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Earthly Knight An Janet McNaughton Books

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Earthly Knight An Janet McNaughton Books

This is one of my favorite young adult novels. The characters came so vividly to life, and I became totally engrossed in the story line. The author effectively built a sense of tension about what would happen, and even the side characters mattered to me.


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Earthly Knight An Janet McNaughton Books Reviews

Sixteen-year-old Lady Jeanette Avenel, called Jenny, is the younger daughter of a minor Norman nobleman. Because of this, she has enjoyed relative freedom while growing up on her family's estate in Scotland. But now that her sister has been disgraced, everything has changed. Suddenly, Jenny finds herself thrust into the role usually belonging to the eldest daughter, and is chosen as a potential bride for William de Warenne, the king's younger brother and heir. In spite of her upbringing, however, Jenny wonders what if might be like if she could chose her own husband, someone she loved. When she meets Tam Lin, a young man who is rumored to have been kidnapped by fairies and who still remains tied to their world, she learns what it is like to be in love. But will her relationship with Tam only lead to heartbreak in the end?

Set in medieval Scotland, An Earthly Knight combines history, romance, and fantasy to make a wonderful story for teens that I highly recommend. I absolutely loved this book, and couldn't put it down. The characters were wonderful, as was the romance, and I loved the medieval setting.
Jenny has always had more freedom that most- at least for her time period, considering the year it's only 1162. Not particularly concerned about marriage, it suddenly is thrust upon her when her older sister shames the family by running away with a suitor.
When Jenny is recommended as a bride for William de Warenne, heir to the crown of Scotland, her family is thrilled, and immediately determined that a marriage shall be made. Yet to her surprise, Jenny finds the man cruel, aloof, and utterly broke. She is much more attracted to a young man named Tam Lin. Rumored to be under a fairy spell, Jenny has been warned of the dangers lurking about him...but her heart tells her that she can trust him. Should she marry for the possible good of her family and forget any hope of every having happiness, or shame herself like her sister did for a love that will last her entire life?
A wonderfully written book, not only did I get swept up in the story, I learned a lot about life nine hundred years ago. Five stars! (Fantasy fans will especially enjoy this story.)
Whether or not I enjoyed the book is still being decided by my "little grey cells". Unlike many who have read this novel, I enjoyed the history and the details of what life was like back then. The complaints I have mostly refer to the simple characters that have very little or no development. I think the place I lost interest was near the end because not only does Jenny (the main character) sleep with Tam Lin, but she also brings even more disgrace upon her family. I think this story would have been better as a first person narrative instead of third limited omniscient because then we would have been able to understand Jenny's thought process and see her world through her eyes. I also did not like how the climax didn't come about until the second to last chapter, and even then it wasn't very climatic. It was nonchalantly written and then we move on.

So a re-cap, I liked the history and folklore, I didn't like the characters. If you are looking for a quick read that could potentially frustrate you, but with good imagery, this novel is for you.
I went through a phase a few years ago where I sought out every retelling of the Tam Lin story that I could get my hands on. So the title _An Earthly Knight_ was instantly familiar to me, and I knew I needed to read this book. I was especially intrigued by the author's choice to return the story to its original setting, namely medieval Scotland.

Unfortunately, I agree with previous reviewers' complaints that the historical aspect falls a little flat. McNaughton has a tendency to get a bit infodump-y. I wasn't familiar with the politics of that time and place, and so I appreciated being brought up to speed, but there has to have been a more deft way of doing it than having one character expounding history to another character who already knew that history.

I also wasn't thrilled with the romance. Tam Lin was too Generically Nice, and his rival, Earl William, was too one-dimensionally nasty. I belong to a LiveJournal community called Fanficrants, and I'm reminded of a post there a few months ago that talked about how a villain is much more interesting if he/she has some subtlety, rather than constantly telegraphing his/her villainy by raping people, kicking puppies, and taking ice cream from orphans. (I guess William didn't get the memo about the ice cream.) I'd have preferred either a bad man who was charming on the surface, or an honorable man that Jeanette simply had no feelings for.

As for the supernatural, it feels a little tacked on, and it might have worked better if it had been either emphasized more or omitted entirely. (Tam Lin without the supernatural--that could be intriguing. What if Jeanette had thought he was fae-touched, only to learn he was *just* the dispossessed heir to Carter Hall...) As it stands, that aspect comes almost out of nowhere and seems rushed. (McNaughton isn't in bad company. I had the same gripe about Pamela Dean's version.)

What did work was the coming-of-age aspect of the tale. Jeanette begins as a free-spirited teenage girl, and as she is pushed into a social-climbing role, she allows herself to be swept up into snobbish and selfish attitudes for a time. I didn't like her much during the middle of the book. After several events that make her question this new outlook on life, Jeanette begins to find her old self again, albeit a more mature version of that self. In the end, on some level, she's not so much choosing between William and Tam Lin, but between the person she is when she's with William and the person she is when she's with Tam Lin. I did find that aspect interesting.
I had read this book in middle school and recently tracked it down to re-read. Its short so doesn't take much time to get through, very easy read. I feel some of the content is a little mature age 13+ maybe-
This is one of my favorite young adult novels. The characters came so vividly to life, and I became totally engrossed in the story line. The author effectively built a sense of tension about what would happen, and even the side characters mattered to me.