Knight Dreams

The Sommerville Family #1

by Suzanne Barclay

ILLUSIONS OF LOVE

Out of her dreams and into the fray, The Knight rode to her rescue. Fantasy promised Gabrielle de Lauren a golden-haired savior, but reality gave her Ruarke Sommerville, a passionate war machine who denied the poet in his soul. And yet she loved him. But hew would she fare if he discovered her true identity?

Though the image of his lost love, Gabrielle was not what Ruarke had expected when he impulsively wed the damsel in distress. His fiery French bride was unlike any docile English girl at court. Would she accept the secret vow that shaped his life yet tormented his soul?

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Medieval

298 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1992

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

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read: 8/20/25
Setting: Frances and England, King Edward III

A very unique love story!

plot: Gaby has had a hard life. She was raised by a cruel man and her brother. She's forced to journey to town because they sold her in marriage. If she refuses, her brother will rape a 5 year old in front of her. Yeah, that kind of evil! On the way, they are attacked, and her father is murdered. Gaby's brother just leaves her there. Luckily, Gaby is saved by an English knight.

Ruarke can not believe his eyes. Gaby is the very image of his dead love. Their names are even similar Lorne ...Lauren (gives wrong name). He marries her right away. Then he stupidly gets drunk on his wedding night and makes a hash out of it.

Gaby never wants a physical relationship again. She's glad she lied about her name. He can never know she comes from such an evil family. So Gaby goes about taking charge and making his life easier. She's shocked when she learns that she won't get her dream knight or her dream castle. Ruarke has made a vow to his grandfather (really stupid vow), and he has to continue to fight until it's accomplished. How can these two strong-willed people put their fiery personalities away and work as a team?

Ruarke makes one big mistake and pays for it for the entire book. I thought Gaby was too harsh with him. She learned to manipulate her father, but she couldn't figure out how to deal with her husband. I doubt most medieval husbands would have put up with her nagging.

The villains were obvious, yet added some fun to the story.

conclusion:
This was a fast-paced, action-packed love story that was never dull. While I didn't love it, I'm definitely intrigued to try another of her books.

[Lynn Spencer]

So I'm not even 40 pages into the book and the "hero" has already raped the heroine. I think I'm done here.

[Mary23nm · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is hard to rate this medieval. It had some very promising parts and some ridiculousness, which included a cartoonish villain. **Wedding night trigger warning** Overall average, 3 star decent.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabrielle de Lauren, of the hated de Laurens lives a terrible life with her cruel father and half-brother. On the way to town where she is to be sold into marriage they come across a band of English knights and skirmish - in the battle Gabrielle's is abandoned to the mercy of the English knights. But one of them, Ruarke Sommerville, is the knight of her dreams. To Ruarke, Gabrielle looks like his former betrothed (who is now dead) and he wants her desperately - so he asks her to marry him and she accepts. But Gaby soon learns that marriage to a strange knight is not everything she'd dreamed. He's coarse and English and a warrior. Likewise, Ruarke is shocked at how different from the woman she resembles, Gaby is. She's a little tyrant. The two continue on, returning to England holding onto their secrets. Gaby still has to reveal that she is a hated de Lauren while Ruarke cannot settle down to realize Gaby's dreams so long as his oath to his grandfather is unfulfilled.

This was good but a little strange at parts. Gaby and Ruarke are interesting, and I especially like how even though they both claim to love the other, they realize that it doesn't solve all of their problems. Even with their secrets both of them seem to want to change the other and are not quite satisfied with what they've got. So the book is mostly about them trying to overcome that, but they never really have peace together. Love yes, but certainly not peace. There is rape, as Ruarke is rip-roaring drunk on his wedding night and rapes Gaby . So there's the literal bodice-ripper stuff happening. There's also incest. Gaby is sometimes a bit over-dramatic in her reaction to things and Ruarke's frustration is completely understandable in view of that. But at the same time, Ruarke's vow to become the greatest knight in the world is verging on ridiculous and I, like the heroine, laughed at it. And so of course, such an intense guy like Ruarke taking such a vow so much to heart, makes him seem ridiculous, especially because he is so serious otherwise.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Make it end please … this is awful! It started off interesting, then when she met Ruark and immediately married him based on a dream of a knight she had it got silly. And HE married HER immediately because SHE (Gabrielle) looked like his long dead love (Lorna), ugh, no thanks. Then Gabby really became a termagant and it wasn’t believable. She was strong, willful, and extremely pushy in rejecting him and always got her way when Gabrielle was supposed to have been beaten and abused by her brother and father ALL her life, beaten into submission and was “afraid” of men. Moreover, she was so self righteous and a consummate LIAR ….. 🤥. Of course they were sexually compatible, which never translated on paper, they weren’t steaming up the pages, just the usual pinch and grab type of steaminess (which is not at all) 🙄. Ruark’s promise to become the GREATEST knight to ever live was laughable and stupid.

[Emma Squire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Yes there is a triggering part around the beginning of the book, but you will come around to the story when you keep reading. I really liked Gabrielle and the twist near the end. I didn’t really care for Ruarke much.. I know the author wrote his action as something that could be forgiven in this story, so it doesn’t bother me much. He feels remorse and is extremely ashamed (he also doesn’t remember it). To be fair this is Suzanne’s first novel so maybe her other stuff is better put together. Overall I found the pacing to be good.