It's hard to take the War of the Roses and make it new and interesting since it's been written and rewritten to death of late. Having just finished Sandra Worth's Lady of the Roses, I am pleased to say that this novel does do justice to the genre and sheds light on the conflict by spotlighting a peripheral character. Lady Isobel Ingoldesthorpe, heiress of a Lancastrian family and ward of Queen Marguerite, married Sir John Neville of the House of York; theirs was a love-match, highly unusual in the times, and more so because of being on opposite sides of the political fence. By all counts, they remained in love throughout their marriage until John's untimely death fourteen years later. While I had problems with some of the less "historical" aspects--I never felt that Isobel could have done some of the things Worth attributes to her, simply because of the restrictions on her time and station--I did enjoy this novel because it wasn't the same old, same old. I can recommend this one and you can view my amazon review at http://tinyurl.com/2opjhx. One thing I forgot to add in my amazon review is a pet peeve of mine: the dream sequence. Please, please, all you authors out there, stop using a dream as a forewarning device! No one ever has dreams that are SO obviously portents of doom, and no one has such detailed symbolism. It's an eye-roller for me. Yes, your characters can have a bad dream, and yes, the dream can even incorporate some of their "awake" problems, but good heavens, find some other way to show us that there is something dreadful in the offing other than hitting me over the head with a dream. Please.
~taminator40
2 comments:
Oh I second that. STOP with the foreshadowing dream sequences! PLEASE!
I third that! There are way too many aurthors and movie makes out there that do that. It has been done to death and it seems like theres no end in sight.
That said, I did put this book on my TBR it sound worthwile from a historical standpoint.
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