Hard Day's Knight by Katie MacCallister (2004)

It was fun to spend some time in the world of a Renaissance Fair and jousters in particular. I did learn something about the sport of jousting and their competitions. I think it is very brave of anyone to get up on a horse knowing that you will most likely get thrown off and in the beginning knowing positively that you would get thrown off. I hurt just thinking about it. I remember the jousts at our local Ren Fairs. There was a lot of fanfare around them, whipping up the audience, and these were just for show, though one year there was a higher caliber of jousters. Will have to see if I can find a Ren Fair nearby to see another joust again.

I have some colleagues and a friend that have devoted time to this, but I have never had the time to get involved in the Society of Creative Anachronism or similar medieval alternate worlds, but always enjoyed everybody getting dressed up, playing roles and speaking old English. I did buy a couple of simple clothing pieces once as Ren Fair garb. I would love to spend a week in this atmosphere, but don't think it is happening in this lifetime - or maybe when I retire, but is that too late? Well, at least I got to live in this world for a while through author MacAlister.

Now to the story. Pepper Marsh comes to not just a Ren Fair, but a world jousting championship in Canada with her cousin CJ, who is in love with a jouster from England. Pepper has never been to a Ren Fair plus she has an obnoxious cat Moth (short for Behemoth) who keeps getting her into trouble - but then again, it seems to be a great judge of character. Within minutes of being on her own, she almost gets killed by a galloping horse and gets saved by a knight in shining armor - Walker. He has a velvety low voice, when he is not yelling, and bright silver eyes, but why is he no longer jousting? And what is with Pepper herself? She started out in vet school, but gave up and is now an unemployed computer geek and seems to get annoyed by animals. Well, of course they get together, she learns to joust during the fair, lots of stuff happens including someone sabotaging Walker's team, another knight vying for Pepper's attentions, and there is some nice hot intimacy. I do have to say Pepper's inner and sometimes outer monologue grated on my nerves at times, but I realize that with all that I enjoyed this humorous book and may try some others by MacCallister.