Customer Reviews

MY FOREVER LOVE

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What is it about the Templar Knights that mystify us as readers of the historical romance genre? Is it that they are monks, or that they have taken a vow of celibacy? Perhaps it is that they are religious warriors that have taken up the sword for a cause. Whatever the reason for our great interest, author Marsha Canham takes us directly into the heart of this fascination with Templar Knight, Ciaran Tamberlane. Ciaran becomes disillusioned during his journey into the Holy Land, as innocent lives are slaughtered before him and everything he believes to be true about the Templar Knights is carelessly tossed aside by the heartless and merciless Knights he fights with. He can no longer watch the brutal killings and follows his own heart abandoning his sword and retreating into self-imposed exile back to England. As a reader, you can decide what you find so interesting about this sort of character. It definitely taps into our interest of the mysteryious Templar Knights as historical romance readers.

Amaranth de Langois (Amie), has been married before to an old and abusive man, and upon being sold again to the highest marriage bidder, this time to the brutal Lord Odo, she has reached her limit of abuse and has decided to fight back by attempting to kill him. Amie, fleeing her vengeful husband, finds herself on Ciaran's land. Brutally attacked and wounded she is brought back to his castle and is cared for by Marak, a healer who nurtures her back to health.

As these two tormented characters come together (Ciaran and Amie), their attraction is almost tangible. Author Marsha Canham builds up this story through excellent character development, not just with the central hero and heroine, but also with the secondary characters. This adds a dimension not often seen in historical romances where usually the focal point is on the hero and heroine.

If you like intelligent historical romance that are filled with passion, action, and interesting characters then MY FOREVER LOVE is the book for you.

Tara Green

I'm sorry I can't love Marsha Canham's last novel. I barely like it. I had read the reviews when it was first released and had hoped that I would agree with the better ones. Alas and alack the mention of the slow middle, the weak heroine, weak romance, the disjointed plot and the problems with the hero's retainers mirrored mine own. Certes, methinks mine grade maybe slightly lower.

Brief plot: Amaranth is fleeing from her second abusive husband and takes refuge in a village on the land of excommuncant Templar knight Ciaran Tamberlane who saves her from the killers sent by her husband. He takes her back to his remote castle, learns her history, meets her loutish evil husband and vows to deliver her to the
convent of her choice to escape. Then some derring-do is thrown in at the end
about King Richard returning from his captivity after the Third Crusade.

I have some major questions about things that happen in this book. I might
be reading it wrong or be totally off base in my understanding but...a) if
Ciaran is a Templar, wouldn't he be a monk and therefore unable to marry?
Or does the fact that he was excommunicated release him from his vows?
And if he's excommunicated, wouldn't that mean that no Christian could
aid, abet or have anything to do with him? Especially marry him?
And why would Father Michaelus at the Abbey turn to Ciaran for
help in getting King Richard home? A man of God asking for help
from a man cast out of the Church?

b) peasants can't count? What? They have fingers, they have toes.

c) how did Amie manage to blend in with the few retainers and serfs that
Ciaran has at Tanier? If gossip spreads so quickly that it's known
throughout the castle immediately, is everyone suddenly blind to the
new turnspit boy? No mention is made of intense devotion to Ciaran
as their liege lord. But if they are so devoted, why would anyone be
afraid of betrayal caused by the large reward offered by Odo for word
of his wife? And how does Odo's left behind servant manage to remain
unremarked upon for a day?

d) the two knights traveling with Ciaran and Amie to the convent are lords?
Wouldn't they be Sir Boethius and Sir Geoffrey?

I was disappointed that suddenly a minor villain from the prologue gets
resurrected for the last battle. It seemed tacked on and unnecessary.
And would he have been left a beggar by the Temple?

I was much, much more interested in Marak. I knew he couldn't be the hero
(after all as one reviewer mentioned, it's the guy with the castle who is
always the hero) but he was much more intriguing and different a character
than Ciaran. I thought he and his love Inaya were wasted here. Either
forget the quickie romance of their's or flesh it out.

I'm afraid that by the time I started skimming the last third of the book, I
was pouncing on all the problems I had with the plot and characters. A
few things I could have breezed over or ignored in return for a tighter plot
and more interesting romance but in the end, there were just too many for
me. A shame since this is supposed to be Canham's last book.

The best word to describe Marsha Canham's My Forever Love would be solid. Considering how hard it is to find good medievals these days, that should be taken as a ringing endorsement. It's nothing earth-shattering and is a little on the slow side, but it's also well-written and vivid, with an interesting spin on real-life history. All in all, fans of medieval historicals will want to check this one out.

Ciaran Tamberlane was once a much-respected knight, known as the Dragon Slayer for the skilled fighting he demonstrated during the Crusades. But when he turned against the casual cruelty practiced by some of his countrymen and defended an innocent woman against one of his fellow knights, he was sent home in disgrace. He lives in exile in a modest castle cut off from much of the outside world.

