Sir Tristan Carlisle has fought his way towards knighthood for the past several years. The new King of England has him and his men going to bring his new bride to him along with her ladies in waiting. Tristan hopes that this will earn him the right to knighthood. The night before they are to meet the new bride to begin the escort, he sees a woman in the woods that intrigues him as no other he has ever seen before. She runs off before he can meet her, and he wonders if she was a real woman or if he only imagined her. A few days later he meets the real woman as she is a lady in waiting for the new queen. Now that Tristan knows who the lady is, it shouldn’t be a big deal to seduce her, but master story teller Joanne Rock sets a whole new stage for readers.

On the way to the castle someone tries to kidnap Lady Arabella Rowan, and Tristan is injured in the battled to get her back into their company. Arabella has been trained by a great gypsy and uses her herbs to help him get back on his feet. Unfortunately, a lady that has her heart set on capturing Tristan’s for a while has claimed that he is the father of her child. Arabella can provide proof that this is not true, but using that knowledge along with healing him now has the King of England thinking that she is a gypsy and does not need to be in his court. The only way that Tristan can save her is to agree to marry her and by doing this the King will grant him a knighthood with a castle of his own. Will he agree with this or will he allow Arabella to return to her hometown?

Whether Joanne Rock is writing a story that is so hot it will burn your fingers to hold the book or something that is a bit more sedate she will pull you into the story and hold you with the intensity of it. I expected this book to be more on the sedate pace and not as hot as some of her other stories, but Ms. Rock proves that she can burn you up with a Historical as well as she can writing anything else. The characters were captivating, the plot thickens as the book progressed and the love scenes were out of this world. It was very cool to see Lady Arabella go from being a child that was raised in the woods to a lady in the Kings court. Tristan did a wonderful job of helping her to adjust that I believe that all women would like to be in Arabella’s shoes during this story. This book is one of my favorites by Ms. Rock, and I encourage you to pick the book up and read it.

Reviewed by: Missy