The Dark One: Dark Knight

By: Kathryn Le Veque

Narrated by: Jim McCabe

Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

It is A.D. 1486. Fresh from his treacherous turning of the tides against Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth, Sir Gaston de Russe's reputation is dark and dirty. Those loyal to Richard hate him and those loyal to Henry Tudor fear him. He is, after all, The Dark One.

In order to gain a strong foothold in Yorkshire, Henry sends Gaston to one of the largest fortresses in the north, a massive bastion called Mt. Holyoak Castle. Having formerly belonged to Sir Guy Stoneley, who is now a prisoner in the White Tower after his capture at Bosworth, the castle is still the home to Guy's wife, Remington, her three sisters, and her son.

Gaston takes possession of Mt. Holyoak, pleased with his acquisition and intrigued with Lady Stoneley, who is beautiful, somewhat shy, and demure.

Gaston soon comes to find out that Mt. Holyoak harbors a horrible secret of rape and abuse. Guy Stoneley abused his wife and sisters, so much so that the women look to Gaston as their savior. As Gaston struggles to administer the North and form alliances with those still loyal to Richard, something more is taking place that threatens to distract him from his task. The lure, the power, is more than he can resist.

A strong bond is forming between the knight believed to be the ultimate traitor and the lady who has known nothing but sorrow and horror. And with that realization, a delicate love story begins as two lonely people find solace and comfort with each other. Gaston soon realizes he loves Remington more than anything, which sets the stage for the biggest battle of his life: the fight against the Catholic Church in his quest for an annulment so he can marry her.

Join Gaston and Remington as they embark on an epic adventure of discovery, love, anguish and sorrow, defeat and victory. From the hills of Yorkshire to the halls of London, share their story of a lifetime where dreams become reality and true love really does conquer all.

©2013 Kathryn Le Veque (P)2014 Kathryn Le Veque

The trials and tribulations of love.

The characters were so real, easy to relate to.

Abusive love is never easy. The recuse was a divided privilege for a knight, a gentleman, a warrior because he fell in love. A lonely man with nothing to lose, was awarded a castle by the king and this castle came with a family that he fell in love with.

The story was exciting, and interesting. It held my attention from beginning to the end. I would recommend this story to anyone that has a little romance in their heart

OUTSTANDING! LOVED, LOVED LOVED THIS BOOK!!!

Kathryn Le Veque is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. I devour all 25 hours of the book and still wanted more. This book is simply epic. Ms. Le Veque books are so vivid that I can imagine being there. This was such an entertaining tale. I loved Sir Gaston De Russe character so much. He was a no nonsense man, but as the story progress he became a big old teddy bear where Remington is concern. Lady Remington and her family has been though so much heartache and deserved a man like Gaston. This books has it all and will have your emotions all over the place. I laughed, cried, and waited on the edge of my seat to see what would happen next. Narrator did a great job bringing the story to life.

Loved It!

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book, this is my third book by this author and I am surprised at how different they all are and they are all great! I would recommend ANY books by this author. I think this one is my favorite, I laughed and cried and even though it is extremely long it didn't feel like it. I totally cried in one scene and it was freaking out my kids but TOTALLY worth it! Of course love triumphs in the end but the journey to the end was fabulous!

Provoked every emotion possible!!!

Really enjoyed all the angles and surprises.

I want more of this author and her Imagination.

An Epic Tale

Exactly what a medieval romance should be no wimpy knights. A strong H that would take a sword to anyone that threatened what was his. Our h had endured terrible hardships, beatings and rape at the hands of her evil husband. But let me state there were no rape scenes just references to past atrocities. So if you have triggers there is No active rape scenes just references to the past. I liked it because it was more historically correct with the time period. Women were at the mercy of men and the church. It was so much fun to really gain a perspective about the real Middle Ages not watered down events wrapped in ribbons and bows. So if you truly want a fast paced, wonderfully narrated medieval tale here it is. Happy Reading

Unbelievably Amazing!

Wow what a book. Yes it is long, But it was an amazing story. The hero is awesome! Can't even put into words how awesome his is. The dark one indeed!

It was a fantastic epic love story. Not your typical angst, and secrets historical romance. It was wonderful! They hero, Gaston and heroine, Remington had great chemistry and some wonderfully written sex scene, not graphic or erotica, very nicely written.

