A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux: Discussion and Book Review

I first read A Knight in Shining Armor back in 2015, and I loved it so much! So when it came time to pick for the Ripped & Ravished Book Club, this was an easy yes: a chance to reread one of the most iconic time travel romances ever written and finally talk about it with all of you. A weeping woman, a tombstone, and a knight from 1564 who steps out of the past to rescue her.

I picked it as a deliberate change of pace, too. After a run of heavier vintage romances, this one is lighter, funnier, and it shows the pivotal moment ’80s romance started to shift away from the forced seduction alpha and toward a hero who actually listens and learns. It reads perfectly as a standalone even though it’s deep in Jude Deveraux’s Montgomery family series.

This post is your hub for the podcast discussions, reader comments (jump in and tell me what you thought), and my thoughts on the book, both the original 2015 review and where I land on the reread. It updates as we go.

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Listen to the podcast discussion:

Take note authors, Nicholas is what we all want to read when we envision a romance story to get lost in. ~ Under the Covers

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A note before you start: this is a gentler club pick than our usual, but it is still a product of its era. Expect a heroine with her self-esteem on the floor, a hero doing some textbook rake behavior, a casual “oh, by the way, I have a wife” moment, and a couple of scenes that land as cringe to a 2026 reader (a drugging-for-information bit, some unkind internal thoughts about a side character’s looks). None of it is the brutal stuff we’ve covered before. Read with your modern brain on and come talk about it with us.

What is A Knight in Shining Armor about?

Dougless Montgomery plans the whole England trip herself, certain her surgeon boyfriend is finally going to propose. Instead he shows up with his spoiled teenage daughter, hands the kid expensive jewelry, expects Dougless to split the bill, and then abandons her with no money and no passport in a country where she knows no one.

So she does what any of us would do. She sits down and sobs on the tomb of an Elizabethan knight.

And he suddenly appears in front of her. Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, dead since 1564, pulled forward to her. What follows is part fish out of water comedy, part scavenger hunt mystery as the two of them try to clear his name and untangle the treason that got him executed, and part one of the most aching soulmate romances of the decade.

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Why we picked this for Ripped & Ravished Book Club

How do you run a book club about romance history and skip A Knight in Shining Armor? You don’t. It is iconic, full stop, and I refused to let a club year go by without it.

But I also picked it on purpose as a palate cleanser. Our other bodice rippers have leaned hard into forced seduction and irredeemable heroes, and we needed a breather. This one is published in 1989, a little later than the others, and you can feel the genre turning. When we read Tender Is the Storm from 1985, that shift was not there yet. By 1989, Nicholas is still an alpha, but he listens, he learns, he is curious instead of threatened. And selfishly? It is a time travel romance, and I will never not want to talk about time travel romance.

Reading Notes & Discussion

This post updates as we go through the book. A Knight in Shining Armor is a two-part discussion for us: chapters 1 through 18, then chapter 19 through the end.

Part 1: Chapters 1–18

Listen / watch here

For this first discussion, Becky from Too Stupid to Live joins me again. I read this one about ten years ago, so it is a reread for me and a first read for her, which meant we got both points of view in real time.

The thing that hit us both immediately is how funny it is. This is a fish out of water rom com with full on John Hughes energy, and the comedy comes from Nicholas discovering the modern world one object at a time. The dressing room and the zipper. The calculator. Ice cream. A fountain that runs inside the house. The bath. Becky listened on audio and said the narrator was having the time of his life, and you can feel it. What I love is that Nicholas meets all of it with curiosity instead of fear, and he adapts fast, faster than I figure out a hotel shower.

We also got into the writing under the comedy. Nicholas talks about his own mother as a fully realized person, which feeds straight into that tired argument that people in the past “couldn’t” have been happy or nuanced. Both of these characters are learning, and watching them do it is the point. Dougless is a very ’80s heroine, naive, self-esteem on the floor, the damsel waiting to be rescued, and parts of that were genuinely hard for me to read. She is also resourceful and smart, and by chapter 18 she has grown enough to assert herself in ways she never could at the start.

