guiltless pleasures's Reviews > In the Shadow of Midnight

Not since The Time-Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England has an author painted such a vivid picture of everyday medieval life as Marsha Canham does here. Along with the cruelty and squalor of the time (witness Corfe Castle 😨), we’re treated to markets and banquets with jugglers and acrobats. She went heavy on the period detail, but I didn’t mind at all.

Taking place 14 years after Through a Dark Mist, this is the story of Ariel, a clever, headstrong and generally awesome woman; and Edmund FitzRandwulf, a scarred hero who is so smoking hot that I didn’t even mind that the book opens with him boning a woman who isn’t the heroine. (Oh yeah, and he’s also the bastard son of Randwulf and the demonic Nicolaa.)

But that’s not all: there’s another band of merry men who must rescue an honest-to-Pete princess from the greasy clutches of King John.

There is gore, much of it shocking, and swashbuckling, and political intrigue, and road trips, and daring escapes…

A note that this book probably won’t appeal to anyone who prefers lighter wallpaper historicals, because while the romance is sweet and hot, this almost reads more like historical fiction. I loved it.