Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

In Vienna to pay her final respects, Nannerl soon finds herself ensnared in a web of suspicion and intrigue—as the actions of jealous lovers, sinister creditors, rival composers, and Mozart’s Masonic brothers suggest that dark secrets hastened the genius to his grave. As Nannerl digs deeper into the mystery surrounding her brother’s passing, Mozart’s black fate threatens to overtake her as well.

Transporting readers to the salons and concert halls of eighteenth-century Austria, Mozart’s Last Aria is a magnificent historical mystery that pulls back the curtain on a world of soaring music, burning passion, and powerful secrets.



The September Queen by Gillian Bagwell.  US and UK release November 1, 2011.

Charles II is running for his life-and into the arms of a woman who will risk all for king and country.


Jane Lane is of marrying age, but she longs for adventure. She has pushed every potential suitor away-even those who could provide everything for her. Then one day, adventure makes its way to her doorstep, and with it comes mortal danger...

Royalists fighting to restore the crown to King Charles II implore Jane to help. Jane must transport him to safety, disguised as a manservant. As she places herself in harm's way, she finds herself falling in love with the gallant young Charles. And despite his reputation as a breaker of hearts, Jane finds herself surrendering to a passion that will change her life forever.



Fires of Winter by Roberta Gellis.  US and UK reissue November 1, 2011.

A sparkling prize, the beautiful Mellusine of Ulle is awarded to the bastard-born Bruno of Jernaeve as a spoil of war. Bruno vows to tame the rebellious spirit of the captive beauty&nash; but ultimately surrenders to her charms. Born of different worlds, joined in the flames of passion and intrigue, they find new strength in each other's arms...and a burning love that defies all eternity











Fortune's Son by Emery Lee.  US and UK release November 1, 2011.

Love is the ultimate gamble...


Seasoned gambler Philip Drake knows every trick and uses most of them. After years of infamy, he's ready to accept the mantle of respectability with his earldom-- until a devastating racing loss and the threat of debtors' prison force Philip right back into his gaming ways...

Susannah, Lady Messingham, is a woman with a past who refuses to belong to any man again. But Philip's skill catches her eye and she persuades him to teach her how to win at the tables. Their new partnership turns into an exhilarating high-stakes game that entangles them in terrifying risk and unimaginable rewards...

Immerse yourself in the risky side of Georgian England with a pair of lovers who aren't afraid to risk it all on a toss of the dice...



My Glorious Brothers by Howard Fast.  US reissue November 1, 2011.

For years, the people of Judea suffered under the oppressive rule of King Antiochus and the Syrian-Greeks. Under his reign, Jews were massacred and Judaism was effectively outlawed. Fed up with the injustices, peasant farmer Judas Maccabee and his brothers lead a revolt against the king and mold the people of Judea into an army.


Judas' older brother Simon stands beside him as his faithful lieutenant and second in command. But while these brothers are united in ideals on the field of battle, their love of the same woman threatens to tear them apart.








Magnificent Obsession:  Victoria, Albert and the Death that changed the Monarchy by Helen Rappaport.  Non-fiction.  UK release November 3, 2011 (will be released in the US in March 2012).

When Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, died in December 1861 the nation was paralysed with grief. He was only forty-two and official bulletins had, until the day before he died, given no cause for alarm.


But in fact Albert had been in a progressive physical decline for years - worn out by overwork, stress and the exacting standards he set himself. His death was a catastrophe for the queen, who not only adored her husband but had, through twenty-one years of marriage, utterly relied on him: as companion, father of their children, friend, confidant, wise counsellor and unofficial private secretary. There was not a single aspect of public business on which she had not deferred to his advice and greater wisdom. She would even consult him on what bonnet to wear.

Britain had lost its king. For that is the role that Albert had performed in all but name. Politicians and the press agreed that his death was a national calamity. The public, totally unprepared, responded with a massive outpouring of grief.

This royal death had a profound impact on Britain. Cast adrift and alone, the Queen donned the widow's weeds that she would wear for 40 years, till her own death in 1901. Her grieving was relentless. Without Albert to guide and support her, with a feckless heir who had caused her nothing but anxiety, and a family of nine children to parent alone, she retreated into a state of pathological grief which nobody could penetrate and few understood. Her stubborn refusal to return to public life rapidly began to alienate even her closest family and friends and to bring a resurgence of republicanism. There was even talk of abdication.

For the 150th anniversary of Albert's death, this book examines the circumstances leading up to it, the ritual of his funeral and obsequies, and offers new theories on what killed him. It will describe the overwhelming despondency of a country plunged into mourning: bells tolling, shops shuttered up, everyone - no matter how poor - clad in black. Albert's death and the Queen's demand for the most rigorous observance of mourning, while precipitating months of anxiety about its effect on business, also fostered an explosion in the funeral trade and mourning ephemera. The Whitby jet trade went into overdrive to cope with the demand for black jewellery. Over the next ten years, the Queen's single-handed mission to memorialise and commemorate her husband in perpetuity set in train plans for a range of artistic and cultural monuments that would transform the British landscape and set their visual stamp on the second half of her reign.



Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies.  Non-fiction.  This originally had a UK release date of November 3, 2011 but looks like it was changed to last week.  It will be released in the US in January 2012.
'The past is a foreign country' has become a truism, yet we often forget that the past is different from the present in many unfamiliar ways, and historical memory is extraordinarily imperfect. We habitually think of the European past as the history of countries which exist today - France, Germany, Britain, Russia and so on - but often this actually obstructs our view of the past, and blunts our sensitivity to the ever-changing political landscape.


Europe's history is littered with kingdoms, duchies, empires and republics which have now disappeared but which were once fixtures on the map of their age - 'the Empire of Aragon' which once dominated the western Mediterranean; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, for a time the largest country in Europe; the successive kingdoms (and one duchy) of Burgundy, much of whose history is now half-remembered - or half-forgotten - at best. This book shows the reader how to peer through the cracks of mainstream history writing and listen to the echoes of lost realms across the centuries.

How many British people know that Glasgow was founded by the Welsh in a period when neither England nor Scotland existed? How many of us will remember the former Soviet Union in a few generations' time? Will our own United Kingdom become a distant memory too? As in his earlier celebrated books Europe: a history and The Isles, Norman Davies aims to subvert our established view of what seems familiar, and urges us to look and think again. This stimulating surprising book, full of unexpected stories, observations and connections, gives us a fresh and original perspective on the history of Europe.



The Winding Road by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.  UK release November 3, 2011 (will be released in the US in January 2012).

1925. England is prosperous; the nation has put the war behind it, and hope is in the air. The Jazz Age is in full swing in New York, where Polly Morland is the most feted beauty of the day. But a proposal of marriage from the powerful, enigmatic Ren Alexander takes her by surprise. Her cousin Lennie, expanding his interests from radio to television and talkies, worries that no one knows much about Ren; but his attempts to find out more threaten disaster. In London, the General Strike gives the country another chance to show its stiff upper lip, as everyone turns to and helps out. Emma drives an ambulance again, while Molly runs a canteen, and each unexpectedly finds love, and a new career. But the whirligig is slowing, shadows are gathering over Europe, and the good times are almost over. Morland Place is threatened by the worst disaster of its history, and the Old World reaches out a hand to pluck Polly from the New. The Wall Street Crash brings the fabulous decade to a shattering close, and nothing will ever be quite the same again; but new shoots emerge from the ruins, hope is reborn, and the Morlands prove again that family is everything, and will endure.

Today I'd like to welcome Cynthia Haggard to talk a little bit about her recently released book about Cecylee Neville.

I’ve always found it interesting that Edward IV’s favorite mistress should have had two names. Was she Jane Shore? Or Elizabeth Shore?


Turns out that her name was really Elizabeth, but she allowed herself to be called Jane.

Now why would that be? Would it be because Jane Shore - who comes across as a generous, kind-hearted individual - allowed her first name to change so that she would not compete with the other important woman in Edward’s life, his wife Queen Élisabeth Woodville? Perhaps she thought that one Elizabeth was enough for King Edward IV. What does seem to be true is that Edward was fond of Jane Shore, who was witty and intelligent, and seems to have been the recipient of many confidences. She provides an important link to evidence that gives us some indication of how Cecylee Neville - Edward’s formidable mother and the protagonist of THWARTED QUEEN - felt when she learned that he had secretly married Elisabeth Woodville.

As an old woman, Jane Shore was befriended by Sir Thomas More - the famous catholic martyr who was beheaded in 1535 - early in the reign of Henry VIII. The event she remembered occurred many years before, in September 1464, when Edward confounded everyone by announcing his secret marriage. His mother was dismayed and hurt. Dismayed, because Edward’s new Queen would take precedence over her. Hurt, because he had not confided in her. It was all the more distressing because his cousin, Warwick the Kingmaker, had been on the point of concluding negotiations for the hand of the French King’s sister.

Sir Thomas More recounts the row that erupted, as it came from the lips of Jane Shore. Cecylee told her son that it was his duty as King of England to marry into a noble or royal house from the continent. She said that it was wholly inappropriate for a monarch to marry his own subject, where no honor or lands could be secured by it.

“A rich man,” she declared,” would marry his maid only for a little wanton dotage on her person. In which marriage, many more commend the maiden’s fortune than the master’s wisdom. And yet...there is between no merchant and his own maid so great a difference as between the King and this widow. And marrying a widow,” she added as a parting shot, “only made matters worse.”

Jane Shore apparently told Sir Thomas More that when King Edward rebuffed Cecylee’s complaint, she “devised to disturb this marriage.”

But she didn’t succeed. Despite his uncontrollable womanizing, Elizabeth Woodville managed to hold her husband’s attention long enough to give him ten children over a period of fourteen years.

