Although I can’t quite recommend The Holding, I look forward to checking back on Claudia Dain in a book or two – however long it takes for her to hit on a combination that plays to her considerable strengths as a writer while mitigating the few striking flaws that this book never quite overcame. For readers who are looking for a strong medieval flavor with characters who don’t act as though they came to the Middle Ages via a Renaissance festival, this author is definitely one to watch.

It’s England in 1155, and King Henry has awarded the castle of Greneforde to his loyal supporter William le Brouillard. The lady of the castle, Cathryn of Greneforde, comes with the package. When she learns that she’s about to meet the man who will be her lord and husband, does Cathryn fume at her loss of power? Does she make wacky plans with her comical servants to teach this arrogant lord a thing or two? Not at all. Her main emotion is relief that the people of Greneforde will finally have a strong protector. While she isn’t quite so sanguine about her own fate, her only gesture of defiance is to vow that William will never have access to her inner self. She intends a passive rebellion in which William will never even know what he is denied.

Like Cathryn, William reads like a man of his times. He’s thrilled to finally have land of his own, and he’s not too concerned over the woman who comes with it. He can tell that something is amiss – the servants seem terrified on their lady’s behalf, and they look and smell as if they’ve never bathed in their lives – but he takes things as they come. His biggest concern is to be sure that Cathryn’s ice-queen veneer does not hide a traitor.

I was getting along fine with Cathryn and William, watching the story unwind through their medieval viewpoints down an intriguing if ultimately predictable path, when – wham! – from out of nowhere, the story was blindsided by a colossal wallbanger moment that had devastating consequences to the remainder of the book. Yes, William is a twelfth-century guy. Yes, that implies a different general attitude towards women, and some of his more obtuse actions towards Cathryn are more understandable when viewed through that lens. However, a few chapters later we learn that William, specifically, should have had an entirely different set of preconceptions, based on a traumatic episode in his past. It’s a Big Misunderstanding that should never have happened, and could easily have been avoided. Minus three pages and one plot contrivance, this could have been a much better book. The error is compounded by a major pacing problem: as far as I could tell, William meets Cathryn, marries her, believes he’s been betrayed by her, learns otherwise, vows to heal her, and succeeds within 72 hours.

Along with the unusually strong medieval flavor, the other thing that I particularly appreciated about this book was its exceptional secondary characters. While they never upstaged William and Cathryn, all of the secondary characters felt like real individuals, with concerns independent from the hero and heroine’s. They are interested in William and Cathryn’s happiness because that happiness will directly affect their own quality of life. I always hate it when secondary characters come off as though they have no existence apart from commenting on the main action, and that was never the case here. Unfortunately, Cathryn and William were not quite so exceptional. What was sharply drawn in a few strokes per servant was drawn repeatedly, and very conventionally, for the hero and heroine. They spent a bit too much time bathing and getting dressed, bathing being one of William‘s particular quirks; I would have been happy to forgo a soak or two and get a better look at the goings-on elsewhere in the keep.

Readers who are especially concerned about violence against women, particularly when some of it comes from the hero, would do well to steer clear. However, this is a good book with flaws, rather than a hopelessly flawed book. For medieval fans desperately craving their next fix, The Holding may be Middle Ages methadone; enough to hold you until someone offers the pure goods.