I liked how real the hero felt. He was a man, but he was someone fallen from grace and humble. He was also a sensitive man. I didn’t feel as connected to the heroine, though ( )

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David is a legendary knight, who's struggling to keep his people alive due to drought and he lost a skirmish. He's lost faith in himself until Lady Alisoun comes to hire him to protect her people. She's very self contained and hard to connect with, but David decides he wants to see what's under her calm façade.
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Overall Rating: 4.40
Action: 3.5 / Emotion: 5.0 / Romance: 4.5 / Sensuous: 1.0 / Suspense: 3.5 // Historical Flavor: 4.7 // Laughter: 12 / Giggle: 2 // Tears: 3 / Teary: 0

Once A Knight: 4.40:
Medieval Romances are a favorite. This book turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining book that takes readers back in time. It took a bit of time to get deeply immersed into this story because Dodd took readers on a slow, but steady path towards plotting developments and character introductions. Walking that path with Dodd was well worth the journey. Dodd wrote about complex people whose layers were peeled away so they could worm their way into the cockles of your heart.

Hero: 4.50:
Sir David of Radcliffe: a wonderfully original hero, in that he was not portrayed as the ultra handsome, incredibly roguish, suave and debonair, ultimate fighting machine that authors usually draw from the standard pool of heros. David was past his prime, had gray at his temples and on the morning that Alisoun found him he was laying hungover in an alehouse after drinking away his sorrows at losing his title as the King's Champion. The one thing that stood out the most about David, as Dodd pealed back the layers to reveal his willingness to acknowledge who he was, to accept that he had faults as well as strengths, was his ability to look at the bright side of life in spite of all the hard knocks dealt out to him.

Heroine: 3.50:
Lady Alisoun, countess of George's Cross: Dodd did such a fantastic job of developing the layers of Lady Alisoun's personality that if you looked closer, just as David did, Lady Alisoun was consumed with emotions . . . but she had so successfully learned how to suppress those emotions that nobody could even tell she had them. Alisoun fought back against the men ruling her world in the only way she knew how -- with a superior intellect, a sharp tongue (even though every word that issued from her mouth came out in the most even of tones), and a judicious use of her wealth.

Story Line: 4.00:
A unique twist on the Brave Knight saving the Damsel In Distress. This damsel was so accomplished that she was, basically, the CEO of her demesne. A master at suppressing her feelings, Lady Alisoun managed her estates and people with a firm hand, keeping things on an even keel, and performing her responsibilities without fail. Because she had a heightened sense of right and wrong, she agreed to protect her best friend and was, therefore, suffering the consequences. Enter the aged, but legendary knight. Who, rather than saving her people from the villain, decided to save them from the lack on joy permeating their lives.

Action: 3.50:
The story was slowly paced because daily medieval activities were featured instead of exciting actions scenes. Dodd included enough action to keep the characters enlivened.

Emotion: 5.00:
Dodd successfully developed an emotional connection between the reader and these complex protagonists and their supporting cast members to bring forth lots of laughter and moments of tears.

Romance: 4.50:
There was plenty of romance featured in the book, but it was incredibly subtle. Dodd forced the reader to look beneath Alisoun's cold, emotionless mask to find the woman that was yearning for love -- just as was her young charge, Lady Edlyn. David looked hard and found that love.

Suspense: 3.50:
Dodd left bold blatant hints about why Lady Alisoun and her villagers were endangered so that isn't want generated an aura of suspense in this story. Rather one kept reading to see if Alisoun was ever going to trust David with her secrets and her heart and how the entire scenario was going to play out. Because, naturally, eventually David and Alisoun were going to have to prove themselves strong and capable to defeat the bad guy.

Sensuous: 1.00:
An older romance (published in 1996). Thus, the sensuality and heat was minimal during the rare scenes when David and Alisoun made love.

Historical Flavor: 4.70:
Dodd did a great job taking the reader back in time. She included plenty of historical details about the villagers and their lifestyles and painted a realistic picture of how the men and women of 1252 England comported themselves. No glaring errors of modernistic language or actions invaded the story.

Secondary Characters: 3.50:
Although the secondary characters were vital to the telling of this story, they were not as richly developed as one could have hoped. The secondary characters that were the most entertaining and memorable were: {1} Eudo, the eleven year old page assigned to be David's squire while at George's Cross; {2} Bertrade "Bert" of Radcliffe, David's beloved daughter; and {3} King Louis, David's incredibly astute and strong-willed warhorse. Additional secondary characters included: {1} Sir Walter, the steward of George's Cross; {2} Lady Edlyn, the young lady Alisoun was fostering; {3} Philippa, Alisoun's ladies maid; {4} Hugh de Florisoun, a squire training for knighthood; {5} Ivo, Alisoun's man-at-arms; {6} Gunnewatte, Alisoun's man-at-arms; {7} Sir Guy of Archers, David's comrade; and {8j} Osbern, duke of Framlingford, the king's cousin.

A more in-depth, detailed, spoiler-ridden review of *Once A Knight* appears at Wolf Bear Does Books (http://goo.gl/JYEFMe). ( )