Helena Schrader’s THE TALE OF THE ENGLISH TEMPLAR begins with Sir Percival de Lacy—tortured, bleeding, and near death in the roadside snow—having barely escaped from being used as a tool for the French King’s persecution of the wealthy Templar Order. He is found by young Felice de Preuthune, who, along with her grandfather Geoffrey (a former Templar), takes him in and heals his wounds. From then on, Sir Percival and Felice’s stories repeatedly intertwine as he seeks to free his brethren and avenge their suffering while she endures romantic, marital, and religious traumas. Both of them spend the book repeatedly rescuing each other, their devotion to each other growing as they support their efforts to remain principled, compassionate, loving people amongst corruption and horrific cruelty.

Many historical novels fall into the trap of giving their heroes and heroines modern sensibilities with respect to religion, religious vows, and belief. The Church is a monolithic oppressor, and the characters are either unquestioning, mindless believers (usually villains) or have heroically modern views on religious tolerance, rationalism, and sin. Schrader beautifully avoids this. Here the characters think and act like medieval believers; but they do genuinely think about their beliefs, given medieval (not modern) premises. The de Preuthunes have their roots in the Languedoc, still bitter from the Albigensian Crusades, and Geoffrey in particular retains some beliefs rooted in lingering Cathar doctrine. Percy has dedicated his life to his faith in practice and in battle, and it’s gut-wrenching for him when the Church he fought for betrays him.

Felice does not anachronistically rebel against the path expected of her as a medieval Christian noblewoman, but nor does she entirely go along with it, either. She doesn’t demand, for example, not to marry, or to marry for love when her lover is not available to her. She accepts it as her duty to marry as her parents decide, and to genuinely work to love her husband. She is no pure untouchable maiden, but a fallible, fully human being who navigates her way as best she can through the choices she has with the morals and beliefs she has available to her. This makes her a much more interesting character than either the Pure Redeeming Angel or a modern woman anachronistically shoved into a medieval gown.

This deeply profound look at morality, principle, love, and faith boasts characters that are real, believable, and understandable human beings whose worldviews convincingly differ from ours. In the end, THE TALE OF THE ENGLISH TEMPLAR proves a heartwarming, thought-provoking book that affirms how love, compassion, and honor are worth having—even while the world is collapsing in cruelty and corruption all around.

In THE TALE OF THE ENGLISH TEMPLAR, Helena Schrader presents readers with a powerful story about vows kept and vows broken; faith in the face of torture, persecution, and corruption; and love that triumphs against all odds.

~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader