Review: Tudor England Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2013
This review will appear at Romantic Historical Lovers Book Blog:Tudor England is one of the most fascinating times in English history to me. Henry VIII absolutely fascinates me. All the decisions he made for his own benefit and the consequences of those actions shaped a nation. Whether those consequences made England better or worse, we'll never know as we can't go back in time to explore another option.Lady in Deed is set in Tudor England. Henry VIII has separated from the Holy Roman Church. Ann Boleyn is sitting on the throne. Catholics are being persecuted. It's not safe to be a practicing Catholic. Men and women have died over it.Lady Mary Rutherford has been cloistered in a nunnery since she was 10 years old. She had every intention of becoming a nun. With the dangers of being Catholic, the Abbey is closing it's doors and Mary is forced to flee the Abbey. Her guardian has sent a carriage for her. On the way to her guardian's manor, she and the coach driver come across Lord Stanley, her guardian. Lord Stanley mistakes Mary for a lady of ill repute and treats her as such. Poor Mary. She's never been kissed, never held hands and most certainly never been touched that way! Thus begins the relationship between Mary and Trenton, Lord Stanley.Lord Stanley and Lady Mary form a tenuous friendship that soon blossoms into more. However, Lord Stanley keeps putting the halt on things while Lady Mary keeps pressing forward. I found this paradox interesting. Even though she had been cloistered in a nunnery, she was very open about her feelings and what she wanted. I actually liked that about her. It was refreshing. One would expect she would be repressed from living in the nunnery, but she wasn't. I also liked that it was Lord Stanley that was busy putting the brakes on things. Oh, don't worry, he has a good reason!The conflicts between Lady Mary and Lord Stanley were realistic and added to the story. I liked that they didn't continue to hold a grudge against the other person. Although when Lady Mary finally had enough and read him the riot act, I was cheering her on!I was so excited about this book. Tudor England, a great premise, I was so excited. Part of that story lived up to my expectations and yet I still found myself wanting a bit more. I wanted a bit more conflict and angst. This was a very straightforward love story. There were several opportunities to provide more conflict and drama to the story, but instead it was very mild.The love scenes in this story were sweet. They definitely added to the story of Lady Mary and Lord Stanley. They helped carry the story forward and provided some of the conflict they had to overcome. However, most of it was written in flowery prose. I'm not a huge fan of flowery prose and I found myself wanting something less poetic. I think some of the wording was meant as a metaphor for Lady Mary having been cloistered in a nunnery and her life changing. While I can appreciate that on an intellectual level, on an emotional level I didn't care for it.This was definitely worth reading. I recommend it for anyone who likes Tudor England and wants a pretty straightforward historical romance.I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review.