Sandy Hingston

This was the very good story of Michel Faurer, a french born former knight of the Templar and Madeleine de Courtnay, a young convent raised English beauty. He meets her when she rescues him from drowning, near her brother's castle. The Templars are being persecuted by everyone except for the Scots. The story follows the hero and heroine on their adventures and ordeals. I am not going to give it all away here but the book is a keeper in my opinion. The ending was a little abrupt, I thought, and no epilogue, probably because there are more books in the series.… (meer)

Beloved Honor begins with 17 year old Rene, angry son of Michel from Beloved Knight. He meets Catriona, illegitimate daughter of Scottish chieftan at her sister's wedding. She sees him and is smitten, even though he has brought his English girlfriend with him. He mouths off to the Scots with some treasonous words and narrowly escapes. She continues to see him on and off, even though her family thinks he is a treasonous scoundrel. He is banished after having thought to have murdered the earl of Mar. Eventually she comes to think he is a traitor also, since she runs into his English friend, who is pregnant and says they had recently married. There is a battle between the Scots and the English, and they are forced to flee the castle along with the Scottish king and queen (who are children). Rene comes to the rescue and kills the true murderer and explains to all that he was really a spy.
The first part of the story was kind of depressing as we find out Rene's mother, Madeline(from Beloved Knight), had been alone much of her married life while her husband was off fighting. He died somewhat young at the beginning of the Beloved Honor. She only had Rene(17) and Anne(6) for children. Rene resented his father for his absences and the fact that his father was gruff with him and didn't show love for his children. This is explained more fully by his mother near the end of the story. Also, Rene, frequented a brothel in town nightly when able, which sounds bad, although he's only 17 years old at the time. After he meets Cat, it is unclear whether he is still visiting brothels or his ex girlfriend (for want of a better word). He keeps trying to get under Catriona's skirts, without thought to the consequences (and she is only 16 yrs.)
My questions were all answered toward the end of the book and you also find out something very sweet about Rene and Cat's first meeting. Very nicely wrapped up. Not quite as enjoyable as the first one but still 4/5 stars.… (meer)

Beloved Lord follows 16 year old Anne Faurer, younger sister of the hero in Beloved Honor. She has been kicked out of her family's home in Scotland, since it is under English rule. Her home has been given to an English barrister, with a newborn son and a nasty wife who just left him on the day of his son's birth. Anne recently gave birth to a stillborn child and is called in to be a nursemaid.
Mallory Burgess doesn't seem to ever make it easy for her heroes and heroines, from what I've seen and this book is no exception. The hero and heroine go through some rough times and finally get together at the end of the book. This is the first book I have read however, that they are not married for their HEA. They are happy to be together at the end and hope they can marry someday, which left me a little frustrated. (No one wants bad to triumph over good!) No epilogue either.

I was really disappointed that Anne's mother, Madeline (from Beloved Knight and Beloved Honor), did not get together with Bay's older best friend Reggie, who has had a crush on her for forty years. 4/5 stars… (meer)

Nichola Hainesworth's mother is in complete despair. Nichola clumps, she rides astride, and she wants nothing more than to follow her five brothers to the Continent to fight Napoleon. None of these are qualities designed to make her a good match in the eyes of the ton. So Nichola is enrolled in Miss Treadwell's Academy for Young Ladies.

Little does Mrs. Hainesworth know that the academy is a project designed to teach young ladies to follow their hearts and their passions to make love matches and form true partnerships - not to land the most spectacular society catch. True to its mission, the academy hires roguish war hero Lord Brian Boru to teach awkward Nichola how to fence, with glorious results. Soon Nichola is the toast of the ton when she catches the eye of a duke's heir, but she's more interested in her wounded fencing teacher than in society's tulips.

Nichola is a wonderful strong character who is never afraid to say what she thinks. In making her fit for the ton, Mrs. Treadwell never tries to curb her freshness and originality. Instead, the academy teaches her not to be afraid of her height and to impart a measure of grace by teaching her to fence. The part where Lord Boru tells her to pretend flirtation is a fencing bout is so funny.

I also really liked that Nichola never deluded herself into thinking that Boru's wound doesn't matter. She acknowledges that it will make many things much more difficult and that it may very well curb her in doing so many of the athletic pursuits she both enjoys and excels at. But surprisingly (considering his injury), Boru is the only one who wholeheartedly pushes her to excel and not to go easy on him or anyone else. I loved the descriptions of fencing (although I wish she had had a bit more difficulty in that regard). I tried fencing for a while, but soon discovered that I don't have enough innate aggression to either enjoy it or be particularly good at it - pesky flight instinct. But I still love to watch good fencers in a bout, and I got the same sort of feeling from some of these scenes.

The scene in the river = yum.

On to the not-so-good:

* The love triangle was fun in that it was an actual triangle. I liked Anthony. I loved how much he admired Nichola and how attractive he made her feel. But his reasons for liking her in the end were a bit weird, and I thought Nichola forgave him much too easily at the end of things.

* The entire climax of the plot was dreadfully convoluted in general.

* I found the bits written in Scottish dialect distracting and cumbersome.

* I wanted to hear more from the other girls at the school - particularly Gwen and Bess. And no matter how unconventional the school in promoting love matches, I did think it was dreadfully out of time/character for

SPOILER: (the Countess to actually facilitate a before-marriage affair between Nichola and Boru - effectively allowing her to be ruined for any society marriage. Just seems wrong) END SPOILER

This was a fun premise, and I liked that neither the hero nor the heroine were conventionally attractive - Nichola was too tall and clumsy at first and Boru had his wound. But as much as I liked the characters, the resolution of the plot just didn't work for me.

Also posted at my blog.… (meer)