The Dark Lady

by Dawn Chandler

She should have grown up in a life of luxury and ease—instead, she was thrust into one of danger and deception... Forced by her scheming mother to pretend that she was a boy, Vanessa Fordella becomes Van, the Dark Knight, in twelfth-century England. But when her now-dying mother demands that she leave behind her charade and marry, Van embarks on the most difficult journey of her life. And if her new husband ever finds out the truth... After years of war, all he wants is peace and the simple life... Peter Lawston, Lord Grayweist, hopes for a shy and controllable wife to run his castle and bear his children. What arrives, instead, is a hell cat, who doesn't know the first thing about being docile or obedient. There’s something familiar about his unconventional wife, but Peter can’t put his finger on it. As Van struggles to let go of the knight she has been and become the wife she is expected to be, events unfold that threaten to destroy everything she holds dear, including her very life.

Genres: Historical, Romance, Historical Romance, Medieval, Medieval Romance

386 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2013

About the author

I was born in Coffeyville KS, a little town almost on the Oklahoma Border and the infamous town of the attempted double bank robbery of the Dalton Gang, their final showdown. I moved away from Coffeyville when I was only 7 but have been back for a visit and very much enjoyed the Dalton Museum. I always thought I should have been born in the Wild West. We moved to Idaho when we left Kansas and I grew up on Murtaugh Lake, where my father was the dam keeper and ditch rider. I spent my days in the lake, swimming, catching fish, frogs, and tadpoles, from sunup to sundown most days. Not hard to imagine that my first full-length novel was about a mermaid. At nights I would spend time watching football with my dad or cooking with my mom. In 8th grade, I had a teacher, Mrs. Smith, who wanted me to publish one of my short stories. Looking back on it through the perfect looking glass of time I should have done it. When I first started writing in class, I hated it. I had to write their way and only their way--in the correct process, outline, rough draft, and so on. Over the progressing years I have learned that I am a pantser, but in the beginning I just thought that writing was not for me. I could not, no matter how I tried, get the outline done. I could not sit and sketch out a whole story from beginning to end, but if I just sat and wrote I could get the first draft out without a problem, but the teachers didn't want me to do it that way. I really began to love writing when I met Mrs. Smith and she cared more about my writing than she did about my process. She told me to write in whichever order I wanted, she understood me as a writer and didn't push me to be something I wasn't. I have been writing ever since.
When I am not writing I love swimming, camping, exploring, spending time with family and friends, hiking, drawing, painting, biking, reading (a vastly wide list of authors, my favorite though is Stephen King), and traveling, for now the country but soon the world. Today I am busily writing my novels, From Under a Dark Shadow, the second in my Dark Series book will be completed soon, with plenty more to follow as time and my muse allows.

www.dawnchandler.net
Courses Taken
Life in a medieval castle
Problem words, punctuation and phrases
Basic HTML
The Power of Words
Self Editing for Published and Unpublished Authors
25 Words from Query to sale
Shaping and Sculpting-the art of editing
Adding Humor to your manuscript
Building a successful submission package
Editing with an editor
The Scottish Highlands
World Building
Bringing Pirates to life
Knights Templar
Fairies and Dragons along the silk road and beyond
Plotting for Pansters
Medieval Ireland

Reviews

[Kiesha ~ Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a real treat. I LOVED Van. What a great knight. This isn't your typical medieval or historical romance. Highly recommended!!!!

5 stars for the story and narration

[don frasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

while not my normal genre choice, it is a pretty good story and very well written. Now if it had only taken place in the distant future aboard space ships and aliens, it would have been perfect !

[Cathy Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dark Lady is a memorable character as both male and female. The author's vivid description captures the physical and emotional aspects of a woman pretending to be a man while trying to find her true self. I appreciate the research Ms. Chandler has done regarding the weapons, clothing and customs of the time period. Steamy romance, frightful battles and a mysterious identity make this meaty book well worth your money.

[Maari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely Loved this book!! The characters were well developed.. the history was realistic & the story kept me intrigued all the way through, from start to finish!! I definitely didn't get much sleep during the time I read it. I couldn't find a good place for me to bookmark, once I started reading.. Looking forward to the next book!! & the next.. & the next!!

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Just because one is born a woman does not mean she cannot do anything that a man can do if given the proper chances."
"It does not work that way. A woman is not as strong as a man...You are strong, but most women are not"
"That is because most women have not had the opportunity to become the best of what they can be."

I really liked this! I love a good "heroine in disguise" plot, and i especially loved that Van didn't turn into a whiny girl whenever she put on a dress. That's usually the one problem with the whole "woman pretends to be a man" trope...once she dresses and acts like a woman, she inevitably switches personalities and becomes a weak character. In this, however, Vanessa/Van stayed true to herself the whole time she dressed as a woman with her temper and strong personality...at least until she has a completely understandable and, more importantly, BELIEVABLE breakdown when she questions her sense of self (which was the most emotional part of the story for me...I truly felt Van's turmoil and anguish as she struggled to understand herself).

This book has a wonderful cast of side characters in the form of Van's men-at-arms. Richard especially was a great character. I also really liked the hero, Peter. It was entertaining to see how much Van's actions drove him completely crazy and I loved whenever they would battle whether physically or through wit and words.

The only thing I found frustrating was that none of her men or even Peter recognized her as "The Dark Knight"...It's a common theme with these types of stories but I can just never understand how people she's known for YEARS don't recognize her at all just because she threw on a dress, powdered her face, and poorly disguised her voice. It just always seems like a stretch to me, but for the sake of the story I just ignore it. Though it does make it more fun once you finally DO get to the reveal that's been building for the whole book (having the reveal too soon is no fun at all!).

