Kathleen Creighton

One More Knight is a heartfelt, emotional story of a woman's journey back to the home town to which she swore she would never return twenty years before and her efforts to overcome the pain of the past. I had really enjoyed the first book in the The Sisters Waskowitz series, but as good as it was, I don't think it prepared me for how lovely and poignant this book would be. Kathleen Creighton has a beautiful way with words. She's very talented at describing the settings and gestures of the show more characters in a detailed and almost poetic way which really drew me into the story. She is not only great at setting the scene, but also the mood and tone which wonderfully conveys the emotion and tension that Charly felt as she faced down her demons. I also liked the way that the story of why Charly left her hometown twenty years ago unfolded slowly through her teenage diary entries from that time. It perfectly complimented the events of the present day and kept me reading to find out exactly what had happened.

Charly is a smart, independent woman who has worked hard for the past twenty years to become a successful attorney. She always felt that she had to make something of herself before she could return to Mourning Spring. Although she thinks that she has tamped down the pain of giving her baby up for adoption all those years ago, coming “back home” nearly devastates her, especially after she sees a photo of the young man who she knows in her heart is the son she left behind. On top of that, facing her father after all this time, makes her feel like the same confused, sixteen year-old all over again. In spite of having a stubborn, independent streak in her, Charly never irritated me like some heroines who fit this description would. I think this was because she was still smart enough to realize when she needed help. She also exhibited a great deal of vulnerability, and even though it scared her and was a foreign feeling to have someone else take care of her, she slowly allowed Troy into her life and willingly turned herself over to his very capable hands.

Troy is a fabulous hero. If it weren't for the fact that he's an ex-Navy SEAL, I'd have him pegged as a beta like his brother, Jimmy Joe. Troy is just a really nice guy who seems to enjoy helping others out and would do almost anything for anybody. What he thought was a simple mission to rescue his future sister-in-law's maid of honor turns into something more very quickly. Troy has been feeling rather lonely, watching his brother so happy with his soon-to-be wife, so he's quite open to the idea that he might have just found his own lady love even if she does come with a lot of baggage. He truly does become Charly's knight in shining armor, riding to her rescue at a time in her life when everything was falling apart and she needed him the most. I like how Troy isn't all that concerned with how Charly looks, but instead is drawn in by her eyes and all the pain he sees mirrored there. He is very intuitive to figure out that there is more going on in Charly's life than what he can see on the surface and what she's initially telling him. I love how he just wants to be there for her to ease her heartache and occasionally just sweeps in and takes over, but in a gentle, non-threatening way. Troy just always has Charly's back and is looking out for her well-being. I also thoroughly enjoyed his interactions with his pup, Bubba. The man is obviously a dog lover.:-)

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about the future of this couple's relationship when they had sex the first night they met. This usually isn't my favorite plot device, but in this case, I at least understood that Charly was feeling vulnerable and didn't want to be alone after experiencing one of the worst days of her life. Troy, for his part, was feeling a little lonely too, and being a man, wasn't about to turn down a willing, passionate woman. There is a part of me that wishes the story could have been drawn out over a longer period of time. The bulk of it takes place in only a few days, so the romance is definitely played as love at first sight. Again this is something I typically have a hard time buying into, but somehow the author pulled it off and by the end, I believed Troy and Charly did love each other very much. I liked how Troy held back later on, wanting their love-making to be more than just something to ease Charly's pain. Ms. Creighton also slowed things down a bit between them and allowed them to have some really intimate moments where they were able to share their hearts with one another. I found the late-night picnic in the park to be thoroughly romantic.

One More Knight had some strong secondary characters. It was fun seeing Jimmy Joe and Mirabella (One Christmas Knight) again. I love that they're still so happy together and about to be married. Charly's father, her son, and her old housekeeper, the woman who raised her and was like a mother to her, were all well-written supporting players. I liked how everything came together in the end to give this family a happy ending that tugged on my heartstrings. It just goes to show that HEAs aren't just for the hero and heroine. There is also a little preview of Mirabella's sisters, Summer and Eve, who become the heroines of the next two books in the series, One Summer's Knight and Eve's Wedding Knight, as well as mention of a couple of Troy's siblings, Roy and Joy Lynn, who are featured in the spin-off Starrs of the West series.

