Brutal reality, romance and a pinch of mysticism
Bewertet mit 5 Sternen
This book had me spellbound from the first page on. It is an enchanting mixture of the rough, hard reality of Scotland in the early 14th century and and the people living there, many of them victims of the conflict between King Edward and Robert Bruce. Especially many of the female relations of the Bruce suffered terribly at the hands of the king when he got hold of them.
This is why our hero Sir Gavin Faulkener sees our heroine, a close relation of the Bruce’s for the first time when he is standing in front of a cage, attached to the outside wall of the parapet of Carlisle Castle, in the middle of winter, where she has been caged since September. Even though Gavin does not care for the King’s policies in Scotland and has been disgraced because of it before, he is granted Kilglassie castle, Lady Christian’s home, as a test of his loyalty. Lady Christian MacGillan herself is dying due to the exposure to the elements in her cage. As the king still hopes to obtain information about an ancient treasure hidden at Kilglassie Castle from her he allows Gavin to take Lady Christian away and wed her, ”last minute”, so to say, in order to get the information for his king before Lady Christian dies.
Getting her out of the cage proves to be the easiest part, keeping her alive, even when she has conquered her illness, will keep Gavion on his toes and he will need all the help he can get…
The brutal reality of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages, combined with some wonderful, complex and extremely charming characters with a healthy dose of mystical elements and a nice sweet dose of romance just to spice things up make for an educational, interesting and absolutely fascinating read that kept me enthralled right till the end. I really really loved this book. This is one of the books that I started rereading right after I had read the last page.
Having finished reading it I found myself trying to find out more about the history of those times and the fate of those mentioned in the book that were real characters and I found myself thinking and dreaming about those that weren’t.
A wonderful and well written book that I can definitely recommend!