Untamed

Elizabeth Lowell

Lady Margaret of Blackthorne is being sold off to the highest bidder. She knows that. It is what happens to women in her position, the only child of the Saxon, John of Cumbriland, Lord of Blackthorne Keep. Her mother had disappeared many years earlier. Now her cruel, stern father is dying.

Dominic le Sabre is now a Norman knight. He was born a bastard, but was able to rise above his parentage and fight in a crusade in the Middle East. There he saved a baron's son as well as the battle. The Sword was then awarded knightship. King Henry I also gave him Lady Margaret and the lands she inherits.

Lord John wants his illegitmate son Dominic to become lord of Blackthorne Keep. Dominic wants a place away from war where he can be a land owner and treat the peasants under him well, a place of peace. He wants to found his dynasty of many sons. Margaret is also of the Glendruid line. There has been a curse on the Glendruids for a thousand years. They have few children, conceived in love only, never by force, and never sons. For the last ten centuries there have only been girls. Margaret is the current Glendruid witch.

This is a fairly predictable, enjoyable romance. Lowell uses both Lady Margaret's and Lord Dominic's point of view throughout the book. The political intrigues and hatred between the Saxons and Normans are part of the plot, with the central characters being interested in stopping the war within their own country. They are both ready to "do their duty for God and Country." This gives both of the lovers more reality, bringing the reader's sympathies in line. Untamed is a likeable novel.

Notice: Explicit sexual content

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