No comments about The redeemed captive returning to Zion (Great Americana).

2 comments about Queen Anne's War (The American Adventure #5).

1. Will's brother-in-law goes off to fight in war against the French, and Will doesn't know why his best friend at school turns against him. This book kept my interest the whole way through!



2. This is the fifth book in The American Adventure series. This series tells about the lives of children from many generations of a fictional family throughout American history, from the settling of Plymouth by the Pilgrims through the end of World War II.
   
   Eleven-year-old Will Smith lives in Boston with his family in the year 1710. He is a typical boy in that he is bothered by his younger sister and longs for adventure in his life. Queen Anne's War began seven years ago, and still has not ended. Still, life for those in Boston is much the same, until plans begin for a military expedition against the French. Will wishes he was old enough to fight, and admires his brother-in-law, Rob - the husband of his older sister, Mary - who has joined the army. Meanwhile, Will gets into trouble at school, as he is blamed for pranks he didn't have anything to do with.
   
   Young readers who enjoy historical fiction will most likely enjoy this book, although it would probably appeal more to boys than girls. I look forward to reading other books in this series, as they are all about boys and girls from the same family, and I enjoy continuing stories.

No comments about The Colonial Wars: Clashes in the Wilderness (First Book).

No comments about King Michael I of Romania.

No comments about Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars, 1690-1760.

1 comments about The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion.

1. If you can read history books, this book is really a must for grasping the Deerfield situation from a first-hand perspective.

   It is also difficult to read because of the language. But really, it's worth the work to get through it.

   Great, moving.

No comments about Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars: 1689-1763 (The American Story).

5 comments about The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Anne of York (Queens of England Novel).

1. A long time Ricardian, I was excited when I stumbled across this book. Alas, it is an abriviated, sloppy and poorly executed story about the life of Anne Neville and her complicated marriage to Richard of Glouster/R3. Repetitive and elementary, it offers no new insights into the life of the woman. People interested in Anne's life would be much better off reading Sharon Kay Penman's magnificent "Sunne in Splendour".



2. I have to admit up front that I'm a devoted Jean Plaidy fan and I'm thrilled to see her books being reprinted. Having discovered her in the past fifteen years or so, I've had to "treasure hunt" out of print copies in various corners of the earth (not a bad thing!) Her books are the consummate combination of style meets subject. I've learned so much about the Tudor queens, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, the two Marys. Pick up any and all of her books, they don't need to be read in order but if you do you will have educated yourself about a huge piece of British history, a subject that is endlessly fascinating thanks to Jean Plaidy's talent.



3. This is the story of the tragic Anne of York, wife and queen of Richard III. Born the daughter of the Kingmaker, Anne falls in love with Richard as a child. Used as a pawn by her father, Anne is betrothed to the erstwhile Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI, then imprisoned by her brother-in-law (and Richard's brother), then finally married to the man of her dreams. But, her happiness is always tinged with sadness and tragedy.
   
   This is a little-known queen with a very interesting story to tell. Plaidy weaves an interesting first-person narrative.



4. ....if this is meant to be 'true' fiction. Why do I say that? Anne Neville was first 'betrothed' to Edward, Prince of Wales. Edward was the son of King Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou, monarchs of England. He was also an *only* child! So how could Anne '...given her heart to the prince's younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester.'?
   
   After Edward's death, (he died without having children and Anne was his only wife) Anne was married to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (who later succeeded as Richard III). She had one son, a boy named Edward who created Prince of Wales by his father Richard III but died young.
   
   Richard's older brother was Edward, Duke of York until he became King Edward IV. Edward IV and Richard III are of the House of York, Anne's first husband was the House of Lancaster.
   
   If, as the Editorial Review indicates, there are such basic errors as this. (And yes, I fully realize the review may have been put in in error.) I would approach this book with that realization.
   
   Doesn't mean that it isn't a good book, just that it has errors that would make someone who knows history cringe. Which is why I gave it only one star...
   
   I haven't gotten to read it yet, (it's on my to-do stack), if the content is better than the review I will gladly up the rating, but right now? With such a basic, easily corrected error? It's staying at 1 star.



5. I've only heard of Richard III fleetingly. I've never read the play and I've only heard that he was defeated and he wasn't loved by the English people.
   
