Knights and Butterscotch got a 5 sweet peas review at Mrs Condit!

 ARC Review: Knights and Butterscotch by Faith Ashlin

Posted by Josie Goodreads on September 19, 2013

“I’m sorry.” Matti licked at his lips, knowing the brutality of what he was about to say would strip away any camouflage to leave the truth, stark and bare. “But it can’t be about what you want, not now. It’s about duty and country.”

GENRE: M/M, men in uniform, paranormal
RATING: 5 Sweet Peas! Recommended Read
BLURB: A story of modern-day knights, paint-splattered artists and a lightning bolt of attraction that hits hard enough to make a knight think he’s going crazy. And then things get complicated.

The year is now, the place is somewhere like here but the feeling is very different. Matti Elkin is a modern-day knight and, while he may not have a horse or a suit of shining armour, he’s brave and true, has a sense of duty and honour a mile wide and a passionate belief in his king.

There’s a war on and the knights are fighting hard, but while on R&R Matti is hit hard with an overwhelming attraction for Jamie, a tall, handsome painter.
Jamie makes his head spin and his cock harden, and has him acting in ways that make him question his own sanity. But when the war takes an appalling turn, they are both thrown into a world of confusion that has them questioning everything they thought they knew.
JOSIE’S OPINION: From the moment they first meet Matti and Jamie are pole axed by an attraction of cosmic proportions, which leads to the hottest opening of a book I’ve read for a long time, it’s scorching. I loved the analogy of chemistry and attraction being like a desire and longing for Butterscotch Whip, you have to eat so much it, until you can’t eat or face anymore, just to assuage your need.

Knights and Butterscotch (oh how I love that title, and let’s not forget the gorgeous cover!) is an enigma, the blurb is enticing and intriguing, not really telling the reader anything about the story other than it’s about a warrior, a painter, and a war.


Matti it turns out is a Knight, proud and loyal to his King he is part of a small force of elite troops, who serve King Godric and Prince Richard, but instead of a horse he rides an armored patrol vehicle called a Pirate. King Godric’s lands are currently being invaded by the Northerners, and the Knights are engaged in holding the front line in a bloody war of stalemate. Faith Ashlin brings the Knights to life as a band of romantic warriors, like the old knights of Camelot, or the Royalists of the English civil war, they are the most respected, most revered of all the military forces at King Godric’s disposal. Jamie is a contemporary painter, all passion and fire; he pours everything that he is into his art, telling the story of the real life around him.

The story is a slow burner, apart from the sex that is. Matti and Jamie gradually get to know one another as Matti takes all his leave with Jamie. I loved the way we get to know so much about both men through these brief liaisons, and that the sex gradually tappers off and they start to communicate in other ways. Then when the horror and brutality of war finally makes its mark, with a twist that I didn’t see coming, the confusion and uncertainty shine through. Can Matti and Jamie hang onto what they have, and who they are?

Faith Ashlin has the unique ability to draw you in from the first page, she breathes emotion into every scene and you literally feel your way through her books. Her writing flows like poetry across the page, seamlessly, effortlessly. There is a lot of sex in Knights and Butterscotch, but it’s not sex for sex’s sake, sex is how Matti and Jamie communicate, everything they say and feel is shown through breath and touch. The story ratchets up a notch once the war takes a radical turn and I felt for both characters as they tried to adjust. It may seem like it takes a long time to get to that point but once it did I understood all that had come before, it takes a polished author to pull off a twist like that, without even a hint of it before, and the story is rounded off nicely with a perfect ending.

I adored Knights and Butterscotch and recommend it for anyone who wants something a bit different, but most of all anyone who wants a story about how love can conquer all, as long as you have enough faith in yourself and those around you.



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