But Cecylee loathed her daughter-in-law and never forgave her son, and her dismay and hurt feelings helped to fuel the second phase of the Wars of the Roses, in which Edward nearly lost his throne.


About the book:

THWARTED QUEEN is a portrait of a woman trapped by power, a marriage undone by betrayal, and a King brought down by fear.


Cecylee is the apple of her mother’s eye. The seventh daughter, she is the only one left unmarried by 1424, the year she turns nine. In her father’s eyes, however, she is merely a valuable pawn in the game of marriage. The Earl of Westmorland plans to marry his youngest daughter to 13-year-old Richard, Duke of York, who is close to the throne. He wants this splendid match to take place so badly, he locks his daughter up.

The event that fuels the narrative is Cecylee’s encounter with Blaybourne, a handsome archer, when she is twenty-six years old. This love affair produces a child (the “One Seed” of Book II), who becomes King Edward IV. But how does a public figure like Cecylee, whose position depends upon the goodwill of her husband, carry off such an affair? The duke could have locked her up, or disposed of this illegitimate son.

But Richard does neither, keeping her firmly by his side as he tries to make his voice heard in the tumultuous years that encompass the end of the Hundred Years War - during which England loses all of her possessions in France - and the opening phase of the Wars of the Roses. He inherits the political mantle of his mentor Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, and become’s the people’s champion. The rambunctious Londoners are unhappy that their country has become mired in misrule due to the ineptitude of a King prone to fits of madness. Nor are they better pleased by the attempts of the King’s French wife to maneuver herself into power, especially as she was responsible for England’s losses in France. But can Richard and Cecylee prevail?  Everywhere, their enemies lurk in the shadows.

The King’s Concubine by Anne O’Brien.  US and UK release June 5, 2012.

A child born in the plague year of 1348, abandoned and raised within the oppressive walls of a convent, Alice Perrers refused to take the veil, convinced that a greater destiny awaited her.  Ambitious and quick witted, she rose above her obscure beginnings to become the infamous mistress of Edward III.  But always, essentially, she was alone…

Early in Alice’s life, a chance meeting with royalty changes everything:  kindly Queen Philippa, deeply in love with her husband but gravely ill, chooses Alice as a lady-in-waiting.  Under the queen’s watchful eyes, Alice dares to speak her mind.  She demands to be taken seriously.  She even flirts with the dynamic, much older king.  But she is torn when her vibrant spirit captures is interest and leaders her to a betrayal she never intended.

In Edward’s private chambers, Alice discovers the pleasures and paradoxes of her position.  She is the queen’s confidante, the king’s lover, yet she can rely only on herself.  It is a divided role she was destined to play and she vows to play it until the bitter end.  Even as she is swept up in Edward’s lavish and magnificent court, amassing wealth and influence for herself, becoming an enemy of his power-hungry son John of Gaunt, and a sparring partner to the resourceful diplomat William de Windsor, she anticipates the day when the political winds will turn against her.  For when her detractors voice their hatred, and accusations of treason swirl around her, threatening to destroy everything she has achieved, who will stand by Alice then?




Perdition by  James Jackson.  UK release January 5, 2012 (reposted with cover)

Almost two hundred years have elapsed since the Crusader armies took Jerusalem. Now it is the turn of the Saracen to seek revenge and send an overwhelming force against the last Christian enclave in the Holy Land. In Acre, the defenders await their fate. Knight and bishop, mercenary and merchant, all will be tested and all may perish. For this is the endgame. No quarter will be given and no mercy shown.

William of Beaujeu, Grand Master of the Templars, will stop at little to secure the city and preserve his legendary military order. He knows that final judgement is approaching and that time is running out. But among the garrison are allies - the adventurer de Flor, Theobald, the young Hospitaller, the court dwarf Amethyst, the camel master Selim and the orphan boy and spy Benedict - who must stay alive in the chaos to be unleashed. In their midst prowl the feared Assassins and sinister enemies from among a rabble army of Italians. Deserted by the pope and the princes of Europe, it seems as if Acre faces annihilation - but perhaps something can still be salvaged from perdition . . .


Master and God by Lindsey Davis.  UK release March 15, 2012. 

AD81. The Roman Emperor Domitian seizes power. Afflicted by classic paranoia, the self-styled Master and God sees enemies everywhere - and he is right. The Senate loathes him, his advisers are terrified, he cannot trust his wife and barbarians menace the frontiers. As he vents his suspicions, no one is safe...

Gaius Vinius Clodianus survives physical and mental scars to reach high rank in the Praetorian Guard. Flavia Lucilla tends the privileged women at court; when Domitian's inherited talent unravels into madness, she loses her patron cruelly. In the haven of their shared apartment, Gaius and Lucilla find solace together, yearning for normality while living in a Reign of Terror.

Moves against Domitian are begun by his own household. Lucilla has to watch Gaius choose between love for her and risking death; between his sworn duty to protect the Emperor and killing Domitian for the good of Rome.

