This book had it all, forbidden love, unrequited love, first love, jealousy and a mysterious death. The author wound these threads together in a wonderful story that took us from the present (1906) back 14 years to when one of the protagonists, Johnathan, was a teenager. The story was wonderfully paced with bits pieces and pieces of the past as well as the present revealed tantalizingly. The author did a wonderful job with characterizations as well as atmosphere. There were some bumps in the narrative when switching the POV, but as the story moved along those became smoother. Over all this was a great read and I could hardly put it down trying to figure out exactly what took place that summer and to see if Jonathan and Alayne got their happily ever after. ( )

Outstanding! One of the best historical gay novels I have read in a long time. It's a tragic love story of the past, that is intertwined with the present. Finely drawn characters and twisting plot kept me turning the pages.I could not put this down. I loved the prose, the attention to detail and the mulit-dimensional characters. I found myself tearing up at the end of this brilliant novel. I really didn't want to let go of these characters. A terrific debut novel from this author. I highly recommend this. ( )

Lover’s Knot is probably one of the best Gay Historical romance I have ever read, in the tradition of the classic romance, where explicit sex is an option, but sensuality and romanticism are a must.

At the beginning of the novel we meet Williams and Langsford-Knight; old college mates that after decided to share a room in London for convenience while both of them got settled in the city; and now, 9 years later, they are still together. Together like friends, obviously, they well know that anything else would be a ruin, and they don’t dare; they fear so much for the well-being of each other, that no one of them has ever had the courage to speak aloud their respective feelings, and so they guess, but they actually don’t know if what they bear is an unrequited love or not. Even if their friendship is lasting for almost 14 years now, their relationship has still the feeling of what you can find among college students, or convinced bachelors, and even if this story is set at the beginning of the XX century (1906), they still maintain the old fashioned way, calling themselves with their last name, and not with their first name. And here the “convenience” and custom, and maybe the need to maintain a certain distance, is quite clear, since the reader knows, and read, that Jonathan Williams, is not new to being in love with another man, and when he was young, before meeting Langsford, he was in love with Nat, a farmhand in his cousin’s property where Jonathan was spending the summer before college; with Nat, Jonathan was at first name relationship, he was Jonny for Nat, and with Nat he was daring and carelessness.

For this reason, and for other little details, the reader at the beginning wondered how was possible that a love so big, and ended in a tragic way (Nat died at the end of the summer, falling of a cliff), was so easy forgotten by Williams, that, for his own words, fallen almost immediately in love with Langsford at their first meeting in college. But little by little the reader understands that there was something not said between Jonathan and Nat, the memories Jonathan has are of course not happy, but it’s not the sadness to remember a lost lover; and it’s also clear that what happened prevents him to be happy with Langsford.

Happiness with Langsford that indeed seems easy and reachable, they are like a well oiled couple, Langsford knowing all Williams idiosyncrasies, and Williams covering for Langsford’s forgetfulness; Williams is serious and quiet, where Langsford is a friendly and charming. They are like night and day, but at the same time they are the same. When Langsford realized that Williams’s inheritance of the farm in Cornwall will bring his friend far from him, he understands that it’s time to speak his feelings; otherwise he will loose Williams forever. I think that, being them already a couple, in everything if not by law and in bed, Langsford would have been happy to stay like that forever; only the thought of losing Williams is pushing him to change that course, probably thinking that a bond of love would be stronger than friendship and a way to not have to renounce to the man that he is already considering his soul mate.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0762436859/?tag=elimyrevandra-20