For My Lady's Heart

As has been the case with the other Kinsale books I've read I had to pick this one up twice and start it before finally being able to settle down and read it on the third try. I'm in awe of Laura Kinsales storytelling abilities but I find I really must be in the right mood to read her books. Luckily for me on the third try I was craving a meaty, in depth and complex historical romance and I wasn't disappointed.

After having his wife, money and all his earthly belongings taken away by the church 17 year old Ruck is spiraling down into hopelessness when he receives a gift of two very valuable jewels from a Princess he had a brief run in with earlier in the day. Although it hurts his pride to accept charity he takes the two jewels and makes show more a personal vow to serve the lady (whoever she is) for the rest of his life.

The lady in question is the Princess of Monteverde, Melanthe. She has been recently widowed by a powerful Italian prince and her life is currently in danger as two rival families attempt to gain her land and riches.

13 years after their chance meeting the two run into one another again. Ruck is in service as a knight for the Duke of Lancaster but when he realizes who Melanthe is he challenges all who would fight him for the honour of serving his lady.

Once Ruck has joined Melanthe's service he joins her party as they travel across England. Ruck has no idea of the danger Melanthe is in and the plan she has put in motion to try and save her own life and to keep Monteverde out of her enemies hands because of this he believes himself a fool for idolizing such a cold and cruel woman for so long and is furious with himself for continuing to lust after her. Ruck and Melanthe have many challenges before them as they get to know one another and fall in love.

The characterization in this book is amazing. Kinsale is a master at showing and not telling. Ruck and Melanthe jump off the page right from the beginning but Kinsale continues to develop these characters throughout the entire story through their actions and their pasts. Ruck is exactly what a Knight should be - brave, honourable, chivalrous and completely self - sacrificing. This may sound like he's one of those too good to be true characters but he has personal flaws as well they just don't interfere with his first priority - Melanthe. Melanthe is a bit difficult to warm up to at first but she grew on me very quickly. In my opinion she is a very realistic strong female character living during a time when women were given very little say in anything. Rather than being the feisty heroine everyone is just so enamoured with they don't care what she does, Melanthe is cold, cunning and deceitful but she must be this way in order to survive. As you watch her shed her cold exterior during her time with Ruck she becomes absolutely delightful. The relationship between these two develops over the course of the story and is at times sweet and at other times heartbreaking. There is plenty of sexual tension between the two and the love scenes are both humorous and tender (a lot like real life if you ask me).

The supporting characters are all equally well done and I can't write the review without mentioning Allegretto, the quasi villain in this book and the hero of Kinsale's Shadow Heart. Allegretto at first comes across as a cold assassin but as we read the story it is revealed how he came to be what he is and by the end of the book I couldn't wait to read his story.
Kinsale's medieval setting is definitely not a wall paper historical setting. Kinsale doesn't skimp on the nitty gritty of the time and she makes sure to show the role religion played in the lives of the people living during the time.

One other thing I should mention which may turn people off is that the dialogue between the characters is written in middle english. At first this put me off but as I read the story I stopped noticing it and now that I've read the whole thing I can't imagine it any other way. The language made the scenes between the h/h all the more romantic for me.
All in all this is my favourite Kinsale book so far and not only is it definitely in my top 5 romances of all time but Melanthe is by far my favourite heroine ever and Ruck is in the top 5 heroes. If you like meaty and involved historicals I heartily recommend this book. show less

A very strange woman and a very odd man fall in love in a world crumbling and cruel, magical without magic, and romantic in spite of itself. With Middle English! I can't do it justice in a review, so I'll just say that there's nothing else quite like it.

On my list of female protagonists are more than a few difficult women. If you go looking, you'll find (for example) that readers either love or hate Melanthe of Kinsale's For My Lady's Heart. The comments I have heard is that she is too hard and even abrasive, although I think some of the dislike of Melanthe has to do with the fact that this novel is not an easy read; Kinsale does a good job of approximating Middle English for a modern audience, and it takes a little work to get into it. I loved Melanthe, particularly because she seems -- if you look at the surface only -- to be manipulative and disdainful but is in fact struggling hard to survive in a world inimical to independent women. She has suffered some terrible losses which have show more made her hard, but the beauty of this novel is in the way she adapts to Ruck, and he to her. show less

What! I finished a book? In a record six weeks?

Settle down. Settle down.

I don't think I'd like this book as much as a did if not for the Boulton factor. If not for the Allegretto. If not for Kinsale's usual one asshole protagonist.

Because, whew, Ruck was a little TOO devoted. Read: boring. He saved himself there right at the end. Melanthe is mean, and a weird combination of vulnerable and commanding and insecure.

Basically, I didn't get them. Still convinced of their love...because Kinsale, but despite all that it's likely my least favorite, skirting by on the high action sequences (wonderfully written and performed), the intriguing subplot, and a falcon.

So that is that. I'm looking forward to the next story, but I am going to wait a bit.

3 stars for the book, 5 for the narration by Nicholas Boulton. I had trouble getting into this one until it finally got to the lists. Overall, however, I did not like Melanthe at all. I still don't know why Ruck loves her, and I don't understand how their relationship could possibly work with all the lies she has told him. Both of them have a tendency to be noble idiots, as well as idiots in general. The demise of the villain is a bit anticlimactic, but it's clear that the author wanted it to be so. I still would have liked him to have suffered. My favorite parts were the fight scenes, which were unfortunately few and far between.

(To everyone saying that the book is in Middle English: it is not. It has some modernized spellings of show more Middle English words. Granted, we still use some Middle English words (e.g., "napkin" is Middle English: it means "little cloth"). It also has an epigraph that is truly written in Middle English, with a modern translations below it. If this book were actually written in Middle English, only scholars of the language and the occasional linguist or historian would be able to read the whole book because Middle English literally has letters and diphthongs that we no longer use (e.g., ȝ [yogh], þ [thorn], ð [eth], æ [ash]). Kinsale just used authentic words for the time and modernized them. That's all. *End Rant*) show less

Laura Kinsale writes complex epic historical romances, but in For My Lady's Heart the characters are overshadowed by that complexity.

The unusual heroine could have been a great character. Yet her past and present political machinations are detailed in such exhausting depth that her personality is never developed.

The tortured hero is so dense he may be romance's first Too Stupid Too Live Hero. Why is he likeable? Why is he a talented soldier? Why is he in love with her? Why is she in love with him? Nothing about his character is fleshed out than a maudlin loyalty/obsession with a woman he meets once 13 years prior. He is the romance novel equivalent of a cocker spaniel.

Due credit to Kinsale for excellent research and faithfully show more executing the Middle English but sadly the effort wasn't expended on behalf of more worthy characters. show less

One of my favorites, and a Keeper. Many people will not like the middle-English, which is expertly done. I thought the story could not have been as good as it is without it. The language added depth. I loved the adventures of Melanthe and Ruck, and who would have ever believed I'd love a man named Ruck.