Marvelous is a tender, aching novel based somewhat loosely on the real life story of a man who was adopted into the French court at the age of ten for the entertainment of the king and queen. Molly Greeling fictionalizes the life story of Petrus “Pedro” Gonsalvus, who was taken from his home in Tenerife…
Normally, I find a wide range of quality in an anthology. Tudor Christmas Tidings, however, is consistent from start to finish. That’s great for the strengths – every novella in this anthology has a wonderful sense of setting, with well-integrated historical figures. However, the main weakness of inadequately-developed romances is present in every story as…
Mary, Queen of Scots, was the subject (both knowing and unknowing) of many Catholic plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. Aware of this, and with new rumors afoot, Andrew, Earl of Exford, is assigned to monitor Mary’s visit to an English spa town. Luckily, he has a cover. Ten years ago, when he was sixteen…
Paula Marshall’s Harlequin Historicals backlist has become my new go-to for historicals with unusual settings. In Maid of Honor, it’s 1558, Queen Elizabeth is on the verge of coronation and Penelope Jermaine and Oliver Woodville are fresh arrivals at court, as maid of honor to the Queen and gentleman to Lord Robert Dudley, respectively. To…
Sometimes there’s nothing better for the soul than a good, sweet romance about two people asserting their right to be in love and battling back the demons that threaten to keep them from being so. Elisabeth Hobbes’ A Runaway Bride for the Highlander is the third book in the multi-author, cross-century Lochmore Legacy series, which…
Sometimes it’s the big picture that draws a person into a story. Combining strong fantasy elements with interesting worldbuilding and character work, The Alchemist of Lost Souls is less interesting for its telegraphed mystery than it is for the richness of its universe, but does not stand well on its own, nor does it contain…
I can think of few things more pleasant than whiling away a lazy summer afternoon with an engrossing historical novel, and so, when I saw that The Locksmith’s Daughter, the second novel from Australian author Karen Brooks, was available for review, I jumped at the chance to give it a try. It promised to be…
Back when A Knight in Shining Armor first came out in hardcover, I bought it, read it, loved it, and immediately started reading it again. I was at a friend’s house sitting by her pool one afternoon and was pronounced “anti-social” because I had my nose buried in the book and was pretty much ignoring…
Philippa Gregory – author of the White Queen and White Princess novels, and of The Other Boleyn Girl – needs no introduction from me. This somewhat disastrous fifteenth tome in her series chronicling the lives of the Plantagenet and Tudor dynasties sweeps us from the reign of Edward I to the execution of Mary, Queen…
Fans of historical fiction most likely aren’t strangers to the writing of Philippa Gregory. She’s perhaps best known for her masterful reimagining of the lives of the Tudors, especially sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn in her bestselling novel The Other Boleyn Girl. In this, the last novel in her Plantagenet and Tudor series, she turns…
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