My Book Reviews

Rosemary’s 2nd novel is a real page turner! A compelling story that begins in France at the time of the Religious Wars, and moves on to Devon; all from the perspective of Roberda, a high born strong and accomplished woman of her time.

Rosemary cleverly combines accurate historical narrative with some really brilliant storytelling, and her story, told through Roberta’s eyes, is pacey, compelling, often thrilling, and sometimes very moving.

Reading this book, I felt I too was immersed in the atmospheres and tensions in France, and at the apparently more peaceful Dartington Devon and England at the time of …

The novel opens with young Roberda's father's faux pas – he has killed the king of France, Henry II. Accidentally, of course, during a tournament that he took part in on his king's orders. But little did everyone know what dramatic change the coming years would bring, as Queen Dowager Catherine de Medici plots revenge...

Roberda is five years young when her life changes dramatically: her family flees from Paris to their country manor in rural Normandy, and her father is exiled from court. When the young King Francis II dies shortly after, Catherine's hold over her younger son, now …

.... a really well-written, enjoyable and very well researched book based in my favourite historical era. You brought the characters , their lives and their surroundings to life and I felt sad when I reached page 416, always a good sign of a good read!

Review by email to author website on 16 April 2024

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2024
An extremely enjoyable book. Set during the Huguenot wars in France, the story follows the life of Roberda, the daughter of one of the leaders of the French Protestant army. She is married off into English protestant nobility and moves to Dartington. Broadly based on historical characters, the story follows Roberta's life from childhood to the breakdown of her marriage. The book was a joy to read flowing at a steady pace with enough details of the political intrigue at the time without getting bogged down. It was a pleasure to read …

When learning history, whether as a child or in later life, there are names that one retains with the greatest of ease, names such as Sir Walter Raleigh! Raleigh had an older half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert; perhaps not quite so well known, but also a man of Devon who was going to help change the course of English history in his own right. Katherine Champernowne was their mother. The women who bore our famous men of history were so often seen as insignificant! Not so in this case. Katherine Champernowne was Devon’s Tudor woman of noble wit and of a …