Love at First Knight
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Megan Clawson
I requested a digital advanced readers copy from Avon and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.
Synopsis: She’s no damsel in distress, and he’s certainly not wearing shining armour. But one knight can change everything… Daisy Hastings has always thought she was born in the wrong era. So when she bags a summer job at the Tower of London helping to run their Knight school, it feels like a step in the right direction. Theodore ‘Teddy’ Fairfax is a loose cannon. A disgraced distant relative of the royal family, he’s tall, dark and now (begrudgingly) helping with the Tower of London’s summer programme – and there’s nowhere he’d like to be less. When Teddy’s oath to be an obstruction almost gets Daisy fired, she declares war. But as the two cross swords, they start to discover they both need a little rescuing… And that maybe, just maybe, love can bloom, even on a battlefield…
My Thoughts: This was a sweet romcom that I enjoyed. Daisy has always thought she should have been born in the knight and princess era. She lives at home and works in her dad’s shop due to anxiety. An opportunity to work in London assisting their knight summer camp opens up and her family pushes her into it. She is finally on her own and has a job, things are moving in the right direction for her. Enter Theodore “Teddy” Fairfax. He is a distant relative of the royal family, he does not want to be there, and Daisy is partnered up with him to show him the ropes. When his behaviors and actions almost get Daisy fired, she declares war. However, are they on a battlefield, or will they fall for one another. This follows the tropes of enemies to lovers, royal romance, and closed door romance.
Daisy is sweet, loving, and kind. She has anxiety and really struggles in social situations. She really digs deep to tackle things we take for granted , like getting up to go to work. She is authentic in the risks she takes and relatable in how she approaches those risks. Teddy’s character is not likable at first, however he is very swoony, charming, and distracting. The characters were well developed with depth, witty banter, chemistry, and intriguing. Daisy’s family was so supportive of her. I think the best supportive character I have come across in a while is Bobble (unsure about spelling), the roommate, she was terrific. The author’s writing style was complex, closed door, swoony, humorous, and endearing. The author does an amazing job at representing anxiety and really showcases how a person riddled with anxiety really struggles. The pacing of the angst against one another was balanced well with the building romance.
I enjoyed Clawson’s first novel and when the publisher reached out to me for this second novel, without reading the blurb, it was an automatic yes! Initially I thought this was a second in a series, but realized it was the same only as in writing about royal romance, nothing else carried over from the first book. This was sweet, endearing, run, and swoon-perfection. Clawson did a great job with these characters bringing them from hating each other to uniting them in a most unusual way, and allowed them to have growth separately and together. I would highly recommend this to other readers.