Search - Candle in the Window

I loved this book! Saura is one strong lady and just impressed me more and more as I read the story.

I was dearly in love with William - what a kind and tender heart he had. He was so good to Saura and wanted to make up for every pain she had had in her life.

One of my most favorite characters was "Bronnie". He made me laugh out loud everytime he appeared. The end when he is in the dungeon and "surprises" William was hysterical!

All in all this is one of my favorite stories I've read in a long time.

Christina Dodd comes thru with a wonderful medieval story about a beautiful blind heiress called upon to teach a recently injured knight how to live with his blindness. Lots of snap and sizzle!

When his son, Sir William of Miraval, is blinded in battle, Lord Peter seeks out Lady Saura of Roget, the only woman in England who can help William. Blind since infancy, Saura does not allow her handicap to interfere with her abilities to run a household, ride a horse and live as normal a life as possible. Saura will not let William wallow in self-pity, but teach him to be self-sufficient.

Though wary of Lord Peter's offer, she takes over as chatelaine and turns William's keep into a well-run household and no one dare tell William that she is blind. Still wallowing in his loss, William taunts Saura and then begins to admire her tenacity, intelligence and strong will. She goads and sometimes irks him, but she gets him out of his drunken stupor. He believes she is old, or at best a nun, and she lets him keep thinking that way. But secretly, Saura is falling in love with William.

On a day's outing, they are abducted, and William is once again injured. During the night, Saura heals his wounds and gives him her love. When the dawn comes William's sight has returned. It is as if a miracle occurred. Having fallen in love with Saura blind, William is determined to make her his wife now that he can see.

But Saura feels that she is inferior, that her blindness makes it impossible for her to become William's wife. Yet even as William strives to convince Saura that she is the only woman for him, old-friends-turned-enemies plot to destroy their love and seize their holdings.

This was an overall okay story. William's sexist attitude early on in the story made it hard for me to like him. Saura, on the other hand, was an unusual heroine who is easy to admire.

There were a couple of times in the story where it really felt like it could have ended since things wrap up and everything's mostly hunky dory. It was like the author was starting out with a shorter story, but just made it drag on instead.

Which leads me to how I found it annoying that the "stalker" takes so long to be revealed for who he is when his actions should have made it obvious.