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Midnight Angel is Julie Beard's 1997 medieval historical romance, set in 1377 England against a backdrop of the Hundred Years War and a private tournament hosted by the powerful Cravenmoor family. The protagonists are Lord Hugh Cravenmoor, a battle-hardened English nobleman, and Lady Adelle d'Ablon, a French noblewoman captured during a recent campaign and held for ransom.
Beard writes the medieval period with real research support. The tournament chapters are well-staged, with the actual logistics of fourteenth-century jousting and melees handled more carefully than the genre usually requires. The romance arc is exactly what the cover promises (initial antagonism, forced proximity, third-act misunderstanding, resolution) and clean enough to read in a sitting. The political backdrop adds enough plot texture to keep the romance from feeling thin.
Recommended for medieval-romance readers (Bertrice Small's earlier work, Roberta Gellis's Roselynde series), and for readers looking for books like Midnight Angel in the 1990s medieval-romance tradition. Three solid stars.
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