Title: The Knight’s Kiss (Dyslexia-friendly)
Author: Sally Nicholls
Illustrator: Nadiyah Suyatna
Cover illustrator: Sarah Dennis
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Genre: Teen/young adult fiction, Historical, Romance
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: There’s not much company for a young lady in Elinor’s fathers castle. Ellinor has her maid, Alice, and her horse, Moonlight. But Moonlight can’t talk and Alice can’t join in with Elinor’s favourite game of chess.
So when Dan comes to the castle to train as a knight, Elinor is delighted. And it’s not long before they fall in love.
But Elinor’s father has plans for her. Plans that involve a marriage. To one of her father’s oldest friends…
Can Elinor and Dan’s love survive?
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is an interesting historical fiction romance but with an ending I wasn’t expecting. Lady Elinor’s only friends are her horse and her maid, until one day her cousin Dan moves into her father’s castle to learn to become a knight. Dan and Elinor love to play chess and spend time together and soon Dan gives Elinor a kiss. But as the two grow closer and Elinor realises her feelings for Dan, her father is upset when he finds out about the two of them and forbids Elinor from seeing Dan again.
I’ve always loved the medieval period and so I instantly loved getting into this story about Elinor and the knight-in-traning Dan. Elinor’s father refuses to accept any future marriage between the two, and soon arranges for Elinor to marry a very old friend of his instead, but Elinor is determined to marry Dan and tries to find a way for Dan and herself to be together. I love how this story begins, and the lovely way that Elinor and Dan become closer, their love being like so many first time loves out there. But although the story takes on some interesting twists with Elinor trying to find ways to overcome the challenge of her father’s wishes for her to marry a much older man, I’m not sure I liked the ending despite how good others might find it.
I won’t spoil the story here, but the ending just wasn’t what I expected, and although Elinor has a sort of happy ending, it just wasn’t the ending I was expecting and I think anyone who’s really into perfect romance endings, like me, would be disappointed reading this too. I’m not sure if the author was going for a more realistic ending, given what ends up happening, perhaps some realism for what happened during the medieval period as well as a nod to how some first time relationships end up for teenagers today, but the ending just disappointed me and it’s a shame as I really loved the way this story was going and all the illustrations in it too.
The book has some illustrations dotted throughout the text. I love the way everyone looks in the pictures and the expressions on everyone’s faces. The illustrations are all in black, white and grey and I just love how everything looks so medieval, with the hair cuts and outfits too. This book is especially made for dyslexics so features extra thick pages with a yellower colour which makes reading easier for anyone with eyesight problems as well as dyslexia, and the text is larger, with a special dyslexia-friendly font used, spaces between paragraphs and with the book being very short, around fifty pages long so it’s also a great read for reluctant readers too who might find bigger books daunting.
Overall I’m not sure what to say about this book. The story is good, interesting and a wonderful medieval tale, and it does have a kind of happy ending, but it’s just not the ending you really expect or possibly want, and that’s the reason I’ve rated it lower than I would have if it had ended the way I had hoped, as it just left me feeling disappointed instead of satisfied when I finished reading it, though I’m sure some people will enjoy the ending and won’t feel as disappointed as me.
What do you think of this book? Do you like perfect ending romances? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 