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I’m not a fan of time-travels, mostly because they rarely work, are often confusing, and the method and purpose of the time-travel is either unclear or badly done. Angie Ray’s A Knight to Cherish is a pleasant exception that I enjoyed very much.
Shy and pretty Francine Peabody has a good job as an accountant, a solid fiancé named Stuart, a cat named Bentley, and a neighbor, the elderly Mrs. Annie Rappaport, who has an agenda of her own. One night, Mrs. Rappaport gives Francine an emerald necklace and makes an odd request of Francine: Go to England in the year 1214 and civilize mankind. Thinking the old lady senile, Francine politely declines. But Annie thinks Francine is perfect for the task, so, in the blink of an eye, Francine finds herself sitting in the middle of a fairy ring while two men on horseback thunder down on her, intent on doing her bodily harm. But the knaves are driven off by a huge, smelly, bearded man on a destrier who scoops her up, takes her back to his castle, where he strips off her clothes and leaves her bare naked and shivering to wonder just what in the world is going on.
Lord Garrick Sinclair rightly assumes that Lady Anne, a time-traveling sorceress who has put a spell on him, has brought Francine to him in the hopes that he will marry the young woman (for two years, Anne has paraded likely young ladies before him, but Garrick has scoffed at them all). Garrick’s survival, and the future of his people, depends on his marriage to a ward of King John’s, and nothing will deter him from his course. Not even the, um, “problem” Anne has settled on him as a punishment for his bawdy ways and his rejection of true love.
Lady Anne/Annie Rappaport told Francine she could return to her own time by sitting in the fairy circle and holding the emerald ring, but that it wouldn’t work until she had accomplished the task of civilizing mankind. Finally accepting the fact she has indeed traveled to 13th Century England, Francine sets about the job, intent on getting home in time to be married to her beloved Stuart.
At first, things don’t go very well for Francine, but she finally figures out a way to make the knights see things her way: food and sex. By promising them a new meal called breakfast, and convincing them that taking baths and shaving will get them girls, the rough and stinky knights begin the civilization process, much to the resistant Garrick’s dismay.
Angie Ray has depicted medieval Europe in a much more realistic way than one usually sees in a romance novel. For example, a celebrated beauty who is trying to seduce Garrick smiles – showing crooked, yellow teeth. The castle women bathe together and not one of them is a stick-thin supermodel, but are built like real women, and Francine is astonished to find total acceptance of each woman’s less-than-perfect body by the others. Garrick’s reason for insisting he must marry the king’s ward rings true given the time in which he lives and the responsibility he feels toward those under his protection.
There is a lot of humor in this book. Francine’s advice to the ladies at court on how to relieve their husband’s aches and pains is hysterical. And one of the funniest scenes occurs when virgin Francine, believing Garrick is a virgin, too, tries to help him with his “problem.” The dialogue is sweet and gentle and Garrick, so unyielding to Francine’s innocent charms, finds himself falling in love in spite of himself.
There are more than a few loose ends that don’t get tied up (and some are tied up a little too conveniently), plus some of Francine’s efforts early on were trying (she was smart enough to have figured out where the real challenge lay, but had to be told later on). There are some nice surprises in A Knight to Cherish and Garrick’s own back-story answers some questions, but raises others. Also, I thought the ending a bit abrupt. None of these things, however, is bothersome enough for me to discourage anybody from enjoying this book.
Francine and Garrick are perfect for each other. If those nagging problems had been fixed, this book would have had the makings of a Keeper. Francine is a nice heroine – sweet, well-intended, determined, naïve – and Garrick is not only smart and brave, his heart’s in the right place, even if he doesn’t believe he has one. Angie Ray has pitted modern thinking with medieval sensibilities and the results are funny and serious and, for the most part, realistic. I believed it really could happen this way.
Read carefully or you’ll miss some of the more subtle humor, but do read it. You’ll find that A Knight to Cherish really is.
Grade: B
Book Type: Time Travel Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 16/08/99
Publication Date: 1999
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.