Knight of Nights by Karin Kallmaker is a Medieval, historical romance with some fantasy elements that shows that fated love will always find a way.
Lady Kristine entered into a marriage of convenience a long time ago. She is now left in charge of the clan and the lands while her husband and oldest son sail off on a dangerous crusade. She gets word that the local green woman is in danger so rides with aid to her rescue. She is surprised that when she arrives the green woman already has a protector, A knight with no memory of where she’s come from or whom she belongs to. This axe-wielding knight of the kind that Lady Kristine has never met.
Magic is in the air and these two hearts are drawn together under the moonlight and star fire.
Writing
The writing in this book is truly wonderful. It instantly transported me to another time and place. Kallmaker has a talent for ensuring that you get lost in her stories, her language and descriptions of this medieval world ensured I was engulfed in the book and helped me picture everything as the story unfolded. It’s beautiful and otherworldly and had me swept up in the moment.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
I got lost in this book. The author had me invested in the main characters from the start.
Skyra is a knight, only she has no idea where she’s from or where she is. She is plagued by vague memories that are just out of reach. After finding herself in the care of a healing woman she is at a loss as to what to do and where to go. After coming face to face with Lady Kristine she feels a strong force that urges her to be by her side, how can she feel this strongly about her when they’ve only just met?
Lady Kristine has never been in love. Her husband rules the lands she is currently the ‘lady’ of and it’s her duty to be at his side. That doesn’t mean that Lady Kristine is any type of damsel in distress though, in fact, she has managed to bring the clan into more wealth than they’ve ever known and has ensured that sickness among children and the elders is as low as possible.
When these ladies meet you can feel the love between them from the start, they are each other’s destiny, and although neither of them understands it, and both know it’s dangerous there is little they can do to stop it.
I love how Lady Kristine and Skyra manage the circumstances they are in and find a way around it, in order to be together. The fated love aspect of this book is very well done and left me all happy and gooey inside. I also loved how against all odds Kristine and Skyra managed to find a way to be together and let their love grow. The ending is wonderful and filled my heart with hope and love.
Heads Up
Arranged, forced marriage that fits with the times. The memory of the loss of a child during childbirth but no in-depth description
The Conclusion
This book is a dreamy read despite the heavy issue of Lady Kristine being stuck in an arranged marriage. The plot of fated love is beautiful and will give you all those warm and fuzzy feelings, it’s so romantic. After I’d finished reading it, I felt thoroughly happy and satisfied.
If you like historical fantasy romance then this one is for you. I’ve been on a reading spree of these types of books lately and this one didn’t disappoint. It is written beautifully and has lots of that otherworldly language in it that helps transport you to another time and place. I curled up in my favourite reading spot and once I started, I couldn’t put it down. It’s not a long novel which meant I could plough through it easily, but the content is strong, and it moves at a fast pace with little anguish and lots of dreamy declarations of love.
Excerpt from Knight of Nights by Karin Kallmaker
There was smoke in the air. Please let it not be the holding and trees, Kirstine prayed. The wind blew back her unpinned hood. She’d no sooner pulled it back into place than long-hanging leaves brushed it from her head again. Ahead, very close, she heard the clang of iron on iron and pleased laughter.
Lachie, in the front, urged his gray to high speed and they thundered into the grove.
“Drummoch!” Egann and the others took up Lachie’s battle cry. Lachie banked left, and she followed. When he suddenly reined his gray to a stop, she veered around him and pulled her mare to a halt.
Their battle cry trailed off in confusion.
Breathing hard, Kirstine tried to make sense of the scene.
The smoke came from a fire set in one of the huts. The flames lit the clearing in front of the cottage. A burly man lay groaning on the ground, bleeding from a gash to the shoulder. Another four men — hayforks, axes, and a sword aloft — surrounded a tall figure with its back to the fire and casting a long shadow.
This armored man, near tall as Lachie, carried a bright shield with no flag or sigil Kirstine recognized, and spun a long battle-axe in one hand as it if were a feather. The knight’s armor shone gold head-to-toe in the firelight, dazzling Kirstine’s eyes to the point of tears.
