The Love Knot

The Love Knot is a wonderful old-fashioned romance! Brandewyne has taken the typical Gothic plot made popular by the Brontes, du Maurier, Holt, Stewart, Whitney, and others (young woman goes to isolated house and falls in love with her dark, brooding employer, who may or may not be a bad guy), and added several different twists. All the Gothic elements so essential to the genre are in place here, and the action is nonstop. It kept me riveted right to the end of the book! The Love Knot is written in the classic mode, so some readers may find the going hard. But it suited the time period and style of the book, so I really enjoyed it. It set the Gothic mood perfectly, with such vivid descriptions that I could really see Cornwall, Bodmin Moor, Jamaica Inn, St. Aubyn Manor, and all the rest. The characters were delightful and true to the times and customs of the day. If you're after male prostitutes and graphic sex (someone else mentioned Robin Schone), The Love Knot isn't that. It's true to the classic Gothic mode. Maybe today's readers just aren't all that familiar with that style anymore. But I am, and to me, The Love Knot was refreshing, harkening back to books I read and adored in days gone by. For those of us who grew up with these types of books and really miss them, The Love Knot is a great read. I highly recommend it!

The Love Knot is very entertaining. I could not put it down! Ms. Brandewyne has written a romance that moves swiftly and keeps you glued to the pages till the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

In 1802 Verity Collier accepts a position as governess to seven-year-old twins Meliora and Bastian though she has no previous experience with this work. Because the position is in remote Cornwall, the father Lord Jago Ransleigh, has no other takers. For Verity, the position enables her to escape working at a suffocating school.On the trek to St. Aubyn, highwayman Black Jack Raven holds up the carriage containing Verity. She courageously persuades him not to take a family locket from her, but he imitates Sheridan by stealing a locket of her hair. At the manor, Verity finds she likes the reticent children still struggling with the death of their mother in an accident two years ago. When she meets the Earl, who is always away from the estate on War Office business, she thinks he is also Black Jack. Trying to learn the truth places her in danger of the body and the heart as she quickly falls in love with her employer.This delightful Regency romantic suspense borrows heavily from the gothic crowd. Verity lives up to her name, but is also brave (no Rape of the Lock will stop her) and serves as the right role model for two lost little children. Readers will feel for the twins, but especially Bastian (try getting more than a nod out of him). Jago is the classic gothic hero who cannot believe the woman he is falling in love with would foolishly waltz into danger. Rebecca Brandewyne shows why she is so highly regarded with this strong historical intrigue.Harriet Klausner

The Love Knot is a wonderful, suspenseful book, written in the style of classic Gothics of the nineteenth century. From the moment Verity Collier arrives at the Earl of St. Aubyn's manor house in Cornwall, strange and often frightening events begin to unfold, placing her in fear for her life. Her dark, brooding, enigmatic employer tries to explain away many of these things, but Verity is unconvinced, since she has begun to suspect he is leading a double life as a roguish highwayman. But despite everything, the two fall in love as they try to untangle a web of deceit that threatens them and the Earl's twin children. This story has everything that makes Gothics great-from the haunted, isolated house to ghosts and spies. I highly recommend it!