Newly settled into the St. Barbe ancestral home, Alexander and Louise St. Barbe find their happiness cut short by Louise's tragic miscarriage, and Alex turns to another woman for comfort, in a work set during the English Civil Wars.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
An outstanding historical novelist, Belle now adds another volume to her impressively researched and crafted series set during the English Civil Wars. Once again, we meet characters she introduced in Wintercombe . When the handsome rake Sir Alexander St. Barbe and his captivating wife, Louise, lose their first child, Louise retreats into her grief and Alex has a foolish affair. Though the couple reconcile, Alex's vicious aunt reveals Alex's indiscretion to Louise, causing another breach between them; then Alex's actions during a drunken rage force him to flee the country. In the Netherlands, Alex comes to lead the party that is encouraging their Highnesses of Orange to assume the British throne before James II can relight the fires of Smithfield. Meanwhile, Alex's cousin and nemesis Charles, long desirous of his wife and home, usurps Wintercombe. Again, Belle's characters are sympathetic and well drawn, her prose fluid and her plotting adroit, historic figures meshing seamlessly with fictional ones.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Fourth in Belle's 17th-century St. Barbe romantic adventures, this one featuring the stormy marriage of Louise and Sir Alexander St. Barbe at the time of the bloodless invasion of England by William of Orange. In the summer of 1686 at Wintercombe, the St. Barbe ancestral home, Louise grieves for a stillborn son, and her depression begins to sour a hitherto jolly union. There'll be rows, sulks, and even blows before Alexander storms off--only to get disgracefully bagged, have a ripe affair in Bath, and rage on to Holland. Helping along the way are Alexander's plain and plain-spoken sister Phoebe of Bath, who houses Louise and Alexander's natural son, Lucas, and Grandmother Silence (of Wintercombe, 1988). Meanwhile, lurking nastily is cousin Charles, who wants both Wintercombe and Louise and who has tried before to erase Alexander (A Falling Star). All affairs of the heart, however, are caught up in a larger swirl of events as James II is about to be dethroned and as anti-Catholic, nationalist sentiment swells--a movement clandestinally aided by Alexander and a courtier who proposes to Phoebe (to her bafflement). Much muttering of plots, a royal progress, until finally the wind stands fair for England, the couples pair off, and Charles blazes to his doom. A restful cruise for the St. Barbe faithful and period-romance insatiables. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read - 4th in the Wintercombe series,
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This review is from: Treason's Gift (Paperback)
This book is written exceptionally well, as are all of Pamela Belles books. The characters in the series are positively unforgetable. I first read this series many years ago and read 4-5 books a month and I still vividly remember the characters, the plots and specific scenes in this series of books as some of the most memorable I've ever read. Pamela Belle has an amazing way with words and the ability to make you feel like you are living in the time. You will not be able to put it or any book in this series down. Read the series in order. Wintercombe, Herald of Joy, A Falling Star and Treasons Gift.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good finish to the series,
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This review is from: Treason's Gift (Paperback)
***If you have not yet read A Falling Star in this series and wish to remain spoiler free I suggest you not read further, nor read the product info on Amazon and Goodreads***Treason's Gift is the fourth and last book in Belle's series on the St. Barbe family of Wintercombe. Louise is heartbroken with grief and guilt after the premature birth and death of her first child and it takes a heavy toll on her once happy marriage. Shunned from the marriage bed, Alex hies it off to stay with his sister Phoebe in Bath and a chance meeting with an old lover available is too tempting for Alex to resist, although he soon comes to regret the affair. Will Charles' mother Bab use her knowledge of the affair to destroy Louise's love for Alex and permanently drive a wedge between the two? Without Louise to share it with him, Alex has no desire to live at Wintercombe and leaves it to his cousin and heir Charles (the estate is entailed to the next male heir), sails for Holland and is soon embroiled in William of Orange's plots to oust Catholic James II from England's throne. Can Alex and Louise ever mend their emotional wounds and find happiness again? Can Charles contain his mad obsession with Louise and Wintercombe or will it lead to further treachery and murder? While not up to the same standards as the first two in this series and might be a bit too much of a romance for some readers (Alex and Louise do smoke off the pages when they are together), I still enjoyed it a great deal. I never knew much about this period in England's history, nor the events leading up to the "Bloodless Revolution" against James II and his Papist policies. Some of the retelling of the revolution was a bit dry - there was more telling than showing, but still interesting for history geeks like me. One very special treat was the way Belle managed to bring the Heron family and Goldhayes from her The Moon in the Water trilogy into this book - nicely done. Belle is superb at peopling her novels with real characters and real settings appropriate for the time and place she puts them in, as well as the small details of day to day life and customs of the period. I'm very sorry this series has come to a close and I'll have no more Pamela Belle novels to look forward to (she's got a couple of fantasy novels but that's not my genre). Sadly out of print but worth hunting down, I highly recommend this and the Moon in the Water trilogy for anyone interested in 17C England. The series in order, Wintercombe Herald of Joy A Falling Star Treason's Gift
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