There was so much wonderful dialogue throughout the entire book.

Always something going on, never a dull moment. And for a book being about 800 pages long and a 25 hour listen it wasn't full of filler nonsense. The descriptions were brief and to the point. The story moved on and flowed quite nicely, and everything came together brilliantly. It was wonderful.

This author is truly gifted. I find it amazing that she wrote this book 20 plus years ago and it took that long to get published. Very interesting note from the author at the beginning and the end of the book.

As for the narration? Absolutely Wonderful! He did the women's voices great, and the hero's voice, (fanning myself) my oh my!

I actually got this book as a free listen with my KU subscription and 3.49 on audible! What a deal. However, I will say it would have been with the credit or dollars!

Long and wonderful adventure! Well worth a credit

Mr. McCabe did a great job bringing the story to life. There were quite a bit of editing errors during the last 3 hours of the book almost felt like he was rushing to finish producing and made a few careless errors by not deleting the parts he was re-recording but they weren’t so bad that they took you out of the story. His vocal range was great and the voices he gave all the characters were perfect. You felt like you could see a movie in your head. It took me 2 1/8 day to complete this book and I hated that I couldn’t stay awake to finish it without a break.

Ms. Le Veque is one seriously talented author with an imagination like I’ve never seen before! Since discovering her 2 months ago I’ve done nothing but binge on all of her series! I love how they all tie into each other one way or another. With cameo appearances from characters from the different series or their houses. It starts to feel like you are living in that era. I don’t know how she does it! But she does it flawlessly. I’ll admit that as an older lonely housewife I usually like romance with ummmm heat and Kathryn doesn’t write those explicit scenes but with her book I don’t even care because the plots are so rich and characters are so well developed. Though I will say that this book had a lot more sex and experimental exploratory sex scenes than I’ve seen in any of her other books so that was a welcomed sexy surprise. I’ll be really sad when I run out of her books to listen to. I’ll admit I have the romance package and I haven’t had to use credits to listen to her books. But slowly but surely I am purchasing each of them with very few exceptions (because of the narrator used in a few books but if they were re recorded with Mr. McCabe or Mr. Willis I would buy those as well)

Epicly Awesome!

Magnificent story ... I really enjoyed the characters and the overall medieval atmosphere the author created. While it was long, I enjoyed every minute of their love story.

Great Story and Narrator!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would recommend the story not just the book but the audio book as well. This is just a wonderful epic long read that is well worth a listen! Mr. McCabe has a great voice that works both as a narrator and to play some of the characters too. Gaston the imposing handsome English much loved knight known as the dark one dark knight is not only feared but respected by everyone is sent and honored by King Henry to Mt. Holyoak Castle. Gaston is at first apprehensive but goes and in so doing meets the beautiful but scared lady and heroine Remington. Gaston who at first lets no one especially a mere woman affects him but instantly Gaston can’t resist her and falls hard for her. Can Gaston fight all the forces that try to keep them apart?

Who was your favorite character and why?

In the book it was just Rory and Arik so just like in the audio book it was still the same. I loved Rory and her spirit. In fact most of the time I just wanted to go with her to play tricks on all the knights too. I also loved Arik who was Gaston’s best friend and I loved his astute observations of Gaston. I also wanted to hear his wise wisdom to call things as they were especially when it came to him.

Which character – as performed by Jim McCabe – was your favorite?

Unfortunately it would have to be Gaston. I just loved the way Mr. McCabe’s deep baritone voice but somewhat menacing tone he used for him. Even though he makes Gaston this mean scary guy there is a small trace of tenderness in there that pulls you in and makes you totally trust him.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There are parts of the book that are funny but one part sticks out in my mind. There is a part in the book just like the audio book there is a scene that I still have not gotten over or even forgiven Ms. Le Veque for; two of the minor characters Rory and Arik are killed in the book. I just didn’t want this to happen I loved those two the camaderie the friendships even their development as characters. I was so upset that I was just crying not only in frustration but grief over their losses and even tried to take my kindle and throw it against the wall.

Any additional comments?

I received this audio book as a gift from Ms. Le Veque and even if I would have not received it as a gift I still would have brought the audio book.

My favorite so far

Love the story but the narrator stumbled and started the sentence over several times and it was confusing. Normally he does a great job.