I don't normally read "bodice busters", so I'm not going to review this from that standpoint. Since there are no other reviews at the writing, I will say that this scored pretty high on that account in Amazon and I see that it got pretty good ratings here.



I read this because it was set in the time of Richard III, so I am commenting on it from that angle; it is an Evil Richard novel. Shelley Bradley tells us that it was inspired by Alison Weir's The Princes in the Tower, and apologizes to the Richard III Society, since she knows they will not like it. No matter, they will get their revenge picking at the historical inaccuracies and laughing their heads off at the historical howler in the Prologue, dated November, 1485. The hero Aric Neville convinced Sir Thomas More to investigate the fate of the princes and More was able to prove that they were murdered. More was in fact 6-1/2 at this time; I believe that Alison Weir pointed out that he was a child at this time.



I was not going to say anything further, but the author dedicates her book to: "With gratitude to readers everywhere who keep history alive by supporting fiction about days past." Then why doesn't she put more history in her fiction? Except for the priest who marries Aric and Gwenyth in the beginning, there is no sign of the church. Rowena's relationships with Aric's relatives wouldn't be merely scandalous, they'd be incestuous. If Aric slept with his betrothed, they'd be considered married--it would at least be an absolute bar to Rowena's marriage to Aric's father, rather like the alleged case of Edward IV in Weir's book. If Aric is feeling guilty, why isn't he a hermit devoted to prayer? One could go on and on.



O.K., I should just accept that a "bodice buster" is not really a historical novel and leave them to people who do enjoy them. Happy reading! ( )