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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lady of the Roses: A Novel of the Wars of the Roses, January 2, 2008
This review is from: Lady of the Roses: A Novel of the Wars of the Roses (Mass Market Paperback)
John Neville, brother of the Kingmaker, and a die-hard Yorkist meets and falls in love with Isobel, the Lancastrian ward of Queen Marguerite. It's an unlikely match, but the two are a determined pair.
Times are uncertain as the young couple begin their union for King Henry is mentally and physically ill, his powerful wife is determined to secure the throne for her son, and the Yorkists are not about to allow the French-born queen to rule unchecked. How will Isobel and John survive the inevitable conflicts that lie ahead?
While little is known about Isobel, Ms. Worth brings her to life in two
ways - first by having Isobel tell the story through her eyes, and second, by the incredibly detailed and beautifully researched scenes that fit into the historically known time period. Readers meet the lovely, intelligent girl that John falls in love with - a girl who grows into a vital, loving mother, wife, and chronicler of all she witnesses around her. John has long been considered a chivalrous, courageous soldier who loyally served both his older brother and England.
LADY OF THE ROSES is Sandra Worth's latest novel after her hugely
successful ROSE OF YORK trilogy about Richard III. Her hallmarks of
meticulous research and excellent character development continue in this
new story that pre-dates the trilogy. This book kept me up late, and I
hated for it to end. LADY OF THE ROSES, like its predecessors, is A
Perfect 10. And don't miss the ROSE OF YORK books: LOVE & WAR, CROWN OF
DESTINY, and FALL FROM GRACE.
Jani Brooks
Romance Reviews Today
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love Transforms History, January 23, 2008
This review is from: Lady of the Roses: A Novel of the Wars of the Roses (Mass Market Paperback)
"I went to bed early one night...tired and preoccupied with musings about love. then - was it a vision, a dream? - Love himself suddenly appeared before me, taking the heart from my breast and handing it to Desire..." An apt quote bespeaks the essence of a tale, in this case the story of the uniquely passionate, tender and forbearing love between Isobel Ingoldesthorpe and John Neville, the Yorkist. Their love endures through the thorny historical events of fifteen years commonly known as the War of the Roses.
Sandra Worth has once again captured the tornado-whirling shifts of loyalty as England watches two mad woman change the course of history, Marguerite d'Anjou - Henry VI's French queen - and later Elizabeth Woodville - Edward IV's beautiful wife. The former believes she is trying to bring peace to her simple, holy husband's land, the latter spouse flourishes by feeding years of imagined hurtful memories with unmitigated revenge. Their sheer, unadulterated terror will destroy England's aristocracy, including the famed kingmaker, Warwick, John Neville's brother. John himself will rise to the heights of power and lose almost all of it.
Isobel is a feisty, intelligent and compassionate character whose observations have the same effect on the reader that she experiences. When one thinks that cruelty, savagery and insanity have reached their limit, another betrayal with its accompanying horrors or unexpected deaths arises to leave Isobel and all of England reeling with shock.
When it seems that the common people are suffering the most from their leaders' cruelty and blood lust, it is Isobel who cares enough to help them survive and believe in something higher. Indeed Isobel will audaciously intervene in two hair-raising scenes to plead for mercy for two central characters. Isobel and John's intimate love is the glue holding together a world in which England's rulers precociously attempt to shape its history.
Ms. Worth's singular talent lies in the masterful way she crafts plot and deftly presents an in depth, diverse set of historical characters whom the reader comes to deeply care about. Congratulations, Sandra Worth! Lady of the Roses is an unparalleled, beautiful, dire and memorable keeper in the top ranks of historical novels! What a treat!
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on January 23, 2008
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"This pathetic man and the foreign woman who wears him like a crown have made us bleed.", January 2, 2008
This review is from: Lady of the Roses: A Novel of the Wars of the Roses (Mass Market Paperback)
While Worth's Rose of York Trilogy ("Love and War", "Fall from Grace", "Crown of Destiny") deals with the troubled years of Edward's reign through the fall of Richard III and the rise of Henry VII, Lady of the Roses sets the stage for the conflict, the entrenched factions and treacherous plots that attend a struggle for control of the kingdom, but with the added poignancy of a sheltered young woman's impetuous and successful marriage to a man forbidden by time and circumstance (Isobel Ingoldesthorpe and John Neville, brother of Richard Neville, "the Kingmaker"). Believing in their commitment, Isobel is unwavering, embracing her marriage while conscious of the price. Soon enough, the world intrudes, and with it the enmity of the great families of the realm. Given the nature of this interminable war, Isobel realizes that she may not always have her great prize, that such a love is purchased dearly.
It is Isobel's leap of faith that Worth so beautifully captures, a 15th century Romeo and Juliet prey to the indifference of a country at war. Arriving at the court of Henry VI and his queen, Marguerite d' Anjou, Isobel is essentially a Lancastrian. But when the comely Isobel sets eyes on the handsome John Neville, a Yorkist, the die is cast. Realizing it is in the queen's power to decide whom she will wed, Isobel invokes the privilege of agreeing to any match, to which Marguerite acquiesces. After much negotiation, Marguerite allows the marriage to proceed- at an exorbitant bride-price. But once married, Isobel departs Marguerite's court, carrying the queen's ring, in exchange for which she may ask a favor in time of need.
Marguerite is challenged by an increasingly popular Earl of Warwick, John's brother, the Earl earning the people's loyalty and affection. And the battles wage on between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, John captured, saved only by Isobel's redemption of Marguerite's favor. Of such moments is Isobel's life with John defined, his divided loyalties between king and brother, the mentally unstable Henry unable to lead, bowing to his wife's decisions. With the advent of Yorkist Edward of March, history takes another turn, the York's ascendant; John's fortunes increased after years of loyalty to the crown.
Power breeds extremes, Warwick eventually at odds with the new king, Edward IV, especially after Edward's disastrous marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. As detrimental to the kingdom as Marguerite d' Anjou, Woodville, a woman from Isobel's past in the queen's court, wreaks havoc on the kingdom, demanding titles and lands for greedy relatives. Warwick finally rebels, John facing his most critical crisis of conscience, a choice between king and brother. Throughout it all, the faithful Isobel remains her husband's best friend and staunchest supporter. Unable to stem the tide of history, John is separated from Isobel forever in a final battle. A man and a woman unable to prevail over the fate of a country caught in war, John and Isobel remain trapped in the pages of history, Worth breathing new life into their in a novel of commitment that defies convention, a marriage based on love. Luan Gaines/2007.
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