The plot careers close to exposure. Rome teeters on the brink of its Golden Age. A group of unlikely conspirators must now act with decency and courage, whatever the personal cost.

Master and God is the epic story of a despot whose contemporaries wrote him out of history. Told in Lindsey Davis' sardonic style, it is an intimate portrait of resilience, friendship and love.

The winner of The Countess by Rebecca Johns is:

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander.  US release October 25, 2011 (will be released in the UK in December 2011).

Secrets prove deadly in this new novel from Tasha Alexander featuring Lady Emily Hargreaves. Some very prominent people in London are waking up to find their doorsteps smeared with red paint, the precursor to the revelation of a dark secret – and worse – by someone who enjoys destroying lives


Newly returned to her home in Mayfair, Lady Emily Hargreaves is looking forward to enjoying the delights of the season. The delights, that is, as defined by her own eccentricities—reading The Aeneid, waltzing with her dashing husband, and joining the Women’s Liberal Federation in the early stages of its campaign to win the vote for women. But an audacious vandal disturbs the peace in the capital city, splashing red paint on the neat edifices of the homes of London’s elite. This mark, impossible to hide, presages the revelation of scandalous secrets, driving the hapless victims into disgrace, despair and even death. Soon, all of London high society is living in fear of learning who will be the next target, and Lady Emily and her husband, Colin, favorite agent of the crown, must uncover the identity and reveal the motives of the twisted mind behind it all before another innocent life is lost.



Tides of War by Stella Tillyard.  US release October 25, 2011 (released in the UK in May 2011).

An epic novel about love and war, set in Regency England and Spain during the Peninsular War (1812-15), by the acclaimed historian and bestselling author of Aristocrats


Tides of War opens in England with the recently married, charmingly unconventional Harriet preparing to say goodbye to her husband, James, as he leaves to join the Duke of Wellington's troops in Spain.

Harriet and James's interwoven stories of love and betrayal propel this sweeping and dramatic novel as it moves between Regency London on the cusp of modernity—a city in love with science, the machine, money—and the shocking violence of war in Spain. With dazzling skill Stella Tillyard explores not only the effects of war on the men at the front but also the freedoms it offers the women left behind. As Harriet befriends the older and protective Kitty, Lady Wellington, her life begins to change in unexpected ways. Meanwhile, James is seduced by the violence of battle, and then by love in Seville.

As the novel moves between war and peace, Spain and London, its large cast of characters includes the serial adulterer and war hero the Duke of Wellington, and the émigrés Nathan Rothschild and Frederic Winsor who will usher in the future, creating a world brightly lit by gaslight where credit and financial speculation rule. Whether describing the daily lives and desires of strong female characters or the horror of battle, Tides of War is set to be the fiction debut of the year.



Conqueror by Conn Iggulden.  UK release October 27, 2011 (will be released in the US in December 2011). 

The one and only Conn Iggulden takes on the story of the mighty Kublai Khan. An epic tale of a great and heroic mind; his action-packed rule; and how in conquering one-fifth of the world’s inhabited land, he changed the course of history forever.


A scholar who conquered an empire larger than those of Alexander or Caesar.

A warrior who would rule a fifth of the world with strength and wisdom.

A man who betrayed a brother to protect a nation.

From a young scholar to one of history’s most powerful warriors, Conqueror tells the story of Kublai Khan – an extraordinary man who should be remembered alongside Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte as one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known.

It should have been a golden age, with an empire to dwarf the lands won by the mighty Genghis Khan. Instead, the vast Mongol nation is slowly losing ground, swallowed whole by their most ancient enemy. A new generation has arisen, yet the long shadow of the Great Khan still hangs over them all …

Kublai dreams of an empire stretching from sea to sea. But to see it built, this scholar must first learn the art of war. He must take his nation’s warriors to the ends of the known world. And when he is weary, when he is wounded, he must face his own brothers in bloody civil war.


Bessie Blount:  The Story of Henry VIII's Longtime Mistress by Elizabeth Norton.  Non-fiction.  UK release October 28, 2011 (no cover image available.). 

Beautiful, young, exuberant, the amazing life of Elizabeth Blount, Henry VIII's mistress and mother to his first son who came tantalizingly close to succeeding him as King Henry IX. The earliest known, and longest lasting mistress of Henry VIII, Bessie Blount was the king's first love. More beautiful than Anne Boleyn or any of Henry's other wives or concubines, Bessie's beauty and other charms ensured that she turned heads, winning a place at court as one of Catherine of Aragon's ladies. Within months she was partnering the king in dancing and she rose to be the woman with the most influence over Henry, much to Catherine of Aragon's despair. The affair lasted five years (longer than most of Henry's marriages) and in 1519 she bore Henry VIII a son, Henry Fitzroy. As a mark of his importance Cardinal Wolsey was appointed his guardian and godfather. Supplanted soon after by Mary Boleyn, Bessie's importance rests on the vital proof it gave Henry VIII that he could father a healthy son and through Henry Fitzroy, Bessie remained a prominent figure at court. In the country at large, for proving that the king was capable of fathering a son Bessie prompted the saying 'Bless'ee, Bessie Blount' and her position of mother of such an important child made her an object of interest to many of her contemporaries. Sidelined by historians until now, Bessie and the son she had by the king are one of the great 'what ifs' of English history. If Jane Seymour had not produced a male heir and Bessie's son had not died young aged 17, in all likelihood Henry Fitzroy could have followed his father as King Henry IX and Bessie propelled to the status of mother of the king.


