Love Knot [Paperback]

Elizabeth Chadwick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

The year is 1140 and England is torn by the strife of civil war. After her village is raided, Catrin is rescued by Oliver Pascal and taken to Bristol Castle. There she meets Ethelreda, who offers to teach her the art of midwifery. But a midwife's life is fraught with dangers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

England's bloody civil war in the mid-12th-century provides the setting for Chadwick's third novel. A royal feud between England's King Stephen and his cousin Empress Mathilda has left the country pillaged and plundered, and when a dispossessed and recently widowed knight, Oliver Pascal, happens upon a particularly bloody scene, he finds an old friend has been brutally raped by lawless mercenaries. The woman subsequently miscarries and dies, leaving her fierce 10-year-old son, Richard, and Catrin, her strong-willed and comely maid, to Oliver's care. Richard is taken to the house of his half-brother, Earl Robert of Gloucester, who is allied with Mathilda and whom Oliver hopes will win the civil war, so that Oliver can reclaim his family lands. As the action of this predictable historical romance unfolds, Catrin and Oliver embark on a tumultuous romance. Bound to Oliver by a debt of gratitude, Catrin loathes the thought of reliance upon any man and tries to ignore the strong physical and emotional attraction she feels. But eventually, the pair succumb to their passion and are betrothed. Oliver's leadership qualities as he serves his sovereign and Catrin's medical knowledge earn them the nobility's esteem, but pernicious demons of the past threaten their marital bliss and political standing, and their love is put to the test. With an awkward mixture of historical vocabulary and modern idiom, Chadwick's (The Champion) formulaic tapestry features all the Middle Ages archetypes: rogue knights; lusty, coy ladies; and blood shed for honor, property and virtue. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Drawn by chance to the scene of a brutal, senseless village raid, Oliver Pascal honors the deathbed wish of a woman he knew years ago to take her young son and her widowed companion to safety in the household of the nobleman he serves and ends up finding love and healing where he least expects it. A noble hero who lost his wife in childbirth, a spirited heroine who's training to be a midwife and healer, and a rich cast of characters both fictional and real make this exquisitely written, historically accurate story spring to life against the colorful backdrop of the 12th century and the violent civil war spawned by Stephen and Mathilda's "cousinly" conflict. Realistic, romantic, and engrossing, this story deftly combines love and war in equal parts and has enough of each to appeal to readers of historical romance and historical fiction alike. Chadwick (The Champion) is an award-winning writer of exceptionally well-done historicals and lives in England, where this book was first published in 1998.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 474 pages
• Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0751525227
• ISBN-13: 978-0751525229
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,436,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Chadwick is a best selling, award winning author of historical fiction. A born storyteller, her first novel The Wild Hunt won a Betty Trask Award in 1990. She has been four times shortlisted for the RNA Award in the UK for the best mainstream romantic novel. Her book The Scarlet Lion was selected as one of the top ten works of historical fiction of the decade by Richard Lee, founder of The Historical Novel Society.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good medieval romance, November 24, 1999

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Love Knot (Hardcover)

In 1140, everyone suffers from the bloody Civil War between the supporters of King Stephen and those of the Empress Mathilda. The countryside is filled with heinous crimes, as Oliver Pascal will soon learn when he comes across the raped and battered body of a friend, Lady Amice, who soon dies. Oliver escorts Amice's ten-year old son Richard and her maid Catrin to a relative, Earl Robert in Bristol

Catrin tries to protect Richard, who she sees as more of a son than a burden. She also feels obligated to Oliver for rescuing them even though she loathes the concept of depending on any male. Still she begins to fall in love with him and he reciprocates those feelings. As Oliver tries to regain his lost lands, he marries Catrin, not knowing that their relationship stands in jeopardy due to external forces having a different agenda.

THE LOVE KNOT is a well written according-to-the-book, medieval romance. Sub-genre fans will enjoy the interesting story line that places honor and love in peril though the swing between present and past vernacular is a bit disconcerting. The lead characters are wonderful champions and Robert adds much depth to the tale. Elizabeth Chadwick writes a fine tale that her fans will enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Childbirth and romance by Elizabeth Chadwick-of course it's a good book, August 11, 2006

By 

Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Love Knot (Hardcover)

I wouldn't say that "The Love Knot" is the best of Elizabeth Chadwick's books that I've read (that will always be "Daughter's of the Grail") but it is second best, and thus, being written by Elizabeth Chadwick, it is very good indeed.

This takes place during the English Civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda (with her son Henry Plantagenet) and follows supporters of Matilda's cause over a period of about 14 years. Oliver is a man just home from the Crusades, where he made a pilgrimage in honor of his young wife who died in childbirth. Once home he finds that King Stephen has stolen his family lands, and signs on with the Empress Matilda so he can get them back. On a journey to Bristol to get orders he comes across a burned down country-house where he grew up, with one almost dead woman he grew up with, her young son, and his nurse. The nurses' name is Catrin.

Catrin and the dead woman's son (who happens to be the bastard son of the old king) Richard, are taken by Oliver to Bristol. Naturally, we have a love connection between Oliver and Catrin, both of whom are raw and damaged by the deaths of their spouses. Catrin also starts to learn the trade of a midwife, and thus we are taught a great deal about childbirth and healing in the middle ages (it wasn't pretty.) Reading this part of the book will make you glad that you we born in the 20th (or 21st) century and have access to modern medical care and good birth control!

Then something happens in Catrin's life which changes everything, allegiances, love and both her and Oliver's lives. But still they are bound by the love knot that Ethyl, the midwife who raised Oliver and taught Catrin, made for them.

As always, if it's by Elizabeth Chadwick you are guaranteed a good read. This is one of her more romantic and less biographical novels, comparable best probably to "The Marsh King's Daughter." If you like romance, medical history, action adventure and good twisted plot you'll like this book. I do agree at time the characters are a little stereotypical, but it's not enough to detract from the overall novel.

Five stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 21 century behavior in 12 century time, November 9, 2009

By 

Mom of 3 in Scripps Ranch (San Diego, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Love Knot (Hardcover)

Pro's - the description of the surrounding is good, makes you feel like you are in medieval times.

Con's - the behavior of the characters, practically 21st century (when the heroine leaves her 3 year old twins and 10 year old daughter at home, she first finds someone to watch over them...)

Characters are VERY flat. Almost politically correct. Which is a shame as there was real potential there...