When one of her charms is tied to a blight on the local poultry, Raymond renounces her and Elayne is sent to her godmother, Melanthe, presumably in disgrace. Elayne seems a bit bumbling and silly at first, trying to cast love charms to snare Raymond. The castle belongs to the Lady Melanthe, the Countess of Bowland, who is, of course, the heroine of For My Lady’s Heart. Though she is promised to his rival, Allegreto seizes her ship, takes Elena prisoner, and weds her, thus beginning their battle of wits and passion.Īs the book opens, Elena is known as Elayne she’s been raised in England by her sister Cara and retains no real memory of her early childhood in Monteverde or the perilous journey to England (Allegreto rescued her from the clutches of the Riata family and brought her to Cara, whom he nursed a teenage tendre for).Įlayne is 17 and thinks she’s in love with Raymond de Clare, a knight of Lord Lancaster’s visiting the forest castle where she lives with her sister Cara and brother-in-law Sir Guy. Happily, the means to do so is Lady Elena, long-lost Monteverde princess and sole heir to the kingdom. And an A- is a great grade!ĭangerous and dashing assassin Allegreto wants to regain his rightful place in the rich Italian principality of Monteverde. My trusty book log indicates that I gave it an A- but noted that it was a “bit disappointing.” To be fair, highly anticipated books about beloved secondary characters are almost always a little bit of a letdown. This is Kinsale’s second-to-last published book – it originally came out in 2004.

And we’ve come to it…the end of my five-year, twelve-book reread and review of Laura Kinsale’s oeuvre.

Shadowheart by laura kinsale