Unending Love

By: Kathryn Le Veque

Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins

1234 A.D. - For as long as she can remember, the Lady Adalind de Aston has loved Sir Maddoc du Bois. Being sent away to foster did nothing to cure her of her unending love for Maddoc, a sentiment he did not return. Years later, Adalind returns from fostering as a cultured and beautiful woman. So beautiful, in fact, that tales of her beauty are legendary and a string of hopeful suitors follow her home. Maddoc, now faced with this exquisite and refined creature, is tasked, as the captain of the army, with chasing the suitors away.

One suitor after another is turned away by Maddoc's blade. Some go easily; some do not. Meanwhile, Maddoc has come to know Adalind on an adult level and is coming to think he has been very stupid about rejecting this sweet and beautiful woman. In fact, the more suitors that come around, the more Maddoc finds himself succumbing to Adalind's charms and soon joins the parade of suitors. Adalind is thrilled when the man comes to his senses and offers for her hand. Finally, what she has always dreamed of will soon be hers.

But a new suitor pledges for Adalind's hand, a cunning and powerful knight who will not be deterred by Maddoc. Maddoc and the knight face off in several fights, each one more brutal than the next, until the knight finally challenges Maddoc to the ultimate battle to the death for Adalind's hand. A brutal battle ensues and Adalind, in her attempt to help Maddoc, ends up nearly costing the man his life. As Maddoc lays wounded, presumably dying, the challenger knight abducts Adalind and flees.

Adalind's grandfather is the great David de Lohr, Earl of Canterbury. With Maddoc lingering near death, David gathers some of his oldest and dearest friends to help rescue his granddaughter.

©2012 Kathryn Le Veque (P)2014 Kathryn Le Veque

Maddoc and his lady

5 Stars for the Wonderful author, Kathryn Le Veque for once again removing me from my tedious life and plopping me down on the sidelines of an action filled, emotionally charged story of Love, Betrayal, and Triumph. (Yes get your box of tissues ready). 5 Stars also to the amazingly talented Sean Patrick Hopkins for giving the characters I've imagined, voice to deepen the story. The only thing I'd change is the cover art. While it's a lovely picture, the female character has blonde hair, and not the dark as seen on the cover. This unfortunately is not something the author or narrator can control. I guess it's just one of my little pet peeves. The book and narration is well worth your time to experience. It's what I consider as a Do not miss!

A good book

While the story and performance were very good I have two things to criticize. The first is the fact that too much narration can be overkill and many authors are guilty of writing too many words when a few words would have worked. The second is at the beginning of each chapter the narrator quotes poetry in a soothing type voice. Drove me crazy.

narrator

I really enjoyed listening to this narrator! The narrator can make or break the book.

Beauty, Love, and Danger -- at their very best

Adalind, the heroine, has loved a knight who works for her grandfather, David de Lodhr, since she was five. She was so sure of it, she asked Maddoc to marry her then. Time changes much except this love she has for Maddoc. Between fostering and away at court, she hadn’t seen Maddoc for six or seven years. Her heart tells her the same as when young. “The heart wants what the heart wants”. She loves the man more than when he was a boy. But a female just can’t throw herself on a man when it is obvious, he avoids any entanglement. His job is to protect the keep and the family within. That’s it.

How many women would wish to have the beauty that Adalind had? Adalind was chased by every man at court, the women were jealous of her beauty and were mean and sometimes cruel to her. Hence, after three years she returns home.

She is with her family when Maddoc who now is captain of the guard for the keep sees her again. She no longer is the girl with the buck teeth, but an exquisite creature, so lovely, he had never seen a woman of such beauty. Worst part – he doesn’t even know how to flirt. With her flirtation, his heart is utterly caught. She is his to protect—she is his, period.

Adalind has not only beauty from the outside, but she is also sweet, vivacious and unpretentious. Her woes at court follow her home. Men come knocking at her door, insisting she accepts their suit. Men battle for her. It seems rather crazy to see how men grovel at her feet, at first, I was amused by the situation. But it later became irritating and then just dangerous. By that time, I had stepped into Adalind’s shoes and found myself escaping across the highlands for safety.

I love the way narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins portrays each of Adalind’s suitors, some are rather simple-minded and obtuse (I found myself feeling sorry for them), others were cunning using position and power in the clans to get what they want, still another will appall you what he would do to get her hand. Hopkins makes the characters pop from the page.

Le Veque’s writing and Hopkin’s narration make for an exciting read with action-packed, emotional scenes, where men will kill and go to battle over the hand of a woman. Surprises await you. I listened to the book twice and it is absolutely superb.

Outstanding

What an incredible story. Excellent story line, incredible conflict & a love so palpable you want it for yourself. I became very invested in these characters. I laughed at times and sighed a dreamy sigh too many times to count. I was thrilled when some very famous older knights popped in. And the epilogue was brilliant. This story is outstanding. Don’t pass it by.

Powerful and captivating!

Where does Unending Love rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This one is the best! 5 stars

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character is Maddoc du Bois, a knight with a great skill, also very skilled with ladies.

What does Sean Patrick Hopkins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I have read this book, but I had the chance to sample it, and fell in love with Sean's voice.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Powerful!

Any additional comments?

I am a huge fan of Kathryn Le Veque's books and this one is my favorite as an audio. She is a talented storyteller that never disappoints me. It's a fast-paced and well written story that I highly recommend, specially if you love medieval stories. This novel is filled with tenderness and action!

Unending poetry

Like fed the story, didn't particularly like the poetry. A bit over done. The pulsating adventures of rivalry were very exciting. The beginning was a slow start and a bit annoying, but it finally took off in chapter 9. Again LeVeque has the talent to twist and twirl a good story. I enjoy her genius!

She only had one love, and soon he realized it!

Young woman returns home, from fosterring and a stint at Court, only to be pursued by love sick suitors, each intent on making her his wife.
However, the only man she ever loved is the Captain of the Guard of the Keep at Canterbury, her Grandfather's residence and now her home.
We meet the knight, Maddoc as a small toddler in another episode, and again as a newly knighted lad, as he renewed his acquaintance with his father, whom he believed to have been dead, killed in the quest to rescue a woman touted to be the next queen. Our young lady had haunted Maddoc, in her very young years, but now, on his return from France, and his father's family, he discovers a refined young woman, rather the gangly love besotted child.

Maddoc soon sees that the only person to be her wife, should be himself, which the lady is in full agreement, as is Lord David, her Grandfather. He only has to defend her from her suitors! And there lies the greater story.

Not one of my favorites

I find I have to agree with some of the previous Reviews on the story. I found the poetry at the beginning of each chapter well beautiful to be very disruptive. They threw off the current flow of the previous chapter unfortunately. In addition I found the 1st 10 chapters to be a bore and found that the book picked up halfway through. unfortunately as much as I wanted to really love this story with Maddox, i found it to be boring in quite uninteresting.

Ratings.......
overall- 3 stars
performance- 5 stars
story- 2 stars

More of the same, but worse

Hated literally every character. This will probably be the last book I read of Ms. Le Veque’s. I am tired if the grown men chasing teenage girls, who throw temper tantrums and act impulsively to create the mess that they end up in. I know they are period and you d girls would have been married off to older men but it just is tiresome