Knight's Honor

The Sommerville Family #3

by Suzanne Barclay

THE FAMILY ROGUE

How could Jesselynn Harcourt look upon Alexander Sommerville, rakish son of a House her own had sworn to hate, and see anything more than the face of an enemy? Yet the man possessed a leonine glory that twisted her heart and set her soul on fire.

A desire hot enough to ignite the very night pounded in his blood every time Alexander beheld the lovely Jesselynn. Desire --- and something more. A need to cherish and protect. To take to heart this iron maiden who defied any man to subdue her ...

Genres: Romance, Historical, Historical Romance, Category Romance

298 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Carol Suzanne was born on 20 December 1945 in USA, daughter of Phyllis and Whit Hoose. She married Kenneth E. Backus, and obtained four stepchildren.

Published since 1992 as Suzanne Barclay, was an author for Harlequin Historical, specializing in romance set in the Medieval era. She founded the Lake Country Romance Writers in 1993, and served as the chapter's first president. She passed away on 15 September 1999 after a long battle with cancer.

Reviews

[Bev Walkling · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Suzanne Barclay knows how to write a good historical romance that involves characters you love to watch fall in love and evil characters that are easy to hate along with others who fall somewhere into the middle. This book is part of The Somerville series and I have read several others in the series which I also enjoyed very much. I highly recommend it if you like historical romances set in Scotland.

[Virginia Tican · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re~read and still as good. Conditioned at a young age to feel ugly and worthless by an abusive father, Jesselynn Harcourt has a big chip on her skinny shoulders. The few things she has to latch on to keep going is her love for her brother Hugh, hatred for the Sommervilles, fear of Edmund and the debauched Parlan. So when she married Alex Sommerville to save her from Parlan's and Edmund's manipulations, she carried that big chip to her marriage and that was almost her undoing. The truth that when Sommerville males truly love, they do it only once and for life ~ she should have believed that ~ since this Truth saved her and the other Sommerville wives captured by Edmund and Parlan from a fate worse than death as far as those two depraved villains are concerned.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex's turn for a story now. This story picks up in the middle of the previous story, but from Alex's point of view as he pursues Hugh Harcourt and instead ends up with his twin sister, Jesselyn. Jesse is used to acting like a man, because a show of weakness earns her the scorn of her father. Alex both admires and is perturbed by Jesse's attitude and does what he can to manipulate and scheme to get her to act like a lady. There's an attraction between them, but Alex knows that there is no future for a Sommerville and a Harcourt. But he falls in love with her and she with him, and for a while it looks like they may be able to fight for a future. But then Alex learns that Hugh Harcourt has died and Jesse is now the heir to the Harcourts, but since she's married Alex, it will revert to him . So now, there is no way that Jesse won't doubt his love for her, without thinking he's scheming to take what's hers. So he decides to buy himself some more time for their love to grow, but puts her trust at risk in doing so.

This was pretty good, especially at the start. I like that Alex really isn't a scheming manipulator, given that he could have been thinking the entire time that she was his ticket to end the feud (it may have entered his mind once, but it was not his focus). So their love really was genuine and enjoyable to read about. Their closeness grew naturally. And while I understand why Jesse had a right to be pissed when she learned about her brother, she held that grudge for a LONG TIME. And she'd just been starting to soften when Alex kills her uncle thus breaking her trust again, but 4 months? That's a long time to stay angry...and I wasn't sure if she was angry that he'd broken her trust or that he stayed away when she wanted him to. She was kind of juvenile in her reaction to Alex. However, I LOVE Alex's grovel...not that it was a grovelly speech or anything but what he gave up for her was absolutely perfect. That was good grovel.