Saraband for Two Sisters by Philippa Carr
Published 1976
The Miracle at St. Bruno's -read my review
The Lion Triumphant - read my review
The Witch From the Sea- read, but never reviewed here.

Synopsis:

Angelet and Bersaba. They were identical twins, but their alikeness stopped at their physical appearance. Angelet was gentle and mild in her innocence. While Bersaba was dark and devious in her overwhelming sensuality. They had never been apart--until Bersaba became ill. Angelet was immediately packed off to London. There she met and married Richard Tolworthy and went to live at the handsome, brooding manor house at Far Flamstead. Bersaba had always thought she would be the first to wed. Recovered, she went to visit the newlyweds with more jealousy than joy in her heart. Nothing could have prepared her for the secrets she discovered there. Secrets of a carefully hidden past that could unleash dangerous passions and forever separate her from the sister she had always loved...

This is the fourth novel I have read of the Daughters of England series created by Philippa Carr who is also known as Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt. The series is a historical gothic romance saga that follows the same family tree from one generation to the next, set against intriguing backdrops of historical importance. While Plaidy's work can be incessantly dry and monotonous as she details historical events with her royal character portrayals, the Carr pen name allowed her to freely carve out fanciful reimaginings with some pretty far-fetched plots which makes it so much fun to read.

The previous novel The Witch from The Sea brought us the story of a woman being washed ashore and the drama that was caused by her arrival. In Saraband for Two Sisters that woman's daughter arrives back at Trystan Priory and creates turmoil within the lives of twins Angelet and Bersaba. This novel is told in alternating first person accounts by these sisters, who are twins only in appearance. Their characters are developed before our eyes as Bersaba is the impetuous passionate one, and Angelet is the sweeter kinder of the two. The reign of King Charles is at question in England and the two key men in the novel are at opposite ends of the political beliefs of the time: Royalist and Puritan. Of course, the twins wind up with one of each.

Wild events occur from smallpox and secrets of a mysterious castle, poisons and falling in love with the wrong men. It was fast paced and seemed better to stomach than the previous novel; with some of the previous Carr novels the males were portrayed as overbearing brutes and this one only seems to have the recurring character of the grumpy maniacal Grandfather Casvellyn as the mean man. The others were pretty darned good to a fault. This time...I know it can't last forever.

These are the type of novels that you can't go too much into the detail without giving away a spoiler, so I will end it here with the remarks that I enjoy the Daughters of England series for the dramatic license it exhibits even while still setting a historical tone, and the characters are so easy to root for. The gothic suspense with romance thrown in is always a treat and whenever I finish a Carr novel I always want to binge read and move on to the next one. These novels would have made a fantastic TV series with awesome instrumentals playing in the background.

Since I own all the titles, just for kicks I looked up the next book: Lament for A Lost Lover and it will bring us more turbulent political drama of Cromwell and will follow the daughter of Bersaba as they are forced away from their home to take exile with the rightful king.

The Passionate Enemies: Book 3 of the Norman Trilogy by Jean Plaidy
First published about 1976
Not even gonna try to rate this bad boy

This is the third and final book in The Norman Trilogy and tells the story of the last days of the reign of Henry I. His son and wife are dead, and Henry hastily remarries a woman more than thirty years his junior in the hope of producing a male heir and securing the succession.

If he fails, the throne will pass to Matilda, and Henry fears that his nobles will not willingly serve a woman. But after his death this feckless daughter becomes the focus of a line of would-be kings and soon the country is plunged into a bitter civil war that only a child can undo.

What a thorn in my side this book was. I was so looking forward to getting to a Plaidy historical, for Jean Plaidy has been lauded as a favorite author by many. I have seen many posts by people who state that they read her novels when in high school and loved them so. I wanted to love this book, but much like book two of the Norman trilogy, this was a major bomb.

The story follows the timeline of Empress Matilda and her cousin Stephen, when Henry I is aging and needs to name a successor since his one legitimate son perished on the White Ship. The characters of the Empress and Stephen were repeatedly cemented in throughout the novel: the Empress: a virago, and Stephen, the weak usurper.

The novel has a bit of floof to it as well, with the Empress and Stephen secretly in love (which is not a secret or a spoiler since that is what the synopsis implies). The Empress could wield the magic stick and bring Stephen to his knees, pretty much the whole entire novel was the going back and forth .. one of my Goodreads status updates was "Please don't be more about how Stephen wants Matilda and Matilda holds crown over Stephen's head."

Among the many repeated themes in the novel was the fact that the Empress was named Matilda and Stephen's queen was also Matilda. Over and over again the two Matildas were compared to each other, mostly as Stephen mooned over one while ignoring the other. The novel was so very character focused that one does not completely get the feel of how England suffered during the turmoil of the Stephen vs. Empress wars.

