Review
Ok, I officially have a new addition to my must-read authors list. I’ve run across Jennifer Blake now and again, and always enjoyed her stories. Then last month I read and was bowled over by By His Majesty’s Grace, the first book in her Graces of Graydon series. I was eager to read the second story uin the series, but I was really worried that Ms. Blake would not be able to sustain the high level of craftsmanship she achieved in the first.
See, I love to read nonfiction about the Tudor period, and I flatter myself as something of a minor scholar of the era. But as I said in my review of the first book in the Graces series, I have not enjoyed most of the Tudor historicals I’ve read. Too often, authors who capture the brutality and crudeness of the period lose the romance, while a good love story glosses over some of the very ugly realities of life under the Henrys, numbers VII and VIII. Ms. Blake’s first story was an exceptional balancing act, and I didn’t think she could pull it off again.
Well, I’ve got my knife and fork, so pass the crow. I was wrong. If anything, By Grace Possessed surpasses its predecessor, and I am on tenterhooks waiting for the third book!
Ms. Blake’s hero is a brawny, half-untamed Scotsman, Ross Dunbar, who has very little interest in tame, overcivilized Englishwomen like Lady Cate Milton. But when he comes to her rescue when she gets separated from the field during a hunt, they end up spending the night together, all alone in the King’s Forest. Now this isn’t quite the scandal it would be in our good old Regency era, but it is a convenient set-up for Henry VII’s tendency to meddle in people’s lives. He and his lineal descendants just loved that sort of thing, you know.
Henry sees a marriage between Cate and Dunbar as a way to manipulate Scottish interests and maintain a delicate balance of power – remember, he was not terribly secure on the throne following the Wars of the Roses. So Henry commands the two to wed, much to the dismay of the loathsome Trilborn, who not only has the hots for Cate (and her fortune), but just happens to be the hereditary enemy of the Dunbars. While many historicals seem to just be stories about ordinary folks in period dress, Ms. Blake demonstrates a thorough understanding of the political stresses of the era. Henry’s manipulations and Trilborn’s intrigues aren’t just stage-dressing; they are an integral part of the story.
Cate and Dunbar are both suspicious of each other, but their unavoidable attraction cannot be denied. There are rousing battle scenes, very sensuous love scenes (pass me my fan, would you, dear?) and a lot of twists and turns on our journey to a happy ending.
By Grace Possessed is up there with some of the best historicals I’ve read. So if y’all need to find me in the near future, I’ll be haunting the bookstores, looking for Ms. Blake’s backlist.
Reviewed by Donna