One day while hunting, he finds the village outside his castle under attack by mercenary knights. These men are in the process of destroying the village and killing everyone they find. Tamberlane and his men manage to drive off the attackers, but they find only one survivor: a young woman dressed as a boy. Tamberlane takes the injured woman back to the castle for treatment, not knowing that she isn't really one of the villagers.

Elizabeth de Langois, called Amaranth by her father, already endured life with one abusive husband. But nothing prepared her for the man she was married off to shortly after the death of her first husband. On their wedding night, Odo de Langois raped and abused her with a viciousness that promised it was only the beginning. Amie responded by grabbing the nearest object and clubbing him over the head with it. Believing him dead, she escaped his home with the help of a kindly priest, who helped her hide in the village. But her husband wasn't dead, and he would stop at nothing to find her, even if it meant killing everyone in his path to get to her.

Canham's writing is lush and descriptive, really bringing this story and her setting to life. At the same time, the pace is somewhat slow as a result. This is particularly noticeable in the action-heavy scenes, such as the opening one where Amaranth tries to flee the attack on the village. The paragraphs are very long and detailed, which certainly allows the reader to know every single aspect but also somewhat dilutes the excitement of those scenes.

Still, her characters are empathetic and well-developed. Tamberlane is an interesting hero, a former knight who once lived under a vow of chastity but who is now neither monk nor man. He has much experience with battles and killing, but very little with women, which makes for an interesting contrast. Several noteworthy secondary characters are also thrown into the mix, including Tamberlane's right hand, Marak, an albino who the suspicious villagers believe practices dark magic but who Amie soon learns is much more benevolent. There's plenty of compelling drama, much of which is heightened by the truly evil villains (although the emergence of an additional villain late in the story seems somewhat unnecessary).

Canham does a strong job capturing the harshness and brutality of the time period, and also uses real life history in interesting ways. The story takes place just as Richard the Lionheart is about to be ransomed from his Austrian captivity. Amie's husband has aligned himself with Prince John, and the role the main characters play in Richard's return is a neat touch.

Good medievals are increasingly hard to find. Luckily, My Forever Love is one.

I have not read Marsha Canham for years. I enjoyed her "Robin Hood" type series a while back but recently had shied away from medievals. (Just got tired of the dark tales and wanted lighter Regency fare!) I won't re-tell the plot. Other reviewers have done that well.

I would not have missed reading this but it was not an emotional book and did not touch my heart. The reasons I liked it were due to the interesting topics of Knights Templar, Crusade, virgin hero, and the unique secondary characters. The heroine, Ami aka Elizabeth, had a compelling personality and sad history but there was nothing in her persona that made me understand why Ciaran was so enamored of her? I enjoyed the interaction but just wasn't quite getting it!

This book does have a lot of graphic violence and sets the mood for a rather dark tale. I am not sure how all the dynamics of excommunication, etc... really worked and the devotion of Ciaran's followers was never really explained. He was a rather sad character (drunk, isolated) by the time Ami meets him that I was unsure what garnered that devotion. His struggles against his lust/love for Ami made for interesting reading.

The quest to save the king and additional information on the king's lover was somewhat out of the ordinary. I thought the (two) villains were defeated rather easily in the end. I wished that Ami had gotten to get revenge herself but her husband never knew the part she played in his defeat. I felt she needed (and deserved) that closure.

I highly recommend this fascinating book because despite its inconsistencies and lack of a truly gripping romance, I liked it! I have some other Canham's languishing on my reading shelf that I need to take a look at.

First of all, the cover of this book is among my favorites. I love how only half of the knight's face is shown, leaving the rest to the reader's imagination. The castle in the background was yet another nice touch. Now on to the story...

I did not find the violence in this story to be one bit offensive. In fact, it only added to the realism in this tale. Some authors get right into the story surrounding the hero and heroine, whereas Ms. Canham treats you to much more than that. Instead of merely stating that the hero engages in battle, you are taken onto the battlefield with him - the descriptions leaving little to the imagination - BREATHTAKINGLY REAL - the descriptions put you in a mind frame of watching a movie rather than reading a book.

I really enjoyed the story of Ciaran Tamberlane, a man who had lost faith in his God and almost in himself and Amaranth de Langois, the hunted bride of an abusive husband. I fell in love with Ciaran from the moment he was introducd - quiet, yet commanding...the physical description given of him by the author was enough to make me weak in the knees. Black hair, green eyes, tall and muscular....YUM!!!

Amaranth was most certainly courageous in her attempts to escape yet another abusive marriage.

The only thing that prevented me from giving this story a five-star rating was that by the time Tamberlane and Amaranth got around to declaring their love for one another...the book was ending. It's like I was so caught up in the story of how he came to be a excommunicated knight and she a woman on the run and then there was Marak, of course...that by the time the two confessed their feelings for one another, I was like, "Okay, now their story begins." But it doesn't. Don't get me wrong - the love scenes, though few, were wonderful and the attaction between the two was quite obvious from start but I just wanted more!!! *whine However, this doesn't disuade me from ordering every title by Marsha Canham from Amazon.com tonight. *laugh

All in all, this was one of THE BEST medieval stories I've read in quite awhile. Enjoy!