Overall, One More Knight was a touching, small-town, family drama mingled with a sweet romance. Considering the shorter Silhouette length, I thought the author did a great job with the character and plot development. I just couldn't help but become invested in their lives and the outcome. My only minor complaint would be that Charly's friend Colin's secret was never revealed in so many words unless I missed something important. I think maybe it was one of those read between the lines kind of things that I'm sometimes good at and sometimes not. I have my theories, but was a little disappointed that it wasn't revealed in a way in which I could confirm my suspicions. Other than that, this was a truly lovely story that I'll be placing on my keeper shelf, and I'm looking forward to continuing the series. show less

A very odd book. It's marketed as a romance - and it does end up with the two main characters going for Happy Ever After together...but it's much more a study of PTSD and how (and how not) to handle it. Navy flier shot down over Iraq, presumed dead and held for eight years until he's accidentally (as a side effect of another mission) rescued. His wife and daughter have both grown up considerably since he was 'lost'; they all three have a lot of problems dealing with that simple fact. A lot show more about how he feels unclean because of the way he was treated; how his physical weakness translates into emotional weakness and he's fighting it; how he's looking for his old place in their lives and it's not there any more. The romance is kind of an afterthought - all the proper elements are there, they're just not front-and-center. Interesting book but I don't think I'll want to re-read it. show less

The March 2025 #TBRChallenge is “Rizz,” which is apparently slang for “charisma.” I had no idea this word required slang, but here we are. I have been in something of a meh reading rut, so I chose to go to my Loveswept collection for this month's prompt.

This book certainly looked intriguing enough, with its former-Olympic-gold-medalist swimmer hunk of a hero, and a heroine who used puppets in her work. As it happens, she is a social worker with the county, and uses her puppets in her show more work with traumatized and abused children. She has empathy for them on many levels, as she herself has some unresolved issues about her body, her place in the world, and of course her fear of water. I thought Maddy had a lot of potential as a heroine, lots of interesting facets to explore, but unfortunately the truncated category length stifled much of this.

Maddy, like every other girl her age (25 at the start of the book) worshipped the golden boy Zach London, who was competing at the Olympics when she was a mere tween. He won some medals and lots of fame/celebrity because of that, up to and including the proverbial Wheaties box. We're never really told how old Zach is, but apparently enough time has passed that he isn't instantly recognizable anymore and can teach swim classes at the local public pool without groupies crowding around to swoon.

Maddy gathers her courage and signs up for beginner's swim class, but a mistake means that she's put in a children's class. She feels even more awkward than usual because she's so tall, especially next to a bunch of "babies." She finds instant comradery with the kid closest to her, a little girl named Theresa who clings to her with shyness. Zach tries to send Maddy away, thinking she's a child's mother, which only embarrasses her further. She manages to get into the pool with the kids, but faints fairly quickly, necessitating her removal from the pool and the class. Zach takes her into the office, she realizes who he is, they trade some fairly cute banter. Realizing there isn't an adult beginning class at the pool, Zach offers to give Maddy private swimming lessons - and who is she to turn down private lessons with an Olympian?!

The two further bond over Theresa, who has some telltale signs that maybe all is not right in her world; indeed, at the next lesson, Zach summons Maddy to the pool because Theresa is sporting a black eye and an angry parent hurrying her along to the car. Both Maddy and Zach inexplicably fall in love with this child and decide to rescue her; they report the abuse to the county DHS and each want to adopt her, even though they are both single and have no other children of their own. Maddy resents Zach's desire to adopt Theresa, believing he will have a better chance at winning custody because of Who He Is (how we can tell it's 1986: a single man wanting to adopt a strange little girl would not fly in 2025), but does she tell him? No.

The two have some ~sensuous~ time in the water in the guise of lessons, and both vie for Theresa's attention (she is a remarkably well-adjusted child, considering her parents are dead and her aunt/uncle don't want her and readily relinquish her to be a ward of the court). They are also Fighting Pants Feelings because this *is* a Loveswept book, after all.

Maddy has to face her fear of water, and Zach has his own somber memories to move past (his wife and child are dead before the book opens). It's a very sweet story, but ultimately feels rushed. Maddy's reasons for avoiding water are finally uncovered, and she basically overcomes it in two? lessons. Zack seems to understand that he can't push Maddy too much, but damned if he doesn't spend a good part of the second half of the book yelling at her: for canceling her lessons, for avoiding him, for Doing Stupid Things and Causing Him to Worry. This is supposed to show that he cares for her and wants to protect her, but it really goes over like a lead balloon for me, unfortunately. He also proposes to Maddy because he believes being married will give him a better chance of adopting Theresa (how romantic). He also loves Maddy, but does he bother to tell her? No, of course not, he just lets her believe the worst.

