Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance [Paperback]

Donald Hardy (Author)

Book Description

Series: An M/M Romance | Publication Date: December 22, 2009

Jonathan Williams has inherited Trevaglan Farm from a distant relative. With his best friend, Alayne, in tow, Jonathan returns to the estate to take possession, meet the current staff, and generally learn what it’s like to live as the landed gentry now. He’d only been there once before, fourteen years earlier. But that was a different time, he’s a different person now, determined to put that experience out of his mind and his heart….

The locals agree that Jonathan is indeed different from the lost young man he was that long ago summer, when he arrived at the farm for a stay after his mother died. Back then the hot summer days were filled with sunshine, the nearby ocean, and a new friend, Nat. Jonathan and the farmhand had quickly grown close, Jonathan needing comfort in the wake of his grief, and Nat basking in the peace and love he didn’t have at home.

But that was also a summer of rumors and strange happenings in the surrounding countryside, romantic triangles and wronged lovers. Tempers would flare like a summer lightning storm, and ebb just as quickly. By the summer’s end, one young man was dead, and another haunted for life.

Now Jonathan is determined to start anew. Until he starts seeing the ghost of his former friend everywhere he looks. Until mementos of that summer idyll reappear. Until Alayne’s life is in danger. Until the town’s resident witch tells Jonathan that ghosts are real. And this one is tied to Jonathan unto death…

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald L. Hardy—Cube wrangler by day, rogue author and actor by night—lives in the San Francisco Bay Area aboard a sailboat, with too many books and a conversational Schnauzer named Schultzie. When not on stage or writing, he can be found at many of the Renaissance Faires in the area. Lovers’ Knot is his first published novel. You can visit him at www.donaldhardy.net

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762436859
• ISBN-13: 978-0762436859
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A San Francisco Bay Area resident for the past eleven years, Donald Hardy lives on an elderly but adorable sailboat with a very conversational Schnauzer named Schultz. He moved from the east coast, where he had lived since childhood, while trapped in the grip of a midlife crisis of Biblical proportions. He is currently considering embarking upon pirate raids on uninhabited islands in the Bay in his free time.


He began writing after moving west and dumping his television, and has gradually expanded his output. He edited Time Space Magic, by Taylor Ellwood, for Immanion Press, and was published in Paws And Reflect by Alyson Press. His first published novel, Lovers' Knot, is being released this fall by Running Press, and he is currently working on a stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (with no zombies, thank you very much).

When he isn't writing -- or catering to the demands of Schultz -- he can be found onstage or in rehearsal at the Butterfield 8 theater company in Concord, CA, usually performing in Shakespeare with a twist. On certain weekends, he's an avid Renaissance (Faire) Man -- proving that even when he's offstage, he's onstage.

He has discovered, in the writing of this biography, that speaking of himself in the third person is strangely appealing, and is struggling with his desire to break into the royal first person plural. He fears he may fail, and so will end, lest he offend even more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, December 31, 2009

By 

Alex Beecroft "Alex Beecroft" (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance (Paperback)

I thought this book was wonderful! It's set in a small Cornish village, and there's a gripping plot that involves ghosts and revenge and the return of a demon lover from our hero's past to bedevil him just as he's beginning to nerve himself up to confess his true love to the sunny young gentleman who is his guest at his newly acquired Cornish farmstead. A lovely meaty plot and a lush, evocative setting - banter and obvious ease between the two heroes, and a dangerous sensuality and threat from the lover of the past who is not as dead and gone as everyone might have hoped... It's a real classic of the genre in a similar vein to The Phoenix by Ruth Sims - a serious, literary book, but a delight to read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching love story, January 8, 2010

By 

Sirius - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance (Paperback)

THERE IS A MINOR SPOILER IN THIS REVIEW.

I do apologize but I really could not come up with how not to mention it, especially since the blurb about the book mentions the ghost anyway, so maybe it is not a spoiler after all :)




This novel has all that I am looking for in m/m romance - sympathetic and likeable characters, interesting and rather complicated plot and a **love story**.
I was so so pleased that I found this gem. The setting is lovely, the language seems to be authentic to the period (not an expert here, but I love that it does not sound the way we talk today, even if it is not hundred percent true to the era).

I admit that while I did not have it in me to give four stars, because then I would have to give zero starts to so many books, my grade is probably 4.75 stars, because when I read this story for the first time, there was a point in this story when I felt that I was pulled out of the story, I felt that realistic setting and ghost did not really mesh together. I would have much preferred that "reality" of the ghost would have left more to reader's imagination, that maybe he was just part of the character's imagination if that makes sense. But honestly and truly that did not really influenced my enjoyment of the story overall, so maybe it was more my problem than writer's.

Thank you Mr.Hardy and I will certainly be buying your books in the future if you decide to write them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An auspicious debut, January 16, 2010

By 

Skittish "Lighten Up, Francis." (Gotham, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lovers' Knot: An M/M Romance (Paperback)

This easily one of the best M/M romances I have read. The plot was inventive, the characters multidimensional, and the writing was extremely engaging. I particularly appreciated that it avoided many of the tiresome cliches of romance novels-- the purple prose, the generic sex scenes, the obvious villain-- as well as most of the tiresome cliches particular to the M/M genre-- the "Seme/Uke" or worldly/naive or buff/frail pairing, the character who thinks he is damaged but can be redeemed by the power of Twu Wuv, the blackmail angle, etc. I was particularly pleased to find characters who felt their fear and pain and needs deeply, but in a masculine, understated fashion. They felt very real to me, and that's a nice change from many of the stock characters readers get stuck with in this genre (and in all genre fiction. which, I suppose, is why they call it genre fiction.)


That said, I had a couple of quibbles that kept me from giving this a 5-star rating, one of which is specific to this book, and one of which is a more general frustration with the M/M genre universally-- so perhaps it's not entirely fair to isolate Mr. Hardy in this.

***SPOILERS BELOW!***





1) As much as I like supernatural stories, I had a hard time reconciling the supernatural element in this particular story. It was a wonderful historical novel, and so very realistic to me that the ghostly element didn't quite jibe with me. It never felt seamless to me, and I had a difficult time sustaining my disbelief as a result. I would have loved for this to either have had more supernatural elements from the start-- leading, perhaps, to a moodier, more atmospheric piece-- or a straightforward period piece. Mr. Hardy clearly has the talent to do both.

2) I wish the writers in this genre would find another plot device aside from rape and/or abuse!!! Seriously, people. Enough. It has come up in nearly every M/M story I have read. There has to be another way to get the characters together. It's not that I'm offended or disturbed by the topic (which, when you think about it is actually sort of problematic when you think about it), I'm just bored to tears by it. Please, authors! Find some new turf to tread!

But all complaints aside, this was a solid read. The relationship with Nat was wonderful and terrible and poignant, and Rose was a complicated antagonist. Alayne is a staunch friend and will be a wonderful partner for Jonathan. I would eagerly read anything else Mr. Hardy puts out based on this first venture... I just hope it'll be something that sidesteps the rape tropes.