The Gilded Knight

by Donna Lea Simpson

Book Overview

In the midst of England's coldest winter in years, widowed Nell Simmons is relieved that her period of mourning is nearly over, but she cannot help worrying about her delicate young daughter, Delphine - especially when the heir to Meadow House is due to arrive and demand their removal from the estate. But when the new viscount sends his brother Charles in his stead, Nell is amazed to realize that the famously selfish bachelor is melting her long-frozen...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821776207
• ISBN13: 9780821776209
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.3" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Real feeling

Nell Simmons is now a widow, with a very sickly daughter, Delphine, and no longer has a right to live on her dead husband's estate. The new Viscount, having waited long enough in his opinion, wants her gone and the house available for his residence. To that end he sends his wastrel brother Sir Charles to remove her and Delphine with all possible speed. In fact he forces Charles to do this, as Charles is badly in debt due to his ruinous lifestyle of gambling and drinking. Charles has also been the butt of much cruelty through his club foot and been thwarted in his ambition to be in the army. Thus our stage is set. This is a well written, interesting and moving romance. Interesting, in that it upends our usual ideas about this type of situation. For usually the widow with a child being forced from her home has all our sympathy and the man evicting her is cast as a villain for so doing. However, during the course of the tale, we discover such not to be the case. The new viscount has waited for her to leave, she is not destitute, she has a perfectly good home to which to remove, she has a good income. Nell is being unreasonable, but I don't think, desptite this unreasonableness, that her thoughts and actions are unbelievable, maybe foolish ... She seems to have been under great mental stress and is only just beginning to emerge from beneath her husband's heavy handed treatment. She has been clinging to familiarity and cannot see out of her well worn groove. Similarly, Charles is also jolted from his pattern. As he leaves London, we can see his dissatisfaction with his ruinous, pointless life and once at Meadow House he is able to do more than moan. He is already rejecting that and wants to change. He is seen as looking back upon his childhood pain and understanding it, he is putting that bitterness behind him. Both he and Nell are wounded characters who are struggling to burst from the past and their steps forward are made more surely by their developing relationship. For they are undeniably attracted to each other almost from the first. Only Nell's reaction to discovering Charles' reasons for acting for his brother is overdone. A beautifully realized romance.

A sweet, sad story

Widowed Nell Simmons hasn't had an easy life. She recently lost her husband (though she did not love him), and her daughter is often sick. To make matters worse, the new owner of her estate is about to remove her from the premises. George Blake inherited Meadow House, but he sends his younger brother to do the dirty work. Charles, the younger brother, hates the idea of asking the widow to leave. Last time he met Nell, he fears he did not make such a good impression on her. When Charles meets Delphine, Nell's sickly daughter, the task of removing them from the house becomes nearly impossible. Charles feels drawn to Nell and Delphine in ways he never imagined. And Charles is nothing like the man Nell remembers. He is warm and thoughtful, and her staff falls in love with him. Can she find love as well? I really enjoyed "The Gilded Knight." I think it's Donna Simpson's best novel since her debut. "Lord St. Claire's Angel" is my favorite book by Donna Simpson, and this one comes close. The story is very sweet, almost sad sometimes, but definitely touching. You learn to love the characters, and I think the ending is one of the best I've come across in a long time. If I had one problem with the book, it would be that it hung around in one place for too long. The setting didn't change, the activities hardly changed. But the characters and their problems are so absorbing, you hardly notice. If you're looking for a sweet, fulfilling love story, look no furthur.

Touching love story of the redemption of a wasted life...

I have only read one or two of the author's others books, but after reading her latest, I will be exploring some of her other writings. This story was exceptional in how it presented the reasons why the two main characters were drawn to each other, and how the relationship helped both of them face past issues and mature. Sir Charles and the widowed Nell seemed to be a mis-matched couple at first, since they were on adversarial sides. Charles was sent by his hypochondriacal brother to evict Nell and her invalid child,Delphine, from the ancestral home. How Charles falls in love with Nell and grows to love her daughter as his own child is a touching story. Each of the main characters has flaws, like in real life, but they also have strengths that they didn't know they had. Charles had lived a life of gambling and drinking, without a purpose. It was difficult to show the progression of his maturing in such a short book, and I would have liked to see this story be in a longer format to fully develop things more, but the author was very successful in making me believe that the wastrel could turn over a new leaf. Delphine was a sweet character, and I also liked the personalities of the servants. An excellent book--one that is going on my keeper shelf.