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Of the many personalities involved in the Wars of the Roses, Anne Neville is frequently a secondary (or less) character who exists in order to be manipulated and used by others. Although that is the life of a woman of her time, Anne O”Brien tries to give her a voice in telling her own story – or at least most of it.


The youngest daughter of the powerful Earl of Warwick, from an early age Anne knows her obligation is to marry well and for the benefit of her family. When the king’s younger brother Richard becomes part of her father’s household, Anne develops an attachment to him and she is thrilled when a few years later their families see the advantage of the pair’s betrothal. But unfortunately for Anne, her life is not to be that of fairytales as the fight for the English crown lands in the middle of her family.

Between her scheming father and her selfish brother in law who have their own designs on the throne, Anne often doubts if the life she gets will be the one that she wants. As the conflict heats up and alternating victories spread confusion and dead bodies across England, Anne becomes her father’s ultimate bargaining chip and finds herself married not to Richard of Gloucester, but to Edward of Lancaster, heir of the “white rose” of Lancaster (and son of Henry VI).

Even though it was not her first choice, Anne decides to try and make the best of it. But even that is not to be as her mother in law storms in on the couple’s wedding night and puts a stop to the marriage’s consummation (not really a spoiler if you think about the book’s title). From there, Anne and Edward’s relationship goes disastrously downhill and eventually Anne finds her way back to Richard. But not without some difficulties and complications. The book ends shortly after the birth of the couple’s son (and so before their time as King and Queen of England).

The first person narration works fairly well in the context of the story. Instead of recounting some of the major events that make up the “War of the Roses” through letters or conversations with others, Anne mostly summarily relates them as they impact her or those around her at the time. This makes the book a good introduction to the time period as it isn’t overly weighed down with too many details. The story is well paced, moves quickly and overall, I enjoyed it.

I liked the characterizations of Anne and Richard. Anne is usually portrayed as a mealy-mouthed-wall-flower-of-a-girl so it was nice to see her with a little more character and emotion as well as some backbone at times. Most of the time Richard is either the devil or a saint, but here he is neither. Instead, O’Brien gives us a man who, although he cares for and loves Anne, isn’t above admiring the wealth, land and power she could bring him and also looks out for his own interests and position when it comes to marrying her. He’s not quite willing to throw it all away for love.

But on the opposite side are Margaret of Anjou and her son Edward of Lancaster. With the recent exception of Susan Higginbotham’s The Queen of Last Hopes, every fictional book I’ve read about this time period makes these two out as the worst humans being possible – evil in every way with no redeeming qualities at all. Although an early scene between Edward and Anne (where he gives her a thoughtful little gift) gave me some hope for a more balanced approach, unfortunately, it never materialized and we are given the same old nasty Margaret and Edward.

Although as mentioned by the author this was written more as a romance than straight historical fiction, there was one aspect of O’Brien’s story that really disappointed me – the insinuation of an incestuous relationship between Margaret and Edward. As far as I know there is no historical basis for this at all, and its inclusion in and of itself isn’t what bothered me - it’s more that it served absolutely no purpose in the story. If you are going to make something like this up, at least make it count for something!  It frankly was enough to make rate the book lower than I would have without it.

Two sides of alcohol:  “We use them; we supply them with ale until their courage will carry them against death and mutilation. We can’t damn them for the consequences.” King Edward to Richard in discussing the pillaging and raping men do after battle.

In case the FTC asks: I won a copy through the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program