Moving up in the world, the Whitmead family that struggled as serfs through The Proud Villeins and much of The Ruthless Yeomen , begins to achieve respectability in the third book of The Bridges Over Time saga. Despite inroads into the gentry, though, they still suffer. During the War of the Roses, young Susannah Whitmead is forced to marry neighboring landowner Sir James Weston. She grows to love her husband and his home, Ashdon House, but then Weston is killed at Bosworth while fighting for Richard III. Two more husbands take Susannah through the tumultuous early Tudor years . Her granddaughter, Christina Trefusis, marries a cousin in order to keep beloved Ashdon and leads an uneventful--if not particularly happy--existence until turbulent Elizabethan politics intervene. Anand involves her characters in many of the major events of English history (usually on the losing side). The reader is drawn into the lives and fates of the less than mighty while also enjoying Anand's shrewd and colorful depictions of powerful leaders of the epoch.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-Readers do not need to have read the previous two books in the series to enjoy this historical novel. Set in the late Middle Ages as the Tudor reign begins, it is a well-written, well-researched, and fascinating story that focuses on the lives of Suzanna Whitmead and her granddaughter, Christina. Both are raised to be ladies, married off to suitable men, and live proper lives. Both achieve success, freedom, and property, but Christina does not produce the necessary heir. As the book ends, her nephews are dividing her land. Anand's ability to combine fictional narrative with accurate history is quite remarkable. She writes of Henry VII's pet spider monkey, the minor earthquake in the Reigate area in 1551, Queen Elizabeth's experience with a villager who accidentally startled her horse, and many other true stories of the day.
Linda Vretos, West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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