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Queen By Right (2011)

by Anne Easter Smith(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

141655047X (ISBN13: 9781416550471)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Touchstone

review 1: The story of the ancestress of five centuries of English monarchs, QUEEN BY RIGHT tells the story of Cecily Neville over a period of 40 years. An outspoken woman for her time, with a razor sharp intellect, she lived at the center of history making events in the 1400s.This book satisfies on so many levels:• The deeply romantic love match between Cecily and her husband, Richard of York, beginning from their meeting as children.• Insights into the medical care available to someone through 14(!) pregnancies.• Best of all, understanding how the arranged marriages among England's nobles led to shifting loyalties in the decades leading up to the start of The War of The Roses.While I read a lot of history fiction, this is the first book that gave me an appreciation of how mu... morech family relationships impacted politics at this time. For example - What happens when your sister believes your own husband is guilty of treason?What is it like when your uncle becomes your mortal enemy?What if your own daughter marries someone on the "other side?"I loved discovering how Anne Easter Smith uses the private details of her characters' lives and ambitions to tell the political story of this fascinating era in English history. And I now understand the events that led to the beginning of the "Cousins War." This is a thoughtfully presented and well-researched novel.
review 2: Cecily Neville's story is rarely told in historical fiction, other than as an antagonist for Elizabeth Woodville, her daughter-in-law and Queen of England. I really enjoyed this look at Cecily herself, without Elizabeth's presence (she appears only momentarily in about 2 scenes). Cecily was a formidable woman who raised a large family and 2 kings. Descended from royalty, she married another member of the royal house (Richard of York) and they had 13 children, the king Edward IV among them. Cecily's story is told in frames, her memory of her life with Richard after his assassination in battle comes to her to help her through the pain of his death and the death of her son and brother by Lancastrians. It is a compelling book -- I read all 500 pages in one evening because I didn't want to let it go. Definitely worth the read! less

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