Joanne Rock - August Release

Eleanor of Aquitaine, anyone?

If you've seen Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor in The Lion in Winter, you already know what an intriguing historical figure Eleanor made. I read Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings by Amy Kelly several years ago and became even more fascinated. My August 2006 Harlequin Historical release, The Knight's Courtship, stems from my interest in Eleanor's Court of Love that she set up in France while she was miffed at her second husband, Henry. My heroine is a troubador who is captivated by the idea of being a court poet in this famous (infamous?) court and I imagined Ivy might have reacted to the revolutionary ideas of courtly love the same way artists of the sixties embraced the concept of free love. Surely one idea was as earth-shaking in its time as the other. Ivy is a little scandalized... but also wickedly interested!

Here's the backcover blurb:

She would write poems about love, not become captive to it!
Quiet and studious, Lady Ivy Rutherford is content merely to observe the intrigues and scandals of Queen Eleanor's glittering court. But then the Queen insists that Ivy would be the ideal mentor for notorious heartbreaker Roger Stancliff. Her duty? To transform the errant knave into a courtly knight. A simple task for such a proper lady!

But in the sultry castle grounds just who is educating whom? Chaste, courtly love seems much less appealing than losing herself in the passion of Roger's arms...

I hope you'll join me for this trip back in time to Poitiers. And I highly recommend Amy Kelly's book for anyone looking for more reading on this fascinating time period and the woman who left a memorable imprint on it.