Catherine of Aragon:  A Life by Patrick Williams.  Non-fiction.  UK release October 28, 2011 (no cover image available). 

The tragic story of Henry VIII's first unfortunate wife. Catherine of Aragon was a central figure in one of the most dramatic and formative events of Tudor history - England's breach with Rome after a thousand years of fidelity. She lived through traumatic and revolutionary times and her personal drama was played out against dramas of global significance. The heroic and dignified first wife of Henry VIII who was cast aside for reasons of dynastic ambition, but who resolutely and unbendingly stuck to her principles and her dignity at enormous cost to herself. Catherine's story tells so much about the exercise of power, and about being married to a lover who became - slowly but perceptibly - a tyrant in public life and a monster in his private affairs. Professor Patrick Williams has been immersed in Spanish history for over thirty years and his monumental new biography - the first to make full use of the Spanish Royal Archives - is the result, and presents a very different portrait of Catherine.

I"ve had another blog for a while where I posted historical fiction book covers (largely from the past).  I haven't posted there for a while and have decided to start posting those here.  I'll be leaving Tanzanite's Book Covers up though to keep all of the stuff already posted there and in case I change my mind (again...).

When I was in high school and college, I was a huge fan of historical romances.  Apparently, under some of these wonderfully cheesy covers were stories about real historical people (who knew!!).  I don't recall reading any of those then, but since my love affair with historical fiction began, I've been finding them now.  This is a recent addition to my personal book collection:

Another one of our favorites from the 2010 trip - Windsor Castle


I love this kind of detail work - it was everywhere (and of course hubby had to take pictures of all of it!)

I decided to create a Facebook page for the castle - I'm not entirely sure I know what I'm doing, but we'll give it a shot.  If you're so inclined, please hop over there and "Like" us.  Tanzy will be so happy if you do.  You can also click on the little "Like" button below (I think...)

The Stuart Age:  England 1603-1774 by Barry Coward.  Non-fiction.  US reissue December 19, 2011.

The Stuart Age is widely recognised as the best general book on the period. Now in its fourth edition, it provides a definitive and up-to-date history of England's century of civil war and revolution.


Barry Coward addresses the major themes of the time, from the causes of the English Civil War and the nature of the English Revolution, to the aims and achievements of Oliver Cromwell, the continuation of religious passion in the politics of Restoration England, and the impact on Britain of the Glorious Revolution. The book also covers the relevant history of Scotland and Ireland, and gives comprehensive treatment of economic, social, intellectual, and political and religious history.

This fully revised edition includes the following features:

- carefully selected illustrations integrated into the text
- a new larger format
- text boxes covering key ideas, events and figures
- up-to-date introductions to the most important historiographical issues

The late Barry Coward was Emeritus Professor of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. His many publications include Oliver Cromwell (2000) and A Companion to Stuart Britain (2008).



Spartacus:  The Gladiator by Ben Kane.  UK release January 19, 2012 (reposted with cover and updated summary)

In historical terms we know very little about Spartacus the man - partly because most contemporary Roman historians were keen to obliterate his memory and prevent him from attaining mythic status. This of course is grist to the novelist's mill. Ben Kane's brilliant novel begins in the Thracian village to which Spartacus has returned, after escaping from life as an auxiliary in the Roman army. But here he quickly falls foul of his overlord, the Thracian king, who has set his heart on Dionysian priestess, Ariadne - later to become wife of Spartacus. Betrayed again to the Romans by his jealous king, Spartacus - and with him Ariadne - are taken in captivity to the school of gladiators at Capua. it is here - against the unbelievable brutality of gladiatorial life - that Spartacus and Crixus the Gaul plan the audacious overthrow of their Roman masters, escaping to Vesuvius, where they recruit and train a huge slave army - an army which will keep the might of Rome at bay for two years and create one of the most extraordinary legends in history. SPARTACUS; THE GLADIATOR takes the story up to the moment when the slave army has inflicted its first great defeat on Rome.



Empress Josephine’s Crown by Michelle Moran.  UK release March 1, 2012.