   So coming into this book I was a bit interested to see the take on him. "Written" by his wife, Anne Neville, she sees Richard as a person who can do no wrong, until he is made Lord Protector, and then King of England. But she still gives him the benefit of the doubt and makes him seem as if he is just trying to do the best he can for the country he is trying to serve with traitors all about him; the people fairly uninterested in him.
   
   Anne is....ok. A little boring. She tends to try and see the good in everyone, but when she doesn't like someone she doesn't really give them a chance. She highly dislikes George, Richard's and Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, and her sister's husband. Granted it's warranted because he did have her kidnapped and sent to live in a cookshop in Chepe. But she only meets Edward, the Prince of Wales, and Henry VI's and Margaret of Anjou's son fleetingly and bases her like, or rather dislike, on how he looks at her and a story. I don't remember her ever really talking to him at all. I do believe she was prejudice because he was of the House of Lancaster, and she, of the House of York, and she didn't want to marry him, but was being forced to because of the deal her father made with Margaret to restore Henry to power and eventually her son, Edward, would be King of England.
   
   This book does explain the reasoning behind the War of the Roses. Between the Houses of York and Lancaster it was eventually won by the House of Lancaster through Henry Tudor(Henry VII.) But in the book the war has stopped with Edward IV. Anne's father, the Earl of Warwick, is the most powerful man in England and is known as the Kingmaker. Because he sets Edward up as King, he feels he can run the country through Edward, but that turns out to be a drastic mistake. Edward can think for himself and marries Elizabeth Woodville, a woman of no standing.
   
   This creates a problem for the House of Neville. Because the queen is so prized in Edward's eyes he gives into her and she puts her people into positions of power. This doesn't work for Warwick and he ends up having to fight the king, and he eventually loses his life, which is devastating to Anne and her family.
   
   But in the end she ends up marrying her love, Richard. They do start out living a relatively quiet life in the North, in Middleham where she eventually gives birth to a boy, Edward, who ends up being very weak, and dies after living about 11 years. This is a bit of a set up because Anne isn't very strong herself and this leads to her suspicions of Elizabeth's and Edwards's daughter Elizabeth and a supposed affair with her and her husband. Also her infertility plauges her, as well as a cough.
   
   I wasn't too happy with the ending of the book. I felt like her time as queen was really very short(compared to the rest of the novel) and she didn't explain what it was like to be queen at all really. She spent most of it talking about her son and his eventual loss. I felt like more could have been spent on that account since this is a book about a Queen of England. I also felt like more attention could have been paid to the mystery of the two princes.
   
   As to whether Richard usurped the throne or whether the boys were truly illegit we'll never know, but it does bring about a change in Richard that I didn't really like at all. Or he was truly more ambitious than we were lead to believe.

5 comments about The Rose of York: Love & War.

1. "The Rose of York: Love War" is a great example of the power that a good review can have. I never heard of this book before reading a review on Amazon and have yet to ever see it in a bookstore yet it has a huge and positive following because of the great online reviews. That's why I bought it, expecting to like it and get to know more about the war of the roses.
   
   Sadly, I'm afraid I have to be the voice of dissent on this book. I know that most of the reviews for it have been stunning, and I just don't understand why. To me the writing seems overly simplistic, even childish at times, and I just could not get interested in the story. Every character seemed to just be a stereotype without complications or dimensions like real people would have.
   
   This book just couldn't hold my interest and despite my best intentions I could not finish it-though I did skim through to the end. I just found it to be a lot like a young adult book marketed to adults (except for the things in it that are not appropriate for young adults.) To me this book didn't fit anywhere. And I find it sad that with such a rich tapestry of facts and real live characters to choose from the author ended up with a finished product like this.
   
   Two stars.



2. ordered for my daughter,(19), she loved it. shipping was very quick, book was in very good condition, just as discribed.



3. I got into this book quickly, but when it became obvious that the characters were one-note and had very little development, it became harder to read. The characters of Anne and Richard were so uninteresting in their pure goodness (and Anne's constant fainting fits) that I felt little compulsion to keep reading.
   
