How to Train Your Knight

A Medieval Romance Novel

By: Stella Marie Alden

Narrated by: Amy Soakes

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Year of our Lord, 1276.

In the hours just before dawn, blasphemous curses echo throughout the stone manor. A knife clatters to the floor, and a feisty young widow is bound, blindfolded, and led to the marriage altar. The king couldn't possibly have sanctioned this farce of a marriage, could he? After all, she alone transformed a few mud huts and starving serfs into a flourishing town, never once hesitating to pay generous taxes to his royal kingdom. Abandon her beloved people to be ruled by her new husband, an ignorant Templar knight? "Never!" the Lady Ann vows.

A murderous witch for a wife? The Beast of Thornhill finds himself in the middle of either a cruel jest or an evil conspiracy. After returning from the Holy Wars, he accepts bestowment of a small parcel of land in return for saving King Edward's life. But the reward comes with a warning regarding the estate's mistress. Despite his insatiable attraction to the black-haired beauty, he allows her time to warm to him while observing her strange, forward-thinking ways. But when all is on the line, will he stand by her through the inquisition, or will they both hang for her secrets?

©2015 Soul Mate Publishing (P)2016 Stella Marie Hammond

I wanted to like it.

I loved the idea of characters and the story could have been wonderful if better written. Too much jumping around and statements that want to make you cringe because they're so hokey. The narrator didn't help much with this because it was difficult to know exactly who was speaking since she's unable to pull off multiple voices and not much in the way of expressing emotion throughout the story.

Loved the training.

Loved the audio book it was great. Loved how they had to learn each other including the intimacy, even though she had been married before.
The narrator was clear in speaking and easy to understand.

Sweet hot story!

I enjoyed this audiobook and thought the narrator did a very good job telling the story. I’d definitely recommend this as a sweet hot story anyone would enjoy!

Might have been better with a different narrator

I didn't care at all for the narrator. The story could have been developed a bit more. The Lady Ann started out as a strong determined woman who could hold her own but every time she displeased her husband Marcus she turned into a weak victim giving up and accepting she would receive a beating from him or meekly get ready for her execution which never happened. I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Great start to a medieval series!

This is the first book in the series and it's a very good start. Lady Ann is a most ingenious individual. Even with what has happened to her at such a young age, she has taken the opportunity to make changes to better not only her life, but that of all of those who depends upon her. But she teeters on the edge of what is considered acceptable women behavior as anything outside of the box and one is labeled a witch.

Then, walks in Marcus, the Beast of Thornhill. He has been sent to the Meadows to discover if that was true of Lady Ann, and to marry her in order to take control of the area in his sire's name. Being the second son, there was not much prospect for him, nor much love or affection from his sire. Luckily, he has done well with his time abroad, even having saved the king's life and thus finding himself within the king's favor.

Thus begins a cat and mouse game between the two. Marcus has his work cut out for him and Lady Ann needs to keep her guards up or else finds she likes her new husband more than she should.

I did read/listen to this series out of order. Still did not ruin my enjoyment for this book nor this series. Narrator did a good job, no issues with confusion of who is who. Highly recommended.

I am voluntarily leaving an honest review of this book.

captivating

could not stop once I started. great flow to the story, narrative was captivating. love the characters and got me hooked to listening and read the rest of the series.

enjoyable historical romance

An entertaining delightful Medieval tale. This historical fiction romance had me engaged from beginning to end with suspense, some humor, misunderstandings, action, intrigue,  lots of enemies,  and romance. As these two interesting well developed characters start on opposite sides of the problem they quickly learn to work towards keeping their land and having a HEA. This was beautifully narrated making me feel and enjoy the story even more.

Maybe better as a read than a listen?

The story itself was pretty good but I found the audio book difficult to follow. Differentiating between the characters and trying to determine who was talking was difficult at times. I also struggled with following the story when there was a switch in time—when you are reading you can see where there is a break but when I was listening it just seemed like I missed something. A few times I went back to see if I had missed something by not paying attention (I listen as I drive to work), but in each case, I hadn’t missed content just misunderstood the shift. Pretty certain I would have enjoyed this more by reading it.

Rough, gruff and very entertaining

How To Train Your Knight by Stella Marie Alden is a wonderfully well written medieval romance novel! The narrator brought these characters to life and Stella's witty writing for Marcus and Anne's quick banter and barbs was highly entertaining.
I really enjoyed this story, bringing the medieval times to life with plenty of suspense, danger, threats and risks.
Overall, a very enjoyable story to listen to!

Perfect story line and loved the narration

I loved this story! The plot was very entertaining. There are funny, intriguing and intimate scenes.