Empress Josephine's family has been called to Napoleon's court for the terrible news that he intends to divorce his barren wife of thirteen years and take a younger bride, the Austrian Princess Marie-Louise. For Josephine's daughter, Hortense, this means she is free to leave her husband, Napoleon's brother, having given the Bonapartes three heirs. As she looks for love, she must support her mother through the terrible grief of Napoleon's betrayal. For his new wife, it is a terrible duty she must take on in her father's name. She has nothing in common with the strange, older man she has married and can find little in her life to enjoy. But an unlikely friendship with Hortense will bring her much comfort, especially as she must fight for her own happiness. For Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, it is yet another woman stealing her brother's attention and affection. Having spent years attempting to control his power and his influence, she must fight harder and dirtier if she is to win...



Spy for the Queen of Scots by Theresa Breslin.  Young Adult.  UK release May 3, 2012.


As lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots, the beautiful Ginette - known as Jenny - is the young queen's closest childhood friend. Growing up in the elegant but ruthless French court, surrounded by enemies and traitors - not least the jealous, manipulative Catherine de Medici, and Mary's own scheming half-brother, James - Jenny has always been fiercely loyal to her mistress. But when she overhears a mysterious whispered plot, closely followed by several unexplained deaths at court, she puts her own life in danger and turns spy for Mary.

Jenny quickly realises not a soul at court can be trusted, and when she and Mary return to their Scottish homeland for Mary to claim her throne, they face even greater peril. Desperate to protect her friend from those who would slit her throat to steal her crown, while battling her feelings for the charismatic nobleman Duncan Alexander, Jenny becomes embroiled in a dangerous web of secrets, betrayals and lies.



Wallis by Rebecca Dean.  UK release June 10, 2012. (previously titled The Shadow Queen)


Two lovers. Two very different lives.

One future together that will change history.

When debutante Wallis Simpson is growing up, she devotes her teenage daydreams to one man, the future King of England, Prince Edward. But it's Pamela Holtby, Wallis's aristocratic best friend, who mixes within the palace circle.

Wallis's first marriage to a dashing young naval pilot is not what she dreamt of; he turns out to be a dominating bully of a man, who punishes her relentlessly. But her fated marriage does open a suprising door, to the world of Navy couriers – where navy wives are being used to transport messages around the world. This interesting turn of fate takes Wallis from the exuberant social scene in Washington to a China that is just emerging from civil war.

Edward in the meantime is busy fulfilling his royal duties – and some extra-curricular ones involving married women. Until the day, just before he ascends the throne as Edward VIII, he is introduced to a very special married woman, Wallis Simpson.

Was Wallis Simpson really the monster the royal family perported her to be? Or was she an extraordinary woman who led an unimaginable life?

A dramatic novel, that crosses continents and provides a unique insight into one of history’s most charismatic and multi-faceted women.



Lady Jane Grey by Sue Reid.  Young Adult.  UK release June 7, 2012. 

Not much of a product description for this one:
The tragic story of Lady Jane Grey who was Queen of England for nine days in July 1553


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Of Fathers and Sons:  Geoffrey Hotspur and the Este Inheritance by Evan Ostryzniuk.  UK release September 6, 2012.

Geoffrey Hotspur, orphan-squire and ward of the powerful John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, longs to return home to France.


Having fought in the ranks of the now disbanded papal armies in Italy, he finds himself penniless and stuck in a foreign land far from his native Avignon, with only a resentful and unscrupulous debt collector as companion. He misses the warm bosom of the Great Hall, the company of his fellow squires and the kind words of the chatelaine, Anne de Roet. Above all, though, Geoffrey fears losing his place at court, and so he must by all means and with speed make his way back to the halls of Gaunt or risk being forsaken by the only family he has known.

But when Geoffrey and his English Free Company take a job protecting pilgrims headed north, he meets a beguiling young woman, heiress of an old and distinguished crusader family of Cyprus, who fuels his fantasies about courtly love and confuses his priorities. Meanwhile, to reach the safety of Avignon, Geoffrey must traverse northern Italy, where the clouds of war are gathering...

Twelve year old Niccolo, the new Marquis of Ferrara and heir to the strategic lands of the Este family, is under siege. His right to the throne is being contested by his uncle, the old Visconti captain-general Azzo d'Este, who has been cultivating allies and gathering men-at-arms since the death of the old marquis in 1393 - and he is almost ready to strike. Outnumbered and insecure because of his questionable legitimacy, Niccolo must gather an army of his own if he is to defend his birthright. However, with limited resources and vassals deserting him left and right, the young marquis must keep his wits about him if he is to negotiate the perilous waters of family politics.

When the paths of the errant squire and troubled marquis cross, their fates intertwine as each endeavors to take from the other what he needs.

As a young girl, Jacquetta is married to England’s regent in France, John, Duke of Bedford. But her new husband has little interest in Jacquetta as a wife; it is her alleged descent from the goddess Melusina and the gift of sight as well as finding a way to turn metal into gold that he’s after. Following her husband’s death, Jacquetta (a widowed duchess with connections to the French royal family) is not content to let her life be determined by others and takes her future into her own hands by marrying her husband’s squire, Richard Woodville. As part of the retinue that escorts the king’s bride, Margaret of Anjou, from France, Jacquetta and the young queen form a close friendship until fate steps in forcing Margaret into exile and making Jacquetta’s daughter the new Queen of England.