Other problematic elements include the whole subplot to adopt Theresa and how easily it resolves - I mean, I am not someone who generally comments on ~privilege~ in fiction, but it just reeks here. Two strangers, who meet Theresa at a public swimming lesson, end up being able to adopt her via a private transfer of custody in less than 30 days, basically because they are young, white, and affluent. Yay for happy endings, I suppose, but it is pretty cringe-inducing nonetheless.

Still, problematic elements aside, I enjoyed this book. It's pretty quiet and sweet, which is a pleasant surprise for this particular line. I'd definitely read this author again. I also wouldn't be surprised if I discovered that she eventually pivoted to inspirational and/or women's fiction. show less

One Christmas Knight is a sweet, gentle romance that was analogous to the biblical story of Mary and Joseph. It features an “immaculate” conception and a heroine who is stranded by a snowstorm in a town filled with other travelers and “no room at the inn.” Ultimately, she gives birth on Christmas night in the back of a semi-truck named The Blue Starr with no one to help but the hero. This was yet another of the love-at-first-sight stories that seem to be so common in the romances show more I've read, but at least the author created a credible emotional bond between the characters by having them share a rather extraordinary experience together. Afterward, they separated for a little while, giving them both a chance to make sure that their feeling for each other were real, and not just the result of an emotional high. These things made the story somewhat more believable to me. The book had lots of descriptive passages and introspection on the part of both Mirabella and Jimmy Joe which made the narrative move at a languid but steady pace. I think the pace could have been picked up a bit, perhaps with the inclusion of a little more dialog, and it might have been nice if the couple would have had a little more interaction and “getting-to-know-you” time following the big event before committing to a lifetime together, but overall, I don't really have any major complaints about the storytelling.

The hero, Jimmy Joe was really the best part of One Christmas Knight. He certainly was a “knight in shining armor,” a sweet, sensitive beta hero who was also a perfect Southern gentleman. I liked him so much it made me want to make a trip down south to see what I've been missing.;-) Jimmy Joe was a devoted single father who had know the pain of loss in his life which made him very sympathetic. His career as a long-haul truck driver and all the fun trucker lingo brought back fond memories of a kind truck driver who “rescued” my mother and I many years ago when our car was stranded by the side of the same highway in the story, and I also have an uncle who also used to be in that same line of work. I think having had these experiences in my life made Jimmy Joe seem more real to me, but it was truly just his charming nature, patience, gentleness and intuitiveness with Mirabella that made him irresistible to me.

On the other hand, I wasn't quite as quick to warm up to Mirabella. It wasn't that I actually disliked her, but I can't say that I enthusiastically liked her either. I think it was just that she was a little too stubborn and independent for my taste, often acting like she absolutely didn't need a man in her life at all. I'm fine with career-minded women who wait until later in life for relationships and family. In fact, I thought that Bella wanting to wait for Mr. Right (but never finding him) was admirable, but what bothered me about her was that she seemed to need to be in control too much. It was in the moments when she was able to let go and be a little bit vulnerable, when Jimmy Joe was able to break through her barriers, that I liked her more. Also, for such an obstinate woman she seemed to say, “I can't” a little too often, which is something that Jimmy Joe humorously pointed out to her at one point. In the end, I still thought that Mirabella and Jimmy Joe were as different as oil and water. It was difficult to see how they were going to “mix,” but I guess opposites attract all the time. I just usually like my heroes and heroines to have a bit more in common, though I'll have to say that readers who enjoy May-December romances with an older heroine should like this one.

One Christmas Knight is the first book in The Sisters Waskowitz series. It introduces Mirabella's best friend, Charly, who becomes the heroine of the next book, One More Knight, in which she is paired with Troy Starr, who I think may be one of Jimmy Joe's brothers, though I don't believe he was mentioned by name in this book. Also, Mirabella's two sisters, Sommer and Eve, the heroines of the other two books in the series, One Summer's Knight and Eve's Wedding Knight, receive a brief mention. In addition, One Christmas Knight spawned a spin-off series, The Starrs of the West, which features other members of Jimmy Joe's family as heroes and heroines. One Christmas Knight was a light, easy novel that was a nice way to wrap up my holiday reading. It was my first book by Kathleen Creighton, and I liked it well enough to explore other books from both series in the future. show less