I started the novel in the beginning of August. The dog then ate the book, so I had a week off while I waited for another copy. I finally finished the book on September 8. Not exactly one of those page turning novels!
I think over the years the historical fiction genre has seen the rise of excellent writers such as Sharon Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick which then makes picking up a practically vintage Plaidy a hit or miss type of option.

I have enjoyed the three novels I've read under the Phillippa Carr pseudonym, and definitely will return to that series before I can brave another Jean Plaidy.

Thank you so much to MaryKate to being my fellow sufferer. Though perhaps I would have fed the second copy of the book to the dog if I didn't have someone waiting on me for a readalong. BUT it was nice to  have someone who understood what I was going through! The fourth Carr will be our next read along as soon as I can muster up the strength to try again :)

The previous reviews of the Norman trilogy:

The Bastard King Vol. 1
The Lion of Justice Vol. 2
The Passionate Enemies Vol. 3

bodice ripper material? or gothic romance? or psycho madness? or all?

The Demon Lover by Victoria Holt
First published 1982
Personal reading copy
Burton Book Review Rating: 3 to 3.5 stars

When Kate Collison, to help her ailing father, completes his portrait of the powerful Baron de Centeville, her only thought is to be a dutiful daughter. But when the Baron presents her to Parisian society as the painter, Kate finds herself basking in the recognition . . . until she discovers that the Baron has plans for her -- shocking plans that will change her life unless she can fight the Baron with his own weapons . . .

I was reading this for a group read when I found that I wasn't really reading this fast enough, which means perhaps it wasn't that great. Or I'm being a finicky/picky/bored/tired reader or any combo thereof. Who knows, but I do know I am tired of being disappointed by Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt/Phillippa Carr whoever she is pretending to be at the moment of the publication of whatever zillionth book she was writing.

It's a strange story -- gothicky in a way, but mostly, cringe-worthy. Not cringe-worthy in a good way where you are on the edge of the seat wondering what is lurking around the corner, but more like wow what a creepy thing that is sorta sick/mental and perhaps I need to distance myself from the weirdness. The Baron is a strange man, and Kate is seduced in a way even while she knows he is so cringe-worthy. But there were other characters too that were a little odd and added depth to the story. Being told in first person by Kate did get tiresome halfway through, and while her character didn't change too much by the end I was able to put up with her wearisome traits.

I don't want to get too much into the plot line since there is one dramatic event that the whole book revolves around; the same event that other reviewers had given away (& thus spoiled the story for me as well). The last three chapters made the whole thing worthwhile, as it tidied up most of the plot lines but still kinda weirded me out. Which stays in tune with the rest of the book at least. I did say "oh, my God!" in an amazed sort of way as I turned the last page.

The Lion of Justice by Jean Plaidy

By God's Splendour, this was a great intro to William The Conqueror!

The Bastard King by Jean Plaidy

Princess Matilda at last found the man she would marry- William, the fierce bastard of Normandy. Proud and fearless, the Duke had ridden into the stronghold of his enemies, dragged her by her thick golden hair into the gutter, and left with her heart. It was a love story that would change the face of history.
Battles, triumphs, revenge and jealousy crowd the dramatic years leading to William's fateful conflict with Harold of England and its bitter aftermath as Queen Matilda's love for her children threatens her loyalty to William, Bastard, Conqueror and King.

This novel was part of my 2013 To-Be-Read-Pile Reading Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader


I read along with the Goodreads Plaidy group, my second with that group. I wonder what we'll read next!

The Miracle at St. Bruno's (Daughters of England #1) by Philippa Carr
Gothic Historical Romance of the 70's
Book from my personal collection
Burton Book Review Rating: 3.5 Stars

"I was born in the September of 1523, nine months after the monks had discovered the child in the crib on that Christmas morning. My birth was, my father used to say, another miracle: He was not young at the time being forty years of age . . . My mother, whose great pleasure was tending her gardens, called me Damask, after the rose which Dr. Linacre, the King's physician, had brought into England that year."

Thus begins the story narrated by Damask Farland, daughter of a well-to-do lawyer whose considerable lands adjoin those of St. Bruno's Abbey. It is a story of a life inextricably enmeshed with that of Bruno, the mysterious child found on the abbey altar that Christmas morning and raised by the monks to become a man at once handsome and saintly, but also brooding and ominous, tortured by the secret of his origin which looms ever more menacingly over the huge abbey he comes to dominate.

