Sunday, June 28, 2009

70. The Dark Rose, #2

 Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Rated: 5 Stars
From:  Amazon

I read this book on the day I shoed my family off to Disney Land and had a whole day to myself.  That was a good thing since this was a "can't put down" kind of a book.

I'm not completely sure if all the historical events portrayed in this book are accurate according to what is accepted as "actual historical events" but I am really not all that concerned about it.  I pretty much take the view that all history is written either from someones point of view or authors with an agenda and therefore fiction to some extent.  So as long as it's a darn good story I can go with the flow.  I do suspect that this author did a pretty good job of going with what is viewed as "actual" events.

In the Morland Dynasty series, the majestic sweep of English history is richly and movingly portrayed through the fictional lives of the Morland family. It is 1501, and Paul, great grandson of Eleanor Morland, has inherited the estate and has a son to follow him. But he fathers an illegitimate boy by his beloved mistress, and bitter jealously between the half-brothers causes a destructive rift that leads to tragedy. Paul’s niece Nanette becomes maid-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, and at the court of Henry VIII witnesses first hand the events leading up to the rift with Rome, her mistress’s execution, and the further efforts of the sad, ailing king to secure the male succession.