Jocelyn Kelley, My Lady Knight

My Lady Knight

Jocelyn Kelley

Signet, January 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0451220099

Queen Eleanor launched a special facility in which young women with skills can train in case Her Highness needs their help. Three times the Queen called on student-residents of St. Jude's Abbey, and each time they accomplished the mission. However, that was years ago, before her husband, King Henry II locked Eleanor away. Since her imprisonment over twelve years ago, she has not sent any messages to the abbey.

Research herbalist Isabella de Monfort seeks to create a mixture that can create a limited manageable explosion, but still manages to blow up the barn. Before she can see what went wrong, the Abbess sends for her, as Queen Eleanor needs a calm, pragmatic logical thinker. Isabella must locate a casket somewhere in the Lincoln area, where inside Eleanor left some critical documents; she must bring these documents to Eleanor within a month or else. The abbess assigns her nephew, Lord Jordan le Courtenay to help Isabella on her quest, while completing his own to bury his friend Sir Ryce de Dolan in sacred grounds rather than unconsecrated turf he is currently interred under. As they fall in love, the pair are shocked to find the buried Ryce with a dagger belonging to "the Brotherhood" amongst his bones.

The fourth Queen Eleanor female Knights tale is, like the previous ones (see MOONLIT KNIGHT, A KNIGHT LIKE NO OTHER and ONE KNIGHT STAND), a delightful late twelfth century romantic intrigue starring a wonderful unique heroine and the aristocrat who falls in love with her when their quests merge. The storyline is action-packed, as the Brotherhood is coming for the dagger, and killing two witnesses is no problem for them. The lead couple are a delightful pairing of intelligent logical thinkers who prove that two brains are better than one, as they need to use all their combined intelligence to survive.