Customer Reviews

Lady Fortune (Zebra Historical Romance)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

King Henry sends his court jester, Nicholas to the home of Hugh, the Earl of Fordham. Nicholas is to be a wedding present for the earl, and his bride, Isabeau. At the same time, Julianna, Isabeau's widowed daughter, is summoned to the home also. Nicholas and Julianna share a litter on their ride to the earl's home. We, as readers, get to eavesdrop on their wickedly funny conversation. And of course, we share in their romance, as well.

Nicholas has a hidden agenda. At King Henry's behest, he's to find the chalice of Saint Hugelina, the Dragon, and bring it to him. Julianna, and others, stand in his way. Julianna, has suffered a miserable marriage and wishes to join a convent. She has no wish to join with a "fool", a court jester. Nicholas, however, has different ideas. How Nicholas brings his two goals together, is what makes this book so very good.

This story is peopled with many interesting supporting characters. Hugh and Isabeau provide an unusual secondary romance. There's a priest who is truly evil, and a Brother Abbot who has his own agenda. Gilbert, a fosterling of Hugh's has a sweet face and a "killer" disposition. All, and others, play major rolls in the finding of the chalice, and in Julianna's and Nicholas' romance.

This is not a "dark" romance. There is humor, sly and clever innuendoes, Nicholas' rhymes, bawdy songs. If you're like me, you'll find yourself laughing out loud. And yet none of the humor hurts the romance, at all. The sensuality is sweet, but also erotic. And, Nicholas and Julianna felt very "real" to me. I read, and enjoyed this book in one sitting; and, I will read it again soon. This was a "keeper" for me!

This has definitely got to be one of my favorites by Anne Stuart. It was a funny, heart warming and yet heart wrenching romantic adventure. I loved it!! It is about a young widow named Julianna, who, after her cold husband of ten years passes away, is sent to stay with her mother whom she has not seen since her marriage. She was sent away when she was 11 to marry the older man and since then has not been able to completely forgive her mother. Well, now her mother (also a widow) is to be remarried and the King has sent Nicholas, a jester, as a temporary wedding gift. However, Nicholas is REALLY sent to steal a precious chalice from Julianna's step father-to-be and has no idea what he is about to get himself into. The characters in this book are rich and full of life. I absolutely adored Julianna and Nicholas. Even at his worse, Nicholas was a splendid character. Full of adventure and fun and romance, I highly recommend this book. After having read several of Anne Stuart's books, I believe this one comes very, very close to being her best yet. So, anyone with a liking for romances with a twist and charming characters should definitely pick this book up!! It is one you are not likely to forget for quite some time.

The hero of this book, Nicholas Strangefellow, is a court jester for Henry III. But come on, this is an Anne Stuart book, so we soon find out that he is also a secret agent for the king, with secrets of his own and ambitions for the future. He is also quite the ladies' man, and is a favorite of the king's sister.

He is sent by Henry to Fortham Castle to steal the Chalice of St. Hugelina the Dragon, a religious relic that the king covets, under the guise of being the "entertainment" for the Earl of Fortham's upcoming wedding. Right away Nicholas meets Julianna of Moncrieff, who is the daughter of the earl's bride (they all married really young in those days). Julianna was married off as a child to an old, abusive husband, and now that he's dead, she wants nothing further to do with men. Nicholas, who prides himself on being able to charm any woman he wants, is at first picqued by her indifference to him. Soon, he becomes fascinated by her mixture of toughness and kindness, and of innocence and warinesss, and he immediately embarks on a course of seduction of the wary widow. She resists him, but is secretly falling under his spell.

At Fortham, intrigue is heavy as various characters try to trip each other to get to the relic. There's an evil abbot, a priest, a ruthless teenage assassin, the powerful earl himself, the cunning Nicholas and his servant Bogo. And Julianna and her mother get in on the action as well. All the intrigue is handled very well by Stuart, and it never gets confusing.

Julianna keeps up a tough shell, but she's helplessly drawn by Nicholas's sharp mind, by the way he sees into her soul, and of course, by his seductive charms. Nicholas thinks he's got everything under control; he thinks he's not falling desperately in love with Julianna, and besides, he's a scoundrel with a precarious future and nothing to offer a lady such as she. Being proven wrong has never been this crazy and sweet.

This book is a delightful medieval romp, with some intense and poignant moments in the romance between Nicholas and Julianna. There's a sweet secondary romance between Julianna's mother and the Earl of Fortham. Nicholas's rhymes are annoying, cheesy, and wicked, and there are some outrageous characters the likes of which only Anne Stuart can pull off with such aplomb. The language and sentence structure can be rather inelegant, and the ending seems a bit rushed, but overall, this is a very enjoyable read.

In typical Anne Stuart style (gotta love it!) our antihero is trouble with a capital "T". This story has much more humor than her previous books but is no less brilliant. Whether she is writing contemporary or historical, Anne Stuart rocks. I could read her, Linda Howard and Loretta Chase exclusively and die happy!

You really can't lose by taking a chance on LADY FORTUNE. If you're not an Anne Stuart fan, this book will convert you. And if you're already a fan, then rejoice, because Sister Krissie's latest is all that we have come to expect. How can you not enjoy a novel where the Blessed Chalice of the Martyred St. Hugelina the Dragon stars in a Medieval game of "Button, button, who's got the button?"