This is also the story of an engaging family, the Farlands. Of a father wise enough to understand "the happier our King is, the happier I as a true subject must be," a wife twenty years his junior, and a daughter whose intelligence is constantly to war with the strange hold Bruno has upon her destiny. What happens to the Farlands against the background of what is happening to King Henry and his court during this robust period provides a novel in which suspense and the highlights of history are wonderfully balanced.

I was fortunate to be able to participate in the read along for this first book of the gothic series that prolific author Eleanor Hibbert/Jean Plaidy wrote under her pen-name of Philippa Carr. It is the story of a family in England struggling to stay out of trouble during the tyrannical reign of Henry VIII and eventually his daughter Queen Mary.

The main characters are three .. "we three as one": Damask, the daughter of the household, Kate, her distant cousin, and Bruno, the miracle child that was brought up next door to Damask in the Abbey. Religious turmoil permeates the land, as persecution reaches its wicked tentacles out to the innocents, and Damask and Kate attempt to live their lives after tragedies occur.

Damask is introduced to us as a young girl, and by the end of the story we pretty much see what would be the end of her life as well. She was a narrator that could easily get on your nerves though, she is supposed to be so uber smart, yet it seems she doesn't see the reality in front of her face and that got tedious after awhile. The other characters were all well done with bad guys and good guys; the plus was that in the background  we also had Henry VIII and his wives.  The writing had small lulls - as we knew that the proverbial shoe was going to drop and we kept waiting for it. Full of tension and the gothic style of melodramatics, this was a fun read that definitely has me intrigued enough to at least see what happens with the next generation in book two. I had been suspecting what was to be the "climatic moment" when it hit by page 357, but it was still awesome.


I haven't read a series in a very long time that features a particular family through a long period of time, though the Morland series comes to mind (Cynthia Harrod Eagles). These two series have completely different tones, as I would not hesitate to recommend this first book of the Daughters of England to the Young Adult reader who is intrigued by the tumultuous reign of the Tudors and their effects on the families of England.

This novel was part of my 2013 To-Be-Read-Pile Reading Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader

The next novel I'm reading for the challenge will be another by the same author (different pen-name) The Bastard King by Plaidy.

I read along with the Goodreads Plaidy group for The Miracle at St. Bruno's and we had great discussions there about the book, but here are some of the status updates from the book as I was reading (you may have to be my friend there in order to see since I'm pasting):

Mailbox Monday is a meme originally from Marcia's Mailbox and is being hosted by Caitlin @ chaotic compendiums. The Story Siren also hosts IMM, so we can find some cool YA titles there as well.


In the Mail: Lots of book twos!!!!!!!

AMAZING 1973 cover, lol

Henry of the High Rock (Henry I book 2, Of The Ring of Earls was first) by Juliet Dymoke
When Rufus is murdered after William the Conqueror dies, Genry wins the throne, acts contrite, and wins love as well.

Lucky me I got the first book in time for this post:

Another fabulous 1973 cover!

Of the Ring of Earls by Juliet Dymoke
In the darkness rain had begun to fall...He was drained, exhausted, could hear nothing, see nothing but Telham ridge and the silent dead lying in the darkness-Leofwine staring sightless at the sky, Harold sprawled among the broken axes and smashed shields, and somewhere the dragon banner trampled into the bloodied ground by Norman hooves'. William of Normandy had come, had triumphed. Many of the English nobility lay dead, and for the survivors, including Waltheof of Huntingdon, the future could hold no certainties.


Shattered (book 2 Alaskan Courage) by Dani Pettrey
A Thrilling New Romantic Suspense from the Genre's Newest Star Piper McKenna couldn't be more thrilled that her prodigal brother, Reef, has returned to Yancey, Alaska, after five years. But her happiness is short-lived when Reef appears at her house covered in blood. A fellow snowboarder has been killed--but despite the evidence, Reef swears he's innocent. And Piper believes him. Deputy Landon Grainger loves the McKennas like family, but he's also sworn to find the truth. Piper is frustrated with his need for facts over faith, but he knows those closest to you have the power to deceive you the most. With his sheriff pushing for a quick conviction, some unexpected leads complicate the investigation, and pursuing the truth may mean risking Landon's career. With Piper waging her own search, the two head deep into Canada's rugged backcountry--and unexpected complications. Not only does their long friendship seem to be turning into something more, but this dangerous case is becoming deadlier with each step.
(I actually have book 1, which I want to read first).


