Son of the Morning

If you have ever been curious about the Knights Templar, this book is an interesting piece of fiction. Though I don't like time travel romance (there are just some things that love is not going to bridge...the cultural differences of people 200 years apart is probably one of them), I did enjoy the intrigue and suspense in SOTM. The story line is appealing and the historical references compelling, but I still wasn't happy with the book at the end. I had more questions than warm fuzzy feelings.

This book is so good that you almost don't notice that the hero and heroine don't spend much time together. I love watching her survive on the run after her husband and brother are killed and watching her figure out what is going on. This book is a page turner and the love between the hero and heroine is sweet and hot even if there isn't much of it.

Grace St. John works for a private archaeological foundation as a translator and interpreter of old documents. Her latest project is a cache of 14th century documents about the Knights Templar and a mysterious powerful treasure that completely fascinate and baffle her - but she never would have considered that someone would be willing to commit murder to get their hands on them. When she and her family are targeted by those hungry for the power the legend promises, Grace needs all of her wits to survive and discover the truth behind the Templars' secret and the mysterious connection she feels with its fierce guardian, Black Niall.

This is another one of those books where the blurb on the back really gives away too much about stuff that show more doesn't happen until the last third or so. A pity, too, because the writing would otherwise make the first half of the book (puzzling out the identity and secrets) much more suspenseful and intriguing (think the page-turning quality of the Da Vinci Code, but with better writing).

The technology is a bit dated, the romantic side of things seemed a bit rushed to me (but I was expecting a romance), and the major premise requires some pretty serious suspension of disbelief - but I knew that from the beginning. After all, I personally ran across this in a time-travel thread - and it says that on the back of the book too. But the book was gripping and a lot darker than I had expected. Suspense abounded, some of it downright heart-pounding. And it's about the Templars - I LOVE the Templars. So I thought it was a good read - though one that I would put in the airplane read category, and one that I would have enjoyed more had I come into it with different expectations.

Also posted at my blog. show less

Take one shot of Templar secrets, a half shot of romance, one shot secret society, one shot time travel and one shot ruthless megalomaniac; shake well and you get this novel.
Grace St. John is a scholar specialising in ancient manuscripts who is deciphering a set of recently discovered papers that appear to be a key to a lost treasure. When she finds herself on the run after her ruthless boss kills her husband and brother she decides that the papers must be very important and she works on translating them, with a little help from an interesting variety of characters.

What she eventually discovers changes her world.

Now it's not a bad read, Graces' growth is quite interesting and dragged me in but the resolution left me a little show more unsatisfied and I'm finding it difficult to work out why. It falls somewhere between a romance novel and the Da Vinci code and I found it quite readable. show less

Interesting and very unusual. The story weaves between on-the-run present day and the 1300s in an interesting and jarring way. The characters are sympathetic and engaging and the progression and development of the main character is engaging. Not exactly a good beach read, because it is not light and fluffy. But it is engrossing and I found I did not want to put it down.

I'm not a big fan of paranormal romance but since this one was from Linda Howard, I give it a try. At first I was engrossed in the way things were getting for Grace but later in the story I was getting bored. The plot seemed to be a little slow and stalled and suddenly things changed. All I can say is wow! I want a Niall for myself :)
Even with all the paranormal stuff, Linda Howard delivered a wonderful story full of suspense, twist and turns and hot steamy scenes.

I am usually not one for time travel but this book could prove the exception. The drama and suspense that are core to this story rescue it from the trap of the cliche time travel romance. I can't say I wasn't disappointed when I got this book home to find that Howard had departed from her normal modus to explore a convention more typical of straight romance but at least her style remained solid and the plot interesting.