Nicholas Strangefellow, on a mission for Henry III, joins the party of Lady Julianna who is traveling to Castle Fortham to be reunited with her mother Lady Isobeau, recently betrothed to Sir Hugh Fortham. Sir Hugh possesses the sacred chalice of St. Hugelina which Henry is determined to have at all costs. And Nicholas will stop at nothing to retrieve the chalice for his king since Henry has promised him his freedom in return for the chalice. But Lady Julianna's prickly personality, her innocence, and sweet, young flesh ensnare Nicholas as he comes to care more for winning her than for winning the chalice for Henry. And Julianna finds herself drawn to the sexy Strangefellow even as she finds him irritating, exasperating, and a threat to her peace of mind. She plagues his waking moments while he haunts her dreams. And their desire for each other risks the freedom they both seek. Each is unable to escape the other's spell.

Julianna and Nicholas' story alone would satisfy readers, but we are also treated with the romance of Sir Hugh and Lady Isobeau. Will they be able to fulfill the promise of the young love they once shared? In addition to these two great love stories, there is a cast of wonderfully peculiar characters. The perverse Abbot of St. Hugelina demonstrates his religious fervor with some unusual devotional practices and aligns himself with Gilbert de Blaith, Henry's insurance policy should Nicholas fail in his quest for the chalice. Has Gilbert been sent to retrieve the chalice or to murder Nicholas? And who, at last, finds the chalice? Will its possession bring the owner salvation or damnation? More important, how will Stuart manage to unite the noble Lady Julianna with a commoner, a mere king's fool?

Funny, tender, and sexy, this romance will bring a tear to your eye. If you enjoy this novel, try her other recent historical romances such as PRINCE OF MAGIC, PRINCE OF SWORDS, or LORD OF DANGER. After you read those, you may want to sample her older historicals: A ROSE AT MIDNIGHT, TO LOVE A DARK LORD, and SHADOW DANCE.

This is my first historical for the year 2000. And I loved this book! Nicholas, the jester has to be one of the most charming heros in romance. This is the first time I've read a story with the court jester being the star of the book. What an unique story. Hidden agendas, a hidden chalice, several entertaining characters along with the romance make this book so much fun to read. And Anne Stuart always makes me glad I picked up one of her books. Enjoy this book, it's a winner!

A jester and a lady? Usually you have lords and impoverished damsels in distress in parodies of 'Cinderella', yet we have some sort of role reversal here, which is one of the most enjoyable trademarks of Ms Stuart's stories. I also like the slow but delicious buildup of the romance, and especially that Nicholas was left with a deep first impression of Julianna because she was truly special in his eyes (she was the first to want and be able to ignore him totally, how is that for first impressions?) and not because of an unexpected reaction to her in his nether parts (there really is too much of that nowadays!) All in all, a gem of the genre.

Anne Stuart has a habit of conjuring dark and dangerous men, men that are not your normal heroes, and makes you fall for them. She has given supposed killers, a hit man, a mercenary, even a cult leader. It's as if she likes to tweak our noses and say I can make you love the devil when you tell me you won't. And she does it like none other. This time the challenge was to make you love a fool. Not an idiot, but a real fool for the King Henry of England. Nicholas Strangefellow is the fool for the King, but being a contrary Stuart character he's not your average fool. He is tall, handsome and much brighter than anyone stops to see.

The King sees some of it, thus he trust Nicholas on a special errand for him, fetch back a holy relic - a challis of the blessed Saint Hugelina the Dragon - and he will reward Nicholas. Nicholas has long used the mask of the fool to his advantage, and sees the task as the end of the road. A son of a baron, he saw the family lands take and his father killed when he chose to fight on the wrong side of the struggle with Henry and his sons. He was forced to survive on his wits, and what better way to curry favor than by playing the buffoon? The Challis in the keeping of Lord Hugh. Hugh is to marry Isabeau, so Henry sends Nicholas to the couple to entertain at their wedding feast, giving him the opportunity of stealing the cup.

Nicholas travels in the company of Juilanna, the estranged daughter of Isabeau, and the young widow soon intrigues him. Julianna was wed when she was eleven years old to a sixty-year-old man. For ten years, she has hated her mother for allowing her father to marry her off, so returning for her mother's marriage is not something she is looking forward to. Her short temper is exacerbated by the irritating fool, who make jest of all, wears annoying bells on his sleeves, recites riddles that have deep meanings ¯ and is much too handsome. She cannot help but be attracted to the sharp-witted fool, and Nicholas sees something in Julianna he has not seen in the countless other women he has bedded.

Nicholas Strangefellow is a very complex man, not your typical hard as nails Stuart Bad Boy, but he still is a delight. Stuart writes with the realities of conditions and life for women in the Middles Ages without pulling punches, and gives you a rich set of characters for her merry tale. Stuart at top form - but when is she not?

After the death of her husband Lady Juliana is glad to be free. The reluctant child bride of a brutal man, she cherishes her freedom. Until King Henry III sends her to her mother and to prepare for another marriage.

When King Henry sends his court jester Nicholas Strangefellow to the home of Lord Hugh as a wedding present to Juliana's mother and her new husband. Lady Juliana does all she can to stay away from the strange man that rhymes and riddles. But she is drawn to him, and he to her.

While not my favorite by Anne Stuart LADY FORTUNE delivers several laughes and lots of good reading. Highly recommended.

I'm a long-time fan of Anne Stuart's, and this is one of her very best. It's funny, it's charming, the people have more layers than an onion, and I LOVE the hero being a jester. Great job, Ms. Stuart. Thank you for a wonderful read!