His Lady Bride
Shelley Bradley

Ricardians will want to steer clear of Shelley Bradley's historical romance His Lady Bride, despite its interesting plot, good pacing, strong characterization and image rich description.

The first book in Ms Bradley's "Brothers in Arms" trilogy published by Zebra, it tells the tale of Aric Neville, the White Lion, who withdraws from court life after discovering that the Princes in the Tower had been murdered on the orders of Richard III, and Gwyneth de Auburd, a Cinderella-like heroine who learns there's more to life than being a lady. Though many aspects of this story are appealing, it is rife with historical errors that are hard to ignore for anyone acquainted with the history of the Wars of the Roses.

In her Author's Note Ms Bradley says "I have borrowed Ms. Weir's interpretation of the actions leading up to and directly following the disappearances and deaths of the two royal childrenYAny misunderstanding of these events is purely my own. My apologies to the Richard III Society, for I know you disagree with this analysis." I fully understand the need for authors to take artistic license. To be honest, casting Richard as the villain did not bother me nearly as much as the apparently sloppy research, since, for fictional purposes, the Shakespearean Richard is an extremely useful device.

Unfortunately the author's reliance on the questionable work of Ms. Weir becomes obvious in one of the errors that really jarred. Ms. Bradley makes no mention of the fact that Richard Plantagenet and Anne Neville were cousins-once-removed, and that, by extension, her hero (a fictional Neville) is also Richard's cousin. I puzzled over this, then looked at the genealogical table in Weir's The Princes in the Tower. There I discovered that Ms. Weir's table shows Anne Mortimer and Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Richard III's GRANDPARENTS, as his parents!

Other errors include the hero thinking about how hard his Uncle Warwick fought for a match between Anne and Richard, portraying Sir Thomas More as an adult in 1485, having a character mention that Queen Anne is still alive (though ill) at the end of April, 1485 and referring to the Garden Tower as the Bloody Tower (according to the Tower of London website the change in name didn't happen until the 16th century.) There are more, but I won't list them here. Suffice it to say that the romance in this story far outweighs the history. Not all historical romances are like this - a good example being Isolde Martyn's award-winning novel The Maiden and the Unicorn. (See "Ricardian Reading", Ricardian Register: Volume XXV, No. 2, Summer, 2000.)

While the hero is extremely appealing and strikes me as fairly true to the period, the heroine is very much a 20th century woman dropped into the Middle Ages. She spends much of the novel swearing lustily at the hero and whining about being denied her true status as a lady by her selfish uncle and aunt. I had little sympathy for her and soon grew tired of her constant stream of foul language and childish behaviour.


It is indeed unfortunate that Ms. Bradley took so many liberties with the established historical facts and created a thoroughly (at least to my mind) modern and often irritating heroine, as her writing style is engaging and her storytelling abilities more than adequate. Readers who enjoy a good love story might still find this book a good read, but those who prefer an accurate
historical background should probably leave it on the shelf.

© Teresa Eckford, 2000/2001

-- First published in The Ricardian Register, Winter 2000/2001 Issue (Richard III Society, American Branch)

Devilish
Jo Beverley

For years the romance fiction world has waited for the Marquess of Rothgar's story, since he first appeared in My Lady Notorious, and in subsequent Malloren books. With his family happily married, surely readers are eager to learn if Rothgar can now, somehow find a lady love of his own.

Except, for Rothgar, marriage is not possible. Haunted by his mother's murderous madness, he vowed not to marry and risk tainting his children. For years he stayed true to his vow, content to advise the young king and pursue a relationship with his mistress, a women known to be infertile.

Diana, Countess of Arradale, changes all that, with the barrel of her pistol, her intelligence, beauty and wit. After travelling north to her estate for the wedding of his brother Brand and her cousin Rosa, Rothgar receives orders from King George III to escort the Countess to London. Angered by Diana's request to take her seat in the House of Lords as is her right as Countess, the king is determined to see her married. Rothgar agrees to help Diana avoid that fate, even promising to wed her himself, in name only, should the need arise.

As Countess, Diana is used to ruling her estate and answering to no-one, while pursuing her less than feminine past times and avoiding the formal world of Court. A husband would reduce her status and control of her land. Since her first meeting with Rothgar, though, she has found him difficult to forget. Especially his offer of seduction. The smoldering attraction flares to life at the wedding and burns with increasing intensity during their journey south, despite the knowledge that Rothgar means to avoid intimacy between them.

Rothgar's role as Royal advisor leaves him open to attack. The journey is interrupted twice by those seeking to destroy him, leaving him vulnerable to Diana's charms. Once back in London, though, he rebuilds the walls around his heart, determined to keep her at bay. But Diana is not a woman to surrender easily and even turns his own motto "With a Malloren anything is possible" back on him when he states that nothing can change his circumstances.

Danger continues to stalk them and Rothgar is forced to come face to face with just how much Diana means to him. But can he put aside the fear of hereditary madness and accept her love?

Once again, Jo Beverley has penned a love story of emotion and suspense. Rothgar is a strong hero who captures the imagination - cool and controlled, yet vulnerable and caring. Diana is a worthy, clever and brave, but at little spoiled. She grows throughout the story, and together they find a way to battle the demons haunting Rothgar.

The story is well paced, the secondary characters exquisitely drawn and the historical detail plentiful, without overshadowing the romance or the plot. Is Rothgar's story worth the wait? In my opinion, it most definitely is - devilishly so!

© Teresa Eckford, 2000/2001