|
|
|
|
|
Knight’s Treasure by Amanda Scott isn’t your typical trashy romance novel. Instead of being a silly little piece of fluff which one could devour in an hour or two (preferably lying by the pool with a margarita nearby), it is a very demanding novel. The readers actually have to (gasp!) pay attention to what is going on and what is being said; otherwise, they’d be hopelessly confused thanks to the sheer volume of plots and characters.
The novel opens in 1371 Scotland. Lady Adela MacLeod is to be married to Lord Ardelve, a man several years her senior. Adela is one of seven sisters, and has apparently just gone through an ordeal in which she was abducted from the altar during her first attempt to marry Ardelve. This second wedding doesn’t go any better, as her husband drops dead about an hour after the ceremony. Sir Robert Logan is a Knight Templar and recently disowned by his family–apparently the Logans have an illustrious past and were allied with Robert the Bruce–for refusing to divulge Templar secrets involving his family and some sort of treasure. Adela is accused of murdering her husband-for-an-hour, and in order to protect her, Robert persuades her to marry him. The rest of the book is spent searching for the Templar treasure, instead of trying to prove Adela’s innocence–which to me would be the more pertinent and exciting plot.
In addition to the obscene number of characters, sub characters, plots, and subplots, there is an absurd amount of exposition and back-story, all of which causes the readers to pay exact attention lest they get hopelessly befuddled. I got the feeling that this book was a part of a series, which would explain the exposition but left the reader sometimes wondering what the heck was going on–for instance, the author kept referring to Adela’s abduction, but never went into it more fully. I thought the dialogue was fairly accurate regarding dialect, as were the descriptions of clothing and geographic locations–it’s explained in the back of the book that the author holds a Master’s Degree in history, which would account for the detail and accuracy.
The love scenes are, frankly, a disappointment. They are tender and Robert’s treatment of Adela is endearing, but they are not steamy enough at all. In fact, poor Adela doesn’t even get to “find love’s ultimate peak” (if you catch my drift)–or if she does, Scott fails to mention it.
All in all, Knight’s Treasure isn’t the most romantic or sexy romance novel I’ve ever read, but it gets points for accuracy.
|
|
|
|
