A very strange woman and a very odd man fall in love in a world crumbling and cruel, magical without magic, and romantic in spite of itself. With Middle English! I can't do it justice in a review, so I'll just say that there's nothing else quite like it. ( )

more to come once thoughts have simmered longer, initial thoughts: as I have said in updates, the sense of time and space is just excellent and I love Kinsale's characters - like top-notch intrigue! Buttttt as for the plots - of which there are always too many (for me, I should specify) - those intricate threads tend to be wasted on me. BUT! I look forward to reading Shadowheart because I am fascinated by Allegretto (yes, I am aware of all the CWs for Shadowheart). ( )

Un joven caballero empuñará su espada para defender el honor de una bella y misteriosa princesa —arriesgando incluso su vida por el amor que arde entre ellos.
Ruck, un invencible caballero inglés, estuvo a punto de perder la vida a los diecisiete años... hasta que la princesa Melanthe, miembro de los Monteverde, una poderosa familia italiana, le rescató. Desde ese día se prometió a sí mismo que sería leal a su salvadora. Pero Gian, el patriarca de otra poderosa familia, los Navona, había planeado casarse con Melanthe con el objeto de unir los dos reinos, y juró matar a cualquiera que se interpusiera en su camino.
Trece años más tarde, Ruck vuelve a encontrarse con Melanthe. Ella está huyendo de Gian y el apuesto caballero jura protegerla hasta que se encuentre sana y salva. Muy pronto entre ambos nacerá un intenso amor que tendrá que superar muchos obstáculos para poder tener un final feliz.

3 stars for the book, 5 for the narration by Nicholas Boulton. I had trouble getting into this one until it finally got to the lists. Overall, however, I did not like Melanthe at all. I still don't know why Ruck loves her, and I don't understand how their relationship could possibly work with all the lies she has told him. Both of them have a tendency to be noble idiots, as well as idiots in general. The demise of the villain is a bit anticlimactic, but it's clear that the author wanted it to be so. I still would have liked him to have suffered. My favorite parts were the fight scenes, which were unfortunately few and far between.

(To everyone saying that the book is in Middle English: it is not. It has some modernized spellings of Middle English words. Granted, we still use some Middle English words (e.g., "napkin" is Middle English: it means "little cloth"). It also has an epigraph that is truly written in Middle English, with a modern translations below it. If this book were actually written in Middle English, only scholars of the language and the occasional linguist or historian would be able to read the whole book because Middle English literally has letters and diphthongs that we no longer use (e.g., ȝ [yogh], þ [thorn], ð [eth], æ [ash]). Kinsale just used authentic words for the time and modernized them. That's all. *End Rant*) ( )

What! I finished a book? In a record six weeks?

Settle down. Settle down.

I don't think I'd like this book as much as a did if not for the Boulton factor. If not for the Allegretto. If not for Kinsale's usual one asshole protagonist.

Because, whew, Ruck was a little TOO devoted. Read: boring. He saved himself there right at the end. Melanthe is mean, and a weird combination of vulnerable and commanding and insecure.

Basically, I didn't get them. Still convinced of their love...because Kinsale, but despite all that it's likely my least favorite, skirting by on the high action sequences (wonderfully written and performed), the intriguing subplot, and a falcon.

So that is that. I'm looking forward to the next story, but I am going to wait a bit. ( )