I enjoyed the first part of The Lady of the Rivers.  Jacquetta meets Joan of Arc who is under the care of her aunt and by her fate, Jacquetta learns what happends to women who defy the rules of men.  The witchcraft accusations against Eleanor Cobham brings the lesson a little closer to home and Jacquetta and Richard hope that her past doesn't come back to haunt them.  Jacquetta and Richard fall in love and plan a life together despite the risk. But once Jacquetta is at court as one of the queen’s ladies, the focus shifts from being about Jacquetta to really being just another account of the political turmoil and conflict going on around her. Not that I would have wanted to read an endless recollection about Jacquetta retiring to her estates to have another baby every year either (which is mostly what Jacquetta was doing when she wasn’t at court). But because it would have to be either one or the other, I think it highlights the fact that Jacquetta was probably a poor choice of narrator.

I liked Jacquetta though and her family. The Woodvilles are too often portrayed as one dimensional villains or as the devil on earth, so it was nice to see them as real people – people who love, laugh, fear, grieve and through it all, manage to land on their feet. I also liked Gregory’s treatment of Margaret of Anjou. Instead of the usual she-wolf-bitch who caused the whole country to go to war, this Margaret is softer, and more sympathetic. Still, she is no man’s doormat and she fiercely protects what is hers and isn’t going to give it up without one heck of a fight. Can't really blame her though.

But despite liking the two main characters, the actual story-telling was just average and there's nothing really new here. The first person narration again causes problems with awkward dialogue at times for purposes of telling the reader what has happened elsewhere or helping keep all of the Richard, Henry and Edwards straight (by reminding the reader at every opportunity of who a person is by title and or relation) . Although this problem comes with the territory a little bit (and even the best writers are forced to do it from time to time), a skilled writer finds ways to minimize its use. Although I didn’t think The Lady of the Rivers was as bad as The Other Queen, it lacked the intensity and drama of The Other Boleyn Girl and the insight and characterizations of The Boleyn Inheritance (the two books of Gregory’s that I really liked).

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory.  US release October 18, 2011 (released in the UK in September 2011).
Passion. Danger. Witchcraft . . .

The Lady of the Rivers is #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory’s remarkable story of Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, a woman who navigated a treacherous path through the battle lines in the Wars of the Roses.

Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta always has had the gift of second sight. As a child visiting her uncle, she met his prisoner, Joan of Arc, and saw her own power reflected in the young woman accused of witchcraft. They share the mystery of the tarot card of the wheel of fortune before Joan is taken to a horrific death at the hands of the English rulers of France. Jacquetta understands the danger for a woman who dares to dream.

Jacquetta is married to the Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, and he introduces her to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke’s squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke’s death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.

The Woodvilles soon achieve a place at the very heart of the Lancaster court, though Jacquetta can sense the growing threat from the people of England and the danger of royal rivals. Not even their courage and loyalty can keep the House of Lancaster on the throne. Henry the king slides into a mysterious sleep; Margaret the queen turns to untrustworthy favorites for help; and Richard, Duke of York, threatens to overturn the whole kingdom for his rival dynasty.

Jacquetta fights for her king, her queen, and for her daughter Elizabeth for whom Jacquetta can sense an extraordinary and unexpected future: a change of fortune, the throne of England, and the white rose of York.
A sweeping, powerful story rich in passion and legend and drawing on years of research, The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of the real-life mother of the white queen.



The Tigress of Forli:  Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici by Elizabeth Lev.  Non-fiction.  US release October 18, 2011 (will be released in the UK in December 2011).

The astonishing life of a long-misunderstood Renaissance virago

Wife, mother, leader, warrior. Caterina Riario Sforza was one of the most prominent women in Renaissance Italy—and one of the most vilified. In this glittering biography, Elizabeth Lev reexamines her extraordinary life and accomplishments.

Raised in the court of Milan and wed at age ten to the pope’s corrupt nephew, Caterina was ensnared in Italy’s political intrigues early in life. After turbulent years in Rome’s papal court, she moved to the Romagnol province of Forlì. Following her husband’s assassination, she ruled Italy’s crossroads with iron will, martial strength, political savvy—and an icon’s fashion sense. In finally losing her lands to the Borgia family, she put up a resistance that inspired all of Europe and set the stage for her progeny—including Cosimo de' Medici—to follow her example to greatness.

A rich evocation the Renaissance, The Tigress of Forlì reveals Caterina Riario Sforza as a brilliant and fearless ruler, and a tragic but unbowed figure.



The Maid by Kimberly Cutter.  US release October 18, 2011 (released in the UK in May 2011).

