The Marriage Prize
Setting: England, 1258Sensuality Rating:  6Loyalties collide inNew York Timesbestselling author Virginia Henley'sThe Marriage Prize. Henley demonstrates her much vaunted command of historical detail in this romantic tale set in the midst of the royal intrigue of King Henry III's court. Henley's reliance on actual characters in  large part contributes to the realism and magnetism of the growing relationship between feisty Rosamond Marshall, a royal ward, and Rodger de Leyburn, Prince Edward Plantagenet's powerful steward. The pair was betrothed five years earlier when Rosamond was only twelve, but Rosamond rebels against marrying a man she doesn't know to further others' political agendas.When Rodger pledges to woo her, Rosamond finds herself indulging in torrid fantasies of the dynamic knight who would be her husband. Caught up in the struggle for the throne between Prince Edward and Rosamond's beloved guardian, the warrior Simon de Montfort, who is leading a revolt among England's barons, Rosamond must come to terms with her feelings for the sensual man who has pledged his life and his loyalty to Prince Edward and his troth to her. Henley fashions a fascinating tale of the kind of love that legends are made of!--Alison Trinkle