Helpful Score: 5
"Be careful what you wish for, you might get it" is an old truism, as apt for today's reader as it was for a hero of the Norman Conquest. Sir Drogo de Toulon was one of the invader William's mighty war machines. Eada of Pevensey was a young Saxon woman who had been widowed on her wedding night, leaving her still a maiden.
Drogo has fought for William in the hope of gaining lands and wealth, yet when it is offered, he discovers that without Eada as part of the package, there is no worth in it. Eada has inherited from the village witch-woman the ability of hearing and seeing portents of the future. The last prediction made by Old Edith before her death was that Eada's 'mate' would be among the invading Normans. Mayhap there will be even more.
Set against the brutal battles and invasion of the Conquest, the characters in this wonderful book will stay in your heart for a long time. The secondary characters are no less pervasive; you'll especially be enamored of Ivo and May, another Norman/Saxon pair who turn Drogo's war camp into a traveling orphanage. Even though they acquire fourteen kids of various ages, along the way into London, neither of them speak the other's language!
Sensibility, humor, sensuality, panorama, plot, intelligence, romance. All this and wonderfully lifelike characters combine to make this a reader's delight. It'll be yours, too.
Drogo has fought for William in the hope of gaining lands and wealth, yet when it is offered, he discovers that without Eada as part of the package, there is no worth in it. Eada has inherited from the village witch-woman the ability of hearing and seeing portents of the future. The last prediction made by Old Edith before her death was that Eada's 'mate' would be among the invading Normans. Mayhap there will be even more.
Set against the brutal battles and invasion of the Conquest, the characters in this wonderful book will stay in your heart for a long time. The secondary characters are no less pervasive; you'll especially be enamored of Ivo and May, another Norman/Saxon pair who turn Drogo's war camp into a traveling orphanage. Even though they acquire fourteen kids of various ages, along the way into London, neither of them speak the other's language!
Sensibility, humor, sensuality, panorama, plot, intelligence, romance. All this and wonderfully lifelike characters combine to make this a reader's delight. It'll be yours, too.
Helpful Score: 3
Good plot, set as the Battle of Hastings is about to be fought. Norman invader, Saxon heroine. Some intrigue, lots of battle grit and great characters. Tension and sex appeal..
A bloody tale of Norman conquest over the Saxon's circa 1066, England. A young lady inherits 'the sight' when a loved one dies, and finds her mate amongst the conquerers.
Not written "accented" as is Howell's norm, so may be easier to read for those who find her writing in dialect a distraction.
350 pages. Yummy cover. ;)
Not written "accented" as is Howell's norm, so may be easier to read for those who find her writing in dialect a distraction.
350 pages. Yummy cover. ;)
Helpful Score: 1
Left a bequest by a woman with rare psychic powers, Eada of Pevensey suddenly finds herself in pssession of a box containing a mysterious document...and something even more extraordinary: the gift of second sight. Now she can actually "see" her chilling fate: a Norman invader with sea-dark eyes riding across the fields to claim her lands...and her love.
A reluctant soldier for William the Conqueror, Drogo de Toulon seizes the Pevensey lands as a right of conquest...and meets a woman who defies him at every turn - and arouses uncontrollable desire. Yet now, as war rages across a divided England, the two lovers must find the bond that joins body and soul...as they chart a course through battle and betrayal that could break their hearts - or seal their passion for all time...
A reluctant soldier for William the Conqueror, Drogo de Toulon seizes the Pevensey lands as a right of conquest...and meets a woman who defies him at every turn - and arouses uncontrollable desire. Yet now, as war rages across a divided England, the two lovers must find the bond that joins body and soul...as they chart a course through battle and betrayal that could break their hearts - or seal their passion for all time...
Helpful Score: 1
A lovely, quick romantic read about a woman with psychic powers.