The girl who led an army, the peasant who crowned a king, the maid who became a legend

It is the fifteenth century, and the tumultuous Hundred Years’ War rages on. France is under siege, English soldiers tear through the countryside destroying all who cross their path, and Charles VII, the uncrowned king, has neither the strength nor the will to rally his army. And in the quiet of her parents’ garden in Domrémy, a peasant girl sees a spangle of light and hears a powerful voice speak her name. Jehanne .

The story of Jehanne d’Arc, the visionary and saint who believed she had been chosen by God, who led an army and saved her country, has captivated our imagination for centuries. But the story of Jehanne—the girl—whose sister was murdered by the English, who sought an escape from a violent father and a forced marriage, who taught herself to ride and fight, and who somehow found the courage and tenacity to persuade first one, then two, then thousands to follow her, is at once thrilling, unexpected, and heartbreaking. Rich with unspoken love and battlefield valor, The Maid is a novel about the power and uncertainty of faith, and the exhilarating and devastating consequences of fame.



A Brief History of Roman Britain by JP Alcock.  Non-fiction.  US and UK release October 20, 2011.

In BC 55 Julius Caesar came, saw, conquered and then left. It was not until AD 43 that the Emperor Claudius crossed the channel and made Britain the western outpost of the Roman Empire that would span from the Scottish border to Persia. For the next 400 years the island would be transformed. Within that period would see the rise of Londinium, almost immediately burnt to the ground in 60 AD by Boudicca; Hadrian's Wall which was constructed in 112 AD to keep the northern tribes at bay as well as the birth of the Emperor Constantine in third century York. Interwoven with the historical narrative is a social history of the period showing how roman society grew in Britain.

The Pale Horseman is the second in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon series (the 6th book – Death of Kings will be released in the US in January) and continues the story of Uhtred – the Saxon-turned-Dane-turned-Saxon who is well on his way to becoming a great warrior. But becoming a hero is not easy.


I enjoyed this one a little more than the first in the series, The Last Kingdom, as Uhtred begins to come into his own as a man and moves away from the somewhat bratty and arrogant teenager. He takes his responsibilities seriously and realizes that the fate of a country and an entire people rests on men like him. But when he gets himself into a jam (which he does often), his quick thinking and wit save him (from himself and from the Danes). And that’s what I love about Uhtred – as a hero, he is seriously flawed. And he knows it.  But as easily as he sees himself, he also sees Alfred as a man whose piety covers an ambition to be king of all the Saxons.

Uhtred struggles with where his loyalties lie. Born a Saxon but raised by the Danish, he often thinks about rejoining the Danes – after all, they appear to be winning. But somehow he gets the sense that it’s all about more than just him. So a Saxon he remains. He’s reckless, fearless (most of the time) and utterly without any regard for the proper order of things. He's the kind of guy that belongs in the men-want-to-be-him-women-want-to-sleep-with-him category.

When Alfred is forced into hiding out in a swamp, it is up to Uhtred to come up with a plan for the Saxons to fight back. But not everyone trusts Uhtred – he’s a pagan and his feelings toward the Danes are well known. Alfred is more trusting though and gives Uhtred the task of driving the two main Danish leaders together: badly outnumbered, he can only fight one battle in order to save his kingdom and his dream of a united Saxon country. They will either destroy all of the Danes at once – or be destroyed.

A good offense:  “When you are up to your arse in shit there is only one thing to do. Attack.” Uhtred as he tries to decide the best way to respond to charges made against him.

What matters:  “We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation.” Uhtred on why he can’t walk away from a just fight.

Show them the money:  “You have to fight with mere men, and there’s nothing quite like greed, revenge and selfishness to inspire mortals.” One of Alfred’s priests on explaining why he can rouse his men with promises of killing Danes and getting rich and not with speeches about God.


In case the FTC asks: Paperback Swap

In honor of the 945th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, here are a few pictures of the re-enactment that we attended last year.

Following his victory, William the Conqueror built a large abbey on the north end of the battlefield.



The church was situated so that the high alter placed on the spot where Harold was killed.  A plaque marks the spot now.

My new job has been keeping me pretty busy and so I have managed to fall really behind in my reviews - I have six I need to write and two to finish!  I'm hoping to make some real progress on it this weekend.  In the meantime, I thought I would share some pictures from the North Carolina Renaissance Festival that hubby and I attended last weekend.  We had never been to one before and it was a lot of fun.  And the turkey leg was pretty darn good!

I really enjoyed seeing all of the different costumes.  Hubby said I could get one of my own but despite all of the "shops", I didn't see anything that I really liked - most of it was very pirate-wench looking (not that there's anything wrong with that, but not what I had in mind).  I've been looking online.  If anyone has any suggestions of online places, please let me know.  I talked to the lady here in the red gown about her dress - she made it herself and it's gorgeous!  So jealous.








One of the demonstrations we watched involved falcons and other birds.  If you look in the middle of the picture you can see the falcon coming in to get the prey the trainer is throwing out for him to catch.  It was pretty cool.



I'm hoping we can go back again!