num_pages: 438
description: A Reed in the Wind follows the eventful life of Joanna, daughter of Henry II of England and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her first adventure took her to Sicily, where through an arranged marriage she became the queen of King William the Good. She fell in love not only with her husband but also with the sunny island over which they reigned. Despite evil plots of her vengeful mother-in-law, threats from scheming courtiers, and personal tragedy, through pluck and good sense Joanna withstood it all.More challenges were to come. After William's untimely death, Joanna was cast adrift in the turbulence of twelfth-century Europe. Her brother Richard the Lionheart, now king of England, rescued her and took her with him on Crusade to the Holy Land. Here she narrowly escaped marriage to an infidel, the brother of the Crusaders' dread enemy, Saladin. Back in France, still mourning William, she unexpectedly found contentment, if not passionate love, in a second marriage, to Count Raymond of Toulouse. Still ahead: the joy of motherhood, the comforts of friendship - and the agonies of intrigue and betrayal. Where would she find the strength to withstand the buffetings of fate and come at last to a safe haven?A Reed in the Wind is the third in Rachel Bard's trilogy about Plantagenet queens. The heroine of the first, Queen Without a Country, was Berengaria, wed to Richard the Lionheart. The second, Isabella: Queen Without a Conscience, examines the beauteous, controversial Isabella of Angouleme, queen of King John, Joanna's younger brother. To research these three queens, the author traveled to Spain, France, England, Cyprus, Sicily - and so will you, as you follow their adventures on Kindle.
language: English
title: A Reed in the Wind: Joanna Plantagenet, Queen of Sicily
publisher: Literary Network Press