I will be honest, there were moments she lost me. The thoughts about the daughter’s weight crossed a line, and that is the likable versus relatable conversation we kept circling: you do not have to like a character every second to be on her side. The side characters, meanwhile, are cartoon villains. Robert and his daughter are pure Heathers, no soft edges, and the “split the bill and also my kid is coming” scene is so over the top.

Then chapter 18 ends exactly where it has to. We cut it there on purpose. It is a perfect, devastating midpoint, and Becky said she felt gaslit, which is the correct reaction.

Things we talked about in Part 1

• The fish out of water comedy and why it works better on the page than it would on screen
• Nicholas discovering the modern world: the zipper, the calculator, ice cream, the bath
• How the audiobook narrator clearly had a blast
• The shift in ’80s romance away from forced seduction, and how this compares to Tender Is the Storm
• People of the past as fully realized humans, not their era’s stereotype
• Dougless as an ’80s damsel, and her self-esteem arc
• Likability versus relatability
• Cartoon villain side characters
• The “by the way, I have a wife” reveal
• That intentional gut punch at chapter 18
• A tangent on authors revising old books, and whether we should leave the past on the page

Part 1 discussion questions

If you’re reading along, tell me in the comments or reply to the email:

• Is this your first time with A Knight in Shining Armor, or a reread?
• How are you feeling about Dougless? Did she ever lose you?
• What was your favorite Nicholas discovers the modern world moment?
• Did the chapter 18 ending wreck you the way it wrecked us?
• Do you agree authors should leave old books as they were written, or revise them for modern readers?
• Is this your first Jude Deveraux?

Part 2: Chapters 19–End

Coming soon.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux Book Review

My original review, written in 2015 when I first read the book. I’m keeping it exactly as I wrote it then.

Sometimes there’s nothing better than to read a classic.  You know that feeling of comfort that I rarely find in new books, not sure why.  Maybe it’s the style, or the way that back then authors had to make you feel with simple words, instead of trying to shock you into it.  I picked up A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR by Jude Deveraux on a whim, after I saw a top ten list somewhere on a blog. Had I heard of the book before?  Yes.  Did I feel the immediate need to read it?  No, not really.  Did it help that it has a new sexy cover?  Absolutely.  So I dived in.  And immediately fell in love.

“Once upon a time…
…as a fair maiden lay weeping upon a cold tombstone, her heartfelt desire was suddenly made real before her: tall, broad of shoulder, attired in gleaming silver and gold, her knight in shining armor had come to rescue his damsel in distress….”

Oh what a beautiful story this is.  Entertaining and sweet.  With a hero that will make you swoon because he’s like the best of two worlds, and a heroine that you want to reach out and feel for her predicament.    Dougless thought she would get engaged to her asshole boyfriend, and instead he leaves her stranded in England.  While drowning in self pity and tears, Nicholas comes to her as her knight in shining armor.  All the way from the past.  What follows is the most adorable tale of Nicholas discovering love, learning about the new world and how far things have come from his times, and trying to solve a conspiracy that could save his life (in his times).

This book has several instances of time travel, some gushy romantic times, a great heroine and an absolutely drool-worthy hero.  Take note authors, Nicholas is what we all want to read when we envision a romance story to get lost in.  I lived in this story.  I was worried for the characters, I couldn’t wait to see them be happy.  And that brings me to end, and where my tears were shed.

The ending may not be everyone’s favorite.  I guess it depends on readers preference if you like how the author made it work for them.  I for one, loved it.  My heart ached, but I still loved it.  This book moved me to tears, of sadness and of joy.  And it left me with a very content smile on my face.  I will definitely be re-reading this one!

About the Montgomery/Taggert Family by Jude Deveraux

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux is #15 in her Montgomery/Taggert books. They follow connected characters in the same family, however they can work just as good as standalone romances. I personally read this one as a standalone and was 100% fine.

Join the discussion

Are you reading A Knight in Shining Armor with us? Leave a comment or reply to the email and tell me what you think. And if you want the book club emails, reminders, and discussions, sign up for the Ripped & Ravished Book Club newsletter here.

If you’re new to reading vintage romance with a modern brain, we went down the rabbit hole on how to read vintage bodice rippers without gaslighting yourself. And if you missed our last pick, go back to our Tender Is the Storm discussion.

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