath he makes her swear to keep a promise that will affect her future - a future a greedy Wendeville abbot hopes to change.The gaunt abbot is absolutely livid when he learns Lord John bequeathed the small Charing Castle to him. He'd courted the old man almost like a lover and expected to be his heir before the harlot arrived and changed everything. He will have his revenge and it will begin by selecting the new chaplain for her castle. Ah yes, he knows just the right cleric - one who won't interfere with his plans - the pitiful Garth de Ware.Garth trained as a knight along with his brothers and is able to handle a sword and defend in battle, but when he fails to hold a castle for his brother Holden he decides to return to the church. Garth is temporarily sidetracked and instead of the church, he worships Mariana, a woman devoted to sexual pleasures. Mariana manages to shred the inexperienced youth of all of his masculinity and the humiliated young man vows never to shame himself with a woman ever again. He hides beneath a heavy wool robe and enters a poor monastery to insure that he doesn't. Poor misguided Garth - he may have lost his spirit, but not his hot-blooded male body. He has lustful dreams nightly resulting in torturous penance daily. The prior believes Garth is wasting away in the monastery, and is almost relieved when the Wendeville Abbot asks that Garth replace him as chaplain at Wendeville - a request that makes Garth freak out!The instant Garth is introduced to the castle, Cynthia senses she's met him before, and soon recognizes him as the fifteen year old she vowed to marry when she was a young lady all of eleven. Her memories flood back to the day in his mother's enchanted garden when the handsome young knight enchanted her. Garth's memories of that day are suppressed, but future circumstances will bring them back. Meanwhile, the young man is about to learn he isn't meant to become a monk.Glynnis Campbell delivers a masterpiece set in the medieval era. MY HERO has quite an unusual plot, featuring a would-be monk as the hero, but WOW! What a hero Garth de Ware turns out to be! Both Garth and Cynthia are adults, but still innocents, a fact that causes them to misunderstand each other's reactions. The evil Abbot moves the plot along and before it's over the entire de Ware clan from the previous stories in this trilogy (MY CHAMPION, MY WARRIOR) will make an appearance. Ohhh, when I read this scene I was reminded of movies I saw years ago. I felt like

Campbell has an incredible talent for capturing timeless issues and ideas in a compelling and entertaining way. Assuming this book took a year or so to get from the writer to the bookshelves, she was writing about many issues and problems inside religion before they were daily headlines. And she does so by successfully weaving a powerful love story around the age-old issue of science vs. faith, unflinchingly describing the dark side and human abuses within the Church, and exploring the idea that maybe sometimes God's will is for us to get in there and fix the problem with our own two hands, as the heroine struggles with the painful choice of following the rules or saving lives. Through her joi de vive heroine and troubled hero, Campbell exposes how behind the teachings and often wonderful works of organized religions, there always have been and always will be passionate people trying to find their way in a complicated world.