A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

 

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux is the fifteenth book in the Montgomery-Taggert series, but each book can be read as a standalone, so you don't really need to know anything about the series except that the Montgomerys are a bunch of perfect overachievers.  And that's what makes this book so special.  Dougless Montgomery is on vacation in England with her waste of space boyfriend and his terribly behaved daughter. She's a nice person, but Dougless doesn't have much of a backbone and she knows that she's different from all the super successful people in her family and she thinks that her boyfriend is the answer to her prayers.  Unfortunately, he's dismissive of her desires and needs and he's the parent of a huge teenage brat.  At some point, Dougless is abandoned by the duo of doom in an English church with no money, identification, or anything except the clothes on her back.  She begins crying on the the tomb of Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck and suddenly he appears in full medieval armor.

So begins this tale of time travel.

Interesting characters: This book was first published in 1989 and was slightly updated in 2002, so there are some issues with the age. The earl is domineering and sexist, which isn't actually all that strange considering that he was supposed to be alive in the 1500s.  Dougless is a bit weak-willed in the early third of the book.  But! This book is a fabulous example of character growth.  By the end, both have recognized the strengths in the other.  A lot of criticisms of this book have to do with how spineless Dougless is and I understand that as a criticism, but you're definitely rooting for her by the end of the book and by the time she stands up to her sister, it's amazing.  I mean, this is a masterful example of how characters change through hardship.  

Believable conflict: So good. Of course they're going to have differences in culture, what with there being hundreds of years between their dates of birth. Of course they're not going to believe one another have actually time traveled into another year. Of course! It all seems accurate and believable and the best thing is that Deveraux somehow manages to do this without having the characters act out of their own characters, even when they're not in their own time.  

Emotional tension: Absolutely. You know that there's no way for them to end up together. I mean, he needs to stay in the 1500s to continue to support her family and she's a Montgomery and you know there's no way she'd stay in 1564 what with the dirty children, filthy towns, and poor hygiene.  They are hot for one another, for sure, but neither is going to sacrifice their own lives to be with the other and that ratchets up the emotional tension.

Happily ever after: This is another place that the book gets criticized. It's not really a happily ever after, is it?  They don't get to be together.  I found the ending satisfying, although I was disappointed that Nicholas never found his happiness. 

This is truly a masterpiece of the romantic genre. It's funny, quirky, and the rules of time traveling were simple, but we could figure them out. I remember enjoying Sweet Liar, another Deveraux joint in which there was some time slippage, so maybe that's just Deveraux's sweet spot. Regardless, I'm glad I read this book and will happily recommend it to others, particularly if they're into the time travel trope.