3.5 stars 
 I'm a bit torn on how I feel about this one. So, bullet points it is :) 
 First the good: 
 *William is delicious and I love him. In fact, all the characters--even the secondary ones--were beautifully shaped, interesting to read about, and distinct individuals. I want to read more about William and Robert both. 
 *The historical details are masterful. This was a writer who REALLY did his homework and built an immersive world without inundating the reader with details. 
 *The writing was overall quite good, sprinkled with the occasional and subtle use of period language that added to the sense of immersion. There were, however, a couple words that pulled me out of the narrative, such as "balls" (which was not a part of the lexicon even a few hundred years ago, let alone almost a thousand) in the midst of the sex scenes. 
 And the not-so-good: 
 *The sex scenes did nothing for me. Just not hot at all. I felt like every sex scene was wanting for feeling, especially since William had never engaged in sex with another man before. Where were the sensory details? I missed them quite a bit. 
 *Was there a plot? Perhaps I blinked and missed it. Now, I know this was really more of a novella than a novel, but it took a long time to get started, and once it did, it didn't really go anywhere. The entire book revolves around, essentially, William getting his spurs and his lord's love. This is of course a personal preference, but I've never really liked PWPs and want something meatier to sink my teeth into. Of note is that I felt like the much more interesting story--that of Sir Robert's crusade--happened off-screen. 
 Overall, I did enjoy this, and for the masterful hand of worldbuilding alone, I plan to read more of Voinov's work.