Overall a highly entertaining read! I also enjoyed the audiobook, although the narrator read a bit too quick in my opinion...but I did really like his voice for Peter as well as Van's "Dark Knight" voice...her high pitched woman's voice was annoying but that was kinda the point so it's forgiven.

4 Stars

[Gwessie Tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recieved in return for an honest review
Naughtiness 4

Fantastic read, absolutely loved it, this is my first book by Dawn Chandler I do hope there will be alot more of them, I'm fairly new to medieval romance but loving them.

I will not give spoilers as always as it would be unfair to the author and prospective readers there is a Blurb which gives some teasers though. What I can say is that I was cometary pulled in to the story and very much connected with our heroes who at times were very stubborn but considering who they are I can understand why. In this book there is everything love hate hysterical laughter revenge adventure and dashing heroes and evil villans, I suggest of you love romance and adventure you give this story a chance. It's very well written I laughed raged and cried on our heroes and heroines behalf more than once and cried with Joy many a time also.

Thank you so much to Dawn for writing this amazing book and approaching to see if I would like to read it in return for an honest review, I'm very glad I said yes thank you dear lady xxxx

[Alannaolau · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story the main character is a strong woman who's been made to be a man all her life. Despite having been raised as a male she doesn't hate that she's female, just hates being seen as weak. I think that the author could have drawn the story out more though like the Song of the Lioness series. It would have been nice to get more then flashbacks of Van's childhood and see how she truly became the Dark Knight and the struggles she had along the way. Van's character was definitely interesting enough to have more then one book written.
Despite being disappointed that it didn't quite focus completely on her journey from Dark Knight to Dark Lady the writing and characters were compelling enough to rate this book with 5 stars. I finished reading this book in a five hour time period. I just didn't want to put it down.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started off really well and I wanted to like it!! It seemed like a nice fun romp of a medieval romance, but the second half really went downhill for me. There were a lot of weird historical inaccuracies and in general a good edit would have helped, but there were also some problematic tropes and unpleasant events. I don’t mind if romance does veer into an unrealistic/problematic relationship dynamic because it’s fun and very much fiction, but this went too far into just straight up being unenjoyable. I really wish it had just focused on the identity drama and tension between the romantic leads because that was the best part of it, but it unravelled when it tried to get plottier unfortunately.

[Vicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book and when I read the first few chapters I thought I had found a diamond in the rough....BUT it fell flat and my dreams where crushed. The plot emphasised too much on the heroines bitterness of being treated like a woman and the surrounding characters emphasising that she is a woman and she couldn't do anything like hold a dagger or lead a horse because she might 'hurt herslf'....and that's when my brain checked out. Not much action and too much sex scenes that were not needed.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man! I loved this book.This just became one of my favourites.

[CC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book! I've read it 3 times now and am amazed at how great of a book this truly is. I adore books that have a strong heroine who spends her life as a male and this book does not disappoint.

Unlike other gender-benders, when Van never really loses who she was as the Dark Knight and it's refreshing and wonderful. I wish there were more tales of her time as the Dark Knight, but I have no complaints as it is. What a fantastic story.

Seriously. If you're into Alanna the First Adventure, Graceling, and others of females disguised as males, then this is the book for you. <3

[Darshanetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was amazing. I loved the main characters. I would definitely read this book again.

Reread 4/16/21
This is book is probably one of the first books I've done actually reread. I don't like rereading even if the books are good but I couldn't help myself with this one. It was just as good as when I first read it. I love Peter and Van. I like how they eventually came to terms of who she is the Dark Lady. I like that it wasn't any angst and the problems that arose were quickly dealt with. This is one of my favorite books.

[Cherry]

*Audible Audio*

Fat, asthmatic Mufasa. That is how this narrator sounded. And I hated it. It was extremely distracting and off putting.

The story itself turned out to be more of a romance than I expected. Which isn't a bad thing. I like those types of romances. Just didn't expect it in this book.

[chimchim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book a lot and it just satisfied me and like my reading mood so well. And van is literal goals, i relate to her so much and peter is husband goals. honestly i want a husband like him let's go. hmu. where can i find me a peter.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a great story! I had so much fun reading about Van's failed attempts at trying to become a proper "Lady" and trying to disguise her true identity. It brought back fond memories of reading Alanna (Song of the Lioness), a long time favourite of mine. In which that they both share a similar strong-willed, quick-to-temper, badass girl-disguised-as-a-boy-becoming-a-knight main character!
Thanks for the awesome read, and hope to read more books with a kick-ass female main character!

[RomLibrary]

She should have grown up in a life of luxury and ease-instead, she was thrust into one of danger and deception... Forced by her scheming mother to pretend that she was a boy, Vanessa Fordella becomes Van, the Dark Knight, in twelfth-century England. But when her now-dying mother demands that she leave behind her charade and marry, Van embarks on the most difficult journey of her life. And if her new husband ever finds out the truth... After years of war, all he wants is peace and the simple life... Peter Lawston, Lord Grayweist, hopes for a shy and controllable wife to run his castle and bear his children. What arrives, instead, is a hell cat, who doesn't know the first thing about being docile or obedient. There's something familiar about his unconventional wife, but Peter can't put his finger on it. As Van struggles to let go of the knight she has been and become the wife she is expected to be, events unfold that threaten to destroy everything she holds dear, including her very life.