Skip to main content

The Lady of the Ravens by Joanna Hickson

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Set during the reign of Henry VII at the introduction of the Tudor Dynasty, this followed the story of Joan Vaux herself a victim of the turmoils of court during the reign of the polar opposite kings in Edward and Richard.

The death of the two boys in the Tower still lingers in the memories of the court as a new era approaches.  Lady Margaret's son Henry has returned and assumed his rightful position on the throne, he is to merge the two houses with his marriage to Elizabeth of the house of York with Lancaster.  Joan was kindly under Lady Margaret's patronage for a time during the upheaval and her mother was her lady in waiting for a time, now Joan finds herself honored with a position in the future queens court.

Joan finds herself living in the shadow of the Tower of London and she not only has to navigate the politics of court, a jealous younger sister of the queen and the expectations of a women at court.  She finds herself drawn to the dark and yet beautiful conspiracy of Ravens that reside within the Tower's walls.  She uses her eyes and her instincts not only to traverse this at times tempestuous position but also to ensure that, thanks to the old beliefs the Ravens remain protected and present within the grounds as for this fair country to prosper they must truly thrive.

Joanna Hickson is a new author to me and I have to say I found her writing style to be easy to read, leading the reader in a fluid and beautiful writing style that makes you want to just carry on reading.

As this was a little known part of the tudor history I am uncertain to how much fact can be attributed to this historical fiction title however, despite enjoying it there was nothing to make it stand out and more than other writers in this particular genre of history.  I also do believe that the direction of this book leaves it open to further intrigue in the books to come, it will definitely be interesting to see the continuation of Joan's story and to see how her son continues to thrive (or not) with his friendship with Prince Henry.

I gave this book 4* and would like to thank both NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read and give my honest review of this book.

About the Author

If you are interested in finding out more on this author please click on the link below:
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar My rating: 1 of 5 stars This book is set in 1785 when a merchant Mr Hancock is handed into his possession a shrivelled body of a mermaid in lieu of a ship he was expecting to return. This starts an event of trying to recoup his losses by displaying the oddity to those of interest at a sum. Angelica Neal is a women used to being kept but has fallen on hard times, her previous lover has passed away and she finds herself fighting for survival and recognition to keep herself out of the high paid establishments and prostitution that will be her plight. Instead Angelica seeks a new lover and a higher status than that previously achieved. Despite the high acclaim from my fellow Book Tuber's unfortunately this book did not quite meet my expectation. I found this book to read in a very slow and dry manner which left me unable to connect either with the content of the story or unfortunately the characters....
Post a Comment
Read more

BOOK REVIEW: Always Here for You by Miriam Halahmy

Young Adult - Trigger Warning for Child Grooming on the Internet   Holly is 14 and feels alone, her best friend has moved away to Canada and her parents are dealing the normal stresses of both work and home life as well as caring for an elderly member of the family. This has caused Holly to feel both isolated and alone, spending increasingly longer amounts of time fending for herself and in the house alone, where she is terrified of every noise that she hears. Her mum does try to get her to befriend Noah, a boy in her year who is experiencing bullying from another class mate and member of his synagogue. Although Holly does not realise it this friendship may not only save Noah, but also herself. Then Holly meets Jay, someone she believes is friends with her bestie Amy and other people in school as he was posted about on an online forum, quickly this situation gets out of hand and she begins to isolate herself from those she cares about and her personality notably changes. Is Jay wha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Portable Shelter

A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I am not one to always get on with a book based in magical realism however, I had heard such good things about this book I could not resist giving it a chance. This book is based on a gay couple Ruth and Liska who have moved to a remote coastal cottage in Scotland while Ruth carries their first child. Each of them spends time telling the baby stories containing moral and life lessons from what they have learnt. This includes many magical realism tales including selkies, werewolves and child-eating witches. They agree not to tell stories to the baby so each of them are relaying their tales in secret from each other. I really did enjoy the small tales included within the overall story of Ruth and Liska however, was somewhat disappointed when the concluding story was about Death. I felt sad that the child was not born during the final pages of the book and felt extremely curious to find out with a mot...
Post a Comment
Read more