Review: Good Tudor Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2013
I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.Taking place during the reign of King Henry VIII, Lady in Deed by Ann Montclair is a charming period romance which takes place between a young woman raised in a nunnery and her rakish nobleman cousin. With likable characters, good dialogue and a light touch of emotional angst, Ms. Montclair's story grabbed me from the first page. While the pace was occasionally slow, the romance is well developed and sweetly spicy.An orphan being raised in a convent, Lady Mary Rutherford believed she'd be taking vows as a nun. When King Henry VIII reforms the church in England and banishes the Roman Catholic faith, Mary discovers her distant family has been paying for her existence and now wishes for her to move to their home. Unaccustomed to life outside the convent, Mary finds herself having to learn to run a manor and attracted to a man she barely knows.A soldier for the king, Lord Trenton Stanley returns home after a decade of service to find his mother dead, his father ill and his family's estate in shambles. Adding to his woes is his father's ward, who he accidentally mistook for a whore. Falling in love with the young woman, who previously lived in a nunnery, is definitely not a part of his plans.The scenes between Mary and Trenton are full of quiet attraction and emotional tension. Mistaking his father's plans, Trenton assumes Mary is there to become his stepmother and becomes jealous of his aging father, while Mary fears she might be forced to marry a man not of her own choice. Ms. Montclair did a good job developing the relationship between Mary and Trenton, while raised in two completely different settings, they both understood their duties to family and the crown.The secondary characters from Lord Henry Stanley to the the household servants and even the manor's tenants, all contributed to both the romance and the story's plot. A dangerous time, when one's loyalty to the king was continuously questioned and practicing one's religion could end in the gallows, Ms. Montclair did a good job keeping things historically accurate.Will Mary learn how to become the lady of the manor and will her attraction to Trenton lead to more than illicit affair? Read Lady in Deed to find out. I enjoyed it and I think you will too.