ONLY FOR A KNIGHT

Author: Sue-Ellen Welfonder ISBN: 0446613827 7/2005 HISTORICAL Publisher: WARNER FOREVER
Time Period: Medieval Scotland - 1344 - Glenelg

For ten lusty years, Robbie Mackenzie has savored the sensual pleasures that only a man with no wife can taste. To the lassies of Scotland, he is a living legend, the sole heir of the Black Stag clan, and a prize catch indeed. But Juliana Mackay has no such interest in the rogue or his powerful family. Her mission-to deliver an unpaid debt for her dying mother-is the only thing that could force her within reach of the wayward knight. That is, until an accidental blow to the head sends her reeling right into the brawny arms of Robbie MacKenzie himself. In the heat of the moment, their passions ignite. But Juliana has forgotten her own identity, as well as her mission—and Robbie has promised to marry a bride from a rival clan. How can these two star-crossed lovers resist the love that burns in their hearts...and the desire that consumes their souls?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

No one can say I didn't give it another shot. After reading the last Sue-Ellen Welfonder release, WEDDING FOR A KNIGHT, and finding it not to my taste, I tried again with ONLY FOR A KNIGHT. Unfortunately, my opinion of this one isn't that much better than last time.

ONLY FOR A KNIGHT is too much. Too much flowery speech. I am all for poetic phrases, but at times this is like Shakespeare gone bad. Too much detail about nothing. Yep, that's what I said, too much detail. It's too wordy with so many adjectives you forget what exactly is being referred to. Here's just one example:

 "A bumbling unsteadiness that had ne'er plagued him when gazing upon or tending much angrier wounds than the crescent-shaped gash one of the ewe's flailing hooves had engraved so close to the lass's hairline."

Coming from me, a lover of descriptive books and especially of historicals, that is saying something.

There's too many angry frowns and black glances from the Black Stag, father of the hero. It's all he does, glower and complain about situations he cannot control. Too many evil plots resolved before they are even hatched. That makes for a dull storyline that could have been fraught with tension. But, mostly it's too close to incest! Even the possibility of the hero and heroine being brother and sister, or first cousins, is enough to turn me off, no matter how the story plays out.

Some will no doubt argue that with such passionate and vivid descriptions, the author obviously loves and wants to pay tribute to Scottish ancestry. I don't disagree with that, and even think her love for the genre will bring more readers to her work. For me, though, this story is over the top while the plot could have been so much more.

Shannon Johnson