A Medieval Romance (The Sword of Glastonbury Series Book 1)

I should have known by the title, but the reviews convinced me to buy it anyway. This story was so ridiculous I cannot even begin to tell you how ridiculous it was. They used modern phrases and terms and there is absolutely no hint of the correct historical context. The time period was set so that the plot device of marriage could be used, but the way people spoke and behaved with absolutely modern. There is no understanding of the class differences, no understanding of the history, and no understanding of the overall historical structures that make a story realistic. There wasn't even any discussion of the clothing in terms of how it could restrict or result in certain activities....... for example, how could the heroine jump on a horse and ride off in a long gown? And why would a bunch of upperclassmen simply respond to a servant telling them "let's get off our butts and get out there"? Really? Really? Just ridiculous

This well-written romance was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. I enjoyed the yarn as well as the author's cleanly executed craft. Gripping plot and clear characters were tightly drawn with colorful images. You will enjoy this romantic swashbuckling romp.

The storyline was very clever, and for the most part, the writing was good. But the modern phrasing was a big turn off. Things like "I'm on it" and "you know it." The worst was "You're just upset about that love tap I gave your girlfriend." Really? They said things like that? And when they catch the evil traitor, do they act "medieval" and kill the jerk? Nope. They let him go, as long as he promises never to do it again. I like my historical romance to actually be a bit historical. This book was not.

I get that this author wants desperately to portray women in a strong, empowered light, but this story was just too fantastic. The heroine was a essentially a medieval super hero and nearly all the men vying for her hand were comic book villains. The author wants to have it both ways -- she wants to convince the reader that women running around doing "male" jobs is a perfectly common occurrence due to the exigencies of the time, but then she sets up a stupid contest where the major hurdle the suitors must surmount is whether or not they can handle a woman doing these "male" jobs that is so common of the period. So, why not put it to all potential suitors that the woman for whose hand they are vying is competent, capable, and in charge of her keep. Weed out all the sexists to start. Character development was not good. Heroine was not believable as a mere maid who manages to be in charge of so many things. If you have a lot of time on your hands to waste and enjoy doing it on fantasy stories with poorly developed plots and characters, by all means, you will likely LOVE this offering with the HEA ending. Oh, yah, for you lovers of the paranormal, there's about a 1/2 page of paranormal at the very beginning that then has no meaning for the story until the very end - another half page at best, that is nothing more than the flimsiest tie to the next book in this lame series. Weak, weak, weak.

I have to agree with the other reviewers who gave this book only one or two stars. I have never read this author before and I won't read any more of her books. With all of her so-called research, you would think she could have produced a half way believable book. Not so. This book is a complete and utter waste of time. It in no way resembles a credible medieval story.

I kept reading this because the main character was a strong female, and I appreciated the author's intent in that regard. The writing was clear of typos so I can't fault it for that. However, I stopped reading shortly before the end because I just didn't care enough to finish it. The story takes place in some undetermined place and time where women are left alone by their fathers to chose their own partner and to run and defend their own castle (and for some reason decide to actually take away the extra guards knowing that an attack would be a possibility). Ok, I can suspend my disbelief long enough to imagine this takes place in some fantasy land.

But if it's supposed to be a medieval setting, as the title implies, I expect to at least see more formal writing and formal speech. So many cliches and modern terms pull a reader out of the story. I'm going to list some of the obviously modern colloquialisms because I see that the author has disputed comments on previous reviews - "a full time job if ever there was one" (prior to the development of labour unions this notion likely wouldn't have been common), "call it a night", "top dog", "roughed up", "true colors", "sugar coating" (sugar was extremely rare and expensive in the Medieval period, so this term would not have existed), "status quo", "infected" (awareness of germs isn't even really a thing until the 1500s, and wasn't even accepted by many scientists until the 1800s), "pay up", "back-up plan", "the party begins", "give it your best shot", "mow you down", and so on. The fact that some of these things didn't exist in the medieval period made me question the author's knowledge of the time period.

The characters, especially the suitors, are very two-dimensional, and it makes for a rather predictable outcome. The main male character is also not terribly bright, since he had no idea that the main female character was tricking them into thinking she was a maid instead of the lady they were fighting for. On several occasions it would have been obvious, and indeed, the bad guy figures it out long before the MC is actually told - and much to my disappointment he appears surprised even then.

The trick the sisters play on the men is a little juvenile and the by the end of it I just didn't care enough about any of them to made it through the last twenty pages. I give it 3 stars because the writing is fine and the intent was good, but it was lacking the research, the realism, and complex characters - and character development - that makes a story interesting.

This was a fun, entertaining, humorous tale of finding a husband in medieval times. There's intrigue, good vs evil, loyalty, family values. It's a great fairytale plot (so absurd it's not quite believable) and it's well written. It was hard to put down.

Strong heroine through adversity searches for her HEA.

Good plot, great melodramatic, clever, calculating characters, a little over the top, easy read. However, as others have stated modern language and a guy running around with a wax tablet ... really.

If you're looking for a period piece keep searching.

The storyline was a great idea. The dramatic characters were annoying. The author should've done her research on the way Medieval people spoke...a lot of this book was almost half-written in modern times. At one point a character said "That's quite a shiner." and " I want 8 kids..." that was a big turn off for me.

Hot headed thoughtless girl apparently feels no pain and has capacities to stride purposefully, run, and distance jump despite several bad sword wounds in both legs...really??? And of course all the men vying for her hand are truly repellent except the hero, who by the way, never gets so much as a paper cut. If you must, read it as a comedy of impossibly ridiculous characters.

Oh brother! Boring and annoying! The author dragged out the story to such an extent that I found myself skimming down big sections at a time! The fact the Kay suffered injury upon injury didn't help either rather than elevate her as the heroine it made her seem more like a fumbling fool!