   But what made me put the book down is contained on pages 224 & 225 - John Neville's final letter to his wife, Isobel. As I read it, I thought that it sounded awfully familiar. Then it got to the line "Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you." It's lifted verbatim from the Sullivan Ballou letter! Not only that, but the letter as a whole has been reworded (and ineptly so) by Worth. I agree it's a touching letter and it's become rightfully famous due to Ken Burns, but Worth doesn't even credit it in the notes. Her website says a future edition will include a credit to rectify the "omission", but it shows a distinct lack of originality (in an already lackluster book) to have done it in the first place.
   
   In fact, that is the whole problem with the book. Worth is seeing these people through the prism of something else. It's as though she wants to have Richard and Anne be as romantic as Romeo and Juliet, she wants to have her noble and caring John Neville to be as battlefield-poignant as Sullivan Ballou and nothing is going to stop her, even if she has to borrow heavily to do it. She has every right to do that, but when some readers fail to go along for the ride & think it's hackery, that's our right.
   
   I would have given the book 2 stars, but then I reached Neville/Ballou's letter and got even more frustrated with the book and its author. Needless to say, I won't be reading the sequels.



4. As someone who appreciates truth wherever it may be found, Sandra Worth's, The Rose of York: Love & War is a gift tied up with a ribbon.
   
   The historical Richard III, made up largely from villainous Tudor propaganda, easily falls apart if the intention is to find the real Richard. How did this loyal, loving husband, brother, father and king go down in history as a hunchbacked murderer?
   
   From the author's note: "What is not widely known is that Richard III gave us a body of laws that forms the foundation of modern Western society. His legacy includes bail, the presumption of innocence, the protections in the jury system against bribery and tainted verdicts, and Blind Justice---the concept that all men should be seen as equal in the eyes of the law. He was the first king to proclaim his laws in English, so the poor could know their rights, and the first to raise a Jew to England's knighthood.
   
   Such ideas were revolutionary in the fifteenth century. They alienated many in the nobility and the Church and played no small part in Richard's ultimate fate."
   
   Ms. Worth writes with grace and skill, engaging her readers on every page, and it's clear she's done her homework. The love between Richard and Anne, tenderly portrayed against a backdrop no one would wish to live through, won't be forgotten.
   
   The Rose of York: Love & War satisfies on every level. I highly recommend it along with the two other volumes that complete the trilogy.



5. As a great fan of Sharon Kay Penman's "The Sunne in Splendour" and an avid reader of anything Ricardian, I was excited to discover (through Amazon links) Sandra Worth's Richard III trilogy. I had high hopes for the series after reading the many positive reviews on this site. Unfortunately, after picking up the first volume in the trilogy, I have to wonder if we are really talking about the same book. I found "The Rose of York: Love & War" to be poorly written and inaccurate in some of the most basic historical aspects. In the very first chapter, Worth has Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, coming to deliver the news of the deaths of Richard, Duke of York, and his son to York's wife, Cecily Neville. In Worth's telling, Warwick announces himself as "the Kingmaker" (indeed, Worth tells us, all of England knows him that way). Yet Warwick would not actually be known as the Kingmaker until a couple of years later, when York's son would successfully claim the throne as Edward IV. At this point in the story Warwick is merely one of the leaders of the Yorkist party and hasn't come close to "making" a king.
   
   Later in the same chapter, Warwick sails to Burgundy with Cecily's younger sons, Richard and George. While I can't claim to be an expert on this particular part of Richard's life, what I have read does not suggest that Warwick himself took the boys to safety, since he was otherwise occupied in raising troops and continuing the fight against Marguerite d'Anjou, the Lancastrian queen. Even if Warwick did sail with the boys, I found it highly unlikely that he would be acting as sailing master on the ship. Bellowing orders at his men seems in character, but not bellowing orders about how to set the sails and maneuver the ship through a storm. This would simply have been out of his area of expertise. From what I know, medieval lords like Warwick would have been well trained in the arts of leadership and warfare on land, but not in the handling of ships, which they would have left to hired captains.
   
   These are just a few examples of the glaring holes in the plotting. I also found the dialogue stilted, the characterizations superficial and stereotypical, and the overall language simplistic, even childish. This book was a serious disappointment. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it and was very glad I had borrowed it from the library rather than purchasing it. Needless to say, I won't be reading the rest of the trilogy. Thank goodness for Sharon Kay Penman - I'll reread "The Sunne in Splendour" for the umpteenth time instead.

No comments about The Other Queen: A Novel.