A Bloom In Winter (Summerset Abbey book 2) by T.J. Brown
The highly anticipated second installment in the Summerset Abbey series, which picks up just after the climatic conclusion of book one. After Prudence’s desperate marriage and move to Devonshire, sisters Rowena and Victoria fear they have lost their beloved friend forever. Guilt-ridden and remorseful, Rowena seeks comfort from a daring flyboy and embraces the most dangerous activity the world has ever seen, and Victoria defies her family and her illness to make her own dream occupation as a botanist come true. As England and the world step closer to conflict, the two young women flout their family, their upbringing, and their heritage to seize a modern future of their own making. 
(now I need book 1, I think this was from Shelf Awareness and of course I didn't realize there was a book 1).


Another fun oldie but goodie::

Lilith by Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt
Mistress and servant, they shared a grandfather, friendship, adventures, and a surprising destiny. There's actually a lot more on the backflap.. If I remember I'll try to post some of it here..


The Scarlet Cloak by Jean Plaidy
In the years 1572-1578, when the faith and fanaticism of one man - King Philip II of Spain - trouble the whole of Europe, His Most Catholic Majesty's plans against accused heretics meet with stubborn, angry resistance. Dashing Blasco Carramadino and his devout older brother, Domingo, live in the quiet province of Andalusia, where the king's fanaticism is rarely felt. But soon they will be caught in a web of intrigue, as Philip plots the overthrow of England and its return to the one true faith. It is a period when the clash of ideals breeds great courage and stoutly adventurous spirits, a time that will test the mettle of the two brothers, and of the Protestant women they have come to love.



Love in the Balance by Regina Jennings (I absolutely LOVED Sixty Acres and A Bride, but somehow the reviews on GR are already dipping below the favored four star mark. I am concerned.)
Molly Lovelace dreams of a life without cares in Lockhart, Texas. She also dreams of handsome wrangler Bailey Garner, her ardent but inconsistent beau. The problem is, with Bailey's poor prospects, she just can't fit the two dreams together. 
Then mysterious stranger Edward Pierrepont sweeps into town--and her life--and for the first time Molly wonders if she's met the man who can give her everything. But he won't be in Lockhart long and while he talks about their glorious future together, she can't quite get Bailey out of her mind. What's a girl to do with all these decisions when love is in the balance?


Currently Reading:


Coming Up...

This week my review of the newest Tudor novel, The Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle, will post. It's got lots of lovely reviews on Goodreads thus far, you can see if I agree or not.

The review pile is actually creeping up on me again. And today starts the Read Along of Snare of Serpents over at the Victoria Holt Goodreads group so I think I may not be able to participate. If I was at my normal reading pace I probably would have been fine, but I just feel like I've been so busy lately plus the newest crud factor in my head that is making me want to sleep forever. Love in the Balance (pictured above in my mailbox feature) is going to be read next for review, and I wanted to try and sneak in both of Dani Pettrey's books. But I can say that I am keeping up with the daily Bible Study, as that is my first priority. I am about halfway through the Prophetic books as I type (I never would have thought that Jonah and my husband were similar in nature!). And then it's on to the New Testament!!! Very excited. I can't say enough about the study bible that I am using, I love it and highly recommend it, and this informative book is why I haven't been reading a lot of other stuff lately =)

Big kudos to the Goodreads group who keeps me on top of my bible plan.

Speaking of Goodreads, I just noticed that there is a challenge of Christian Historical Books for 2013 that I joined. No hoops or posts required, you just create a shelf for your 2013 CHF titles, and those will be counted towards the challenge. Here is the link to challenge, where you can set the challenge up with the number of books you want to try and read. As you read a title on the 2013 CHF shelf, your tally will get updated.

There are two Bookish Photo Challenges going on for March via Instagram right now. #estellagram and #bsmphotoaday and you can find my entries under @BurtonReview. If you are participating, leave me your handle!

OH, also a shout out the History Channel with the two new progams, The Bible and the Vikings! Loved them both! A nice change of pace for them, since every time I turn that channel on it's all about The Pawn Stars.

Over on my other blog I am running a giveaway for Elizabeth Chadwick's Shadows and Strongholds. This is a book I read in January and I loved it, it's my favorite of the seven of hers that I've read thus far. Elizabeth Chadwick has been kind enough to answer questions on the giveaway guest post also, so go check that out here!

Edit to add.. since I just finished The End of The Point, goodreads says I've read 5,142 pages in 2013! This doesn't included currently reading, such as the Bible.. and I've now made it to Matthew!! I am so excited to have reached this milestone!!! SQUEEE!!



HF Bundle!

September 2012 Sourcebooks edition

For review, I received Elizabeth Chadwick's newest USA release via Sourcebooks, it's been on my wish list forever! Just in case you have read the earlier version, I didn't want Chadwick lovers to get excited about a new book so I posted the two covers. (At least they didn't change the title!!)

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week. And I am adding what I purchased, swapped, etc.