Last night was the Orwigsburg Library’s book club meeting where they discussed their September read, Knightess. Librarian Claudia managed to keep me incognito until everyone had spoken their thoughts about the book and to my amazement, everyone in the room loved it! It was so neat to hear everyone discuss the characters, the plot twists, and their reactions to the story as a whole.

One of things the group seemed to agree on was the fluidity of the read. Several readers said that they finished it in only one night or a few days. The consensus was they were were eager to find out what was going to happen next and couldn’t put it down. One middle-aged reader said that it’s written for a younger generation, to which another lady chimed in “That’s why I liked it!”. They clarified that it is not a young adult book though. They didn’t specify if they were referring to the romantic scenes or the battle scenes…probably both! Glad to hear I got it in the right age group, as young adult was never intentioned. It was also wonderful to hear that they liked the formatting and found the text easy to read, even for some readers with vision problems.

One reader didn’t like the similarity of my Eleanor’s name to the famous Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who lived during the same period. A little spoiler, there’s already a section in Book 2 that discusses why Eleanor is named such, and her parents’ queen was indeed part of their inspiration. I also found it fascinating that so many people were attached to Wilfred and looking forward to his role in future books. Another spoiler, yes, you will see more of him, but not until Book 3 (sorry!). Of course there were a lot of opinions on Alec as well. I can’t give away spoilers on this one, but from what readers said, I succeeded in portraying him exactly as intended. Yay!

All in all it was a very fun night, and I am very grateful to Claudia and the rest of the Orwigsburg Library patrons for hosting me. It was truly a dream come true to have a room full of people talking about my book, something that has been part of me for so many years. And it was even better to hear it received with such positivity. Thank you!

As the book club kit heads to Pottsville and becomes available to the surrounding district libraries, I hope more book clubs take it on. And I can only hope they enjoy it as much as the Orwigsburg ladies did.

JA Stein