When Ciaran Tamberlane joined the Crusaders, he believed that he was doing something noble for God. He lost his faith in King Richard the Lionhearted when the royal ordered the mass genocide of Saracen prisoners. Still he fought on because the thought he was on God's side until he watched a brother knight about to kill an injured woman and her baby. His faith in God's goodness died that day. He now lives on his English estate with no ties to the aristocracy or the church, caring for the peasants who toil on his land.

Knights burn down a nearby village slaughtering without regard. Ciaran and his squire kill the marauders. He takes an injured woman, who wants to die, to his castle. As Amaranth de Langois heals, she feels guilty that she caused the massacre by hiding in the village from her abusive spouse. Her husband demands that Tamberlane return his wife to him, but instead Ciaran vows to protect Amie even if the King is on the side of the spouse. As they wait for the confrontation, Ciaran and Amie fall in love, but defying duty may lead to the executioner's sword for him and his beloved.

This exciting medieval romance paints quite a different timely perspective of the Crusades, as atrocities in the name of God are part of the war. The action packed story line is character driven; readers will cherish the courageous Ciaran who refuses to go along even when God and King are invoked if he feels it is wrong. Sub-genre fans will appreciate this delightful historical tale starring two honorable individuals.

Harriet Klausner

Ciaran Tamberlane is a former Templar and knight of the Crusaders, disillusioned by the Crusades. He took his oath to join the holy order with all the dreams of an idealist and followed his king to Jerusalem where harsh and cruel reality stripped him of his ideals. Tiring of the abject cruelty and torture heaped on the helpless and the defenseless, Ciaran turned on a fellow Templar and cut off his arm to save a girl and her child from his cruelty.

Consequently, Ciaran was excommunicated and expelled from the holy order. He quietly returned to England and took up residence at Taniere castle where endless nightmares and guilt robbed him of sleep.

While hunting, Ciaran and his knights happened upon a village under attack by unknown mercenaries. The mercenaries were well into their attack, murdering everyone in sight, when Ciaran and his group fought and chased them away. Only one survivor was found: a young woman teetering on the edge of death.

Ciaran's healer is able to save her and they quickly discover her identity. She is Amaranth de Langois, cousin to King Richard, and she is running away from her husband, whom she almost killed on their wedding night. Amaranth's life has been plagued by torture and cruelty at the hands of her first two husbands. When she almost killed her second husband on their wedding night, he was about to beat her for supposedly making a pass at his brother.

When Amaranth's husband arrives at Taniere Castle to look for his wife, Ciaran hides her away, but he knows he cannot keep her hidden for long. With only a few options at their disposal, Ciaran reluctantly agrees to Amaranth's plan: to escort her to a distant abbey where she can live in safety. But their travel plans change when a monk gives them the news that King Richard is on his way back to England and that Prince John has hired every known assassin to kill Richard before he reaches London.

In the end, Ciaran finds favor again in Richard's eyes when he helps thwart Prince John's plans and without hesitation, he asks and is granted permission to marry Amaranth.

I thought the storyline was pretty good. It had strong, solid characters; a well thought out plot, but the pacing was just off to me. There were times when the story dragged and times when the narration became, well, tedious. If I stacked this book up against some of my favorite romance books, it would pale in comparison. It's, well, easily forgettable.

I am usually an avid reader of Marsha Canham but this book just seemed too long and not as engaging as some of her other books. I was disappointed.

Ciaran Timberlane is a dishonored knight, living in exile at his uncle's almost deserted castle. Cairan was dishonored after taking up arms against a fellow knight and walking away from a battle during the "crusades" in the mid-east. Cairan was a member of a prestigious knight society that also meant he has devoted his life to god and was also known by many as the Dragon Slayer.

Amie de Langois aka. Elizabeth aka. Amaranth is a woman in hiding from her brutal husband, living on Timberlane's land. She escapes her husband after a brutal wedding night and thinks she has killed him. But, he is not dead and is hunting her with a vengeance (hiring mercenaries, killing anyone in his path). Cairan finds her almost dead, after being shot by a crossbow and about to be stabbed and takes her back to castle, and to the healing hands of his albino friend, and healer. Aime finally tells Cairan what is happening and he agrees to help her try to get to a monestary and even hides her when her husband comes looking for her. She turns out to be the illegitimate cousin to Richard the Lionheart and she helps lead Cairan to spring an ambush that is set to kill the King. Along the way the two also find out they are in love with each other and while they both feel that this is wrong you watch their love grow.

I liked that in this one the heroine was not a virgin who was going to do whatever anyone told her. Also, it was good to see that there are characters that might have had issues with all the killing in the Cursades.

The Set up for this book was creative and had great potential. A disillusioned Knight and a runaway bride.

After the initial descriptions of the violence including the first raid and what they did to the priest, it never let up.

The hero and heroine also never went deep with their conflicts together.

I do not recommend this to anyone.