The tallest of the attackers — the one with the sword — glanced in alarm at the arrival of mounted soldiers but nevertheless advanced with a swing of his sword in fresh attack on the knight.
Even as Egann yelled, “Hold!” the knight parried the swing with a swipe of the shield. For a moment Kirstine thought that long, double-headed axe would lop off the man’s arm, but the knight instead used momentum to hook the attacker’s ankle with the sharp toe of an iron-covered boot. The man thumped to the ground full on his back and bellowed an oath new to Kirstine.
Kirstine heard the laughter again. It was the golden knight who laughed.
“Hold, I said!” Egann eased his sword from its scabbard. “In the name of Lord Drummoch, drop your weapons.”
The villagers complied.
The knight did not.
In a voice made hoarse by the smoke, the knight said, “I do not know this lord of yours.”
“You shall.”
“Lachlann, no,” Kirstine began, but he was already off his horse.
While Egann’s men herded the attackers into a huddle on the ground, Lachie eased his sword from its scabbard as he walked slowly toward the knight. “You’ll throw down your weapon before my lady or you’ll see your arm in the mud next to it.”
The knight laughed outright — oh, the wrong thing to do.
“You’ve no disagreement,” Kirstine called out. “Lachlann, desist.”
He ignored her. “Drop your weapon.”
She appealed to Egann. “Stop this.”
“Yon knight can stop it by dropping that axe. A nasty-looking piece,” he added with grudging admiration.
Lachie paused just out of reach of a full swing of the gleaming axe. “Does that weapon of yours have a name?”
“None that you need know.”
Lachie spun his sword so the blade sung in the night air. “This is Dread-Mordad, and it is pleased to meet you.”
“I’m glad to know what to call it when I claim it from you.”
“Last chance,” Lachie warned.
“Please do as they say,” she called to the knight, who could have no idea of Lachie’s deadly skills. He was no ill-armed villager on the wrong side of too much ale. “Please!”
The knight’s attention was diverted to Kirstine for only a moment, and Lachie took advantage of it, bringing his sword up with his left hand this time. That he used both hands equally often surprised opponents. Kirstine had heard Dread-Mordad whistle through the air when Lachie was at practice, and it whistled now toward the arm holding the knight’s shield.
She expected the knight to stagger, fall to one knee, and surrender. That did not happen. Instead, the blow skidded along the shield’s surface, accompanied by another laugh sure to make Lachie even angrier.
Ping and shriek, clang and clatter, sword on armor on axe on shield. Her voice too tight to do more than gasp, she tried to tell Egann again to stop them, but he stood transfixed at the spectacle of Lachlann the Beardless, the Fairhair Galrandel, matched blow for blow by an unknown knight.
The knight no longer laughed. Kirstine saw only grim intent in the clean-shaved face behind the helm — an intent equal to Lachie’s. Helplessness threatened to choke her. There was no victory in this, only senseless waste.
Lachie stumbled back from a hard strike from the broadside of the knight’s axe and nearly fell. She could not afford to lose him. Nor this knight, who had come to a Green Woman’s aid. Gallant and powerful, clearly a better ally than enemy.
There was a burning in her bodice as her heart pounded. As with the harp last night, she suddenly felt held up by chanting voices. The words were foreign, yet she understood.
Are these not your lands? Is their blood not your blood?
Indeed, she realized. Why did she expect someone other than her to intercede?
A wave of calm rose inside her. She began to urge her mare toward the combatants, but something touched her knee. With a gasp she saw that Breda was offering her a hefty bucket of water. With a laugh of her own, Kirstine seized the handle, urged her mare again toward the fight, stood in the stirrups, and flung the contents over both combatants. She tossed the heavy bucket at Lachie’s head for good measure.
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Series: The Coin of Love
Knight of Knights
Wind in Her Hair
Checked Out
Bits and Bobs
AISN number: B0BNMCLR5N
Publisher: Romance and Chocolate Ink
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