Review of A Knight in Shining Armour, historical Fiction set in Elizabethan and modern England by Jude Deveraux
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Synopsis
After being abandoned by her partner on holiday, Dougless meets a strange man wearing odd clothing. Nicholas was awaiting execution in the 16th century when he found himself transported to the future. Dougless and Nicholas form a reluctant partnership and work together to find out the truth behind Nicholas’ betrayal and supposed execution.
Once they find what they need to know, Nicholas returns to his own time equipped with knowledge that he believes will save him. Still in the 1980s, Dougless finds that Nicholas was still executed, and stumbles upon more information about the end of Nicholas’ life. Before long she finds herself in the past with a second chance at saving Nicholas and changing history.
Review
This story made me cry and cry and cry. I don’t know why, but it seemed to be during the parts that Dougless and Nicholas were resisting their feelings and were separated from each other. I found it to be a real emotional rollercoaster but my grandma, while she said it was a good book, didn’t find any of it sad.
My favourite part of this story is when Nicholas is discovering the 20th century. In most books that involve time-travel, the characters travel back in time, and thus have at least a small idea of what they’re encountering. It was amusing to see time-travel happen the other way around. I particularly like how Nicholas likes the taste of ice cream so much that he kisses Dougless when she first buys him some.
‘But then Nicholas saw the table lamp, and Dougless spent fifteen minutes demonstrating electric lights. Nicholas nearly drove her crazy with turning switches on and off until, to make him go to bed, she promised to read more to him.’
It was interesting to see Nicholas’ views on Romeo and Juliet. Nicholas had lived 30 or 40 years before Shakespeare wrote most of his work so hadn’t read any of it before, but would have been closer to the original intended audience than anyone alive today. As such, I imagine his interpretation would be closer to the ideas that Shakespeare was trying to convey.
The author (Jude Deveraux) appears to have done a reasonable amount of research into the Elizabethan era. She uses Nicholas to address modern myths about the past; Nicholas reacted to things in a realistic way and nothings seems terribly out of place, historically.
I struggled a bit with Dougless’s sudden character development. Throughout the book Dougless has problems with her self-worth and how her view of herself affects the way others treat her. When she returns from the past, this changes. That was fine, but it happened so abruptly that it was jarring.
Conclusion
Have you read A Knight in Shining Armour? What did you think? Do you agree with what I’ve said about it? What about other books by Jude Deveraux? Let me know in the comments.
If you haven’t, it can be bought at Book Depository (they have free worldwide shipping!).
