Sunday, July 25, 2010

The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

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Since this book was only recently released by Sourcebooks I decided that I should re-post my earlier review - which was posted a bit earlier than I should have. As I have mentioned - I am thoroughly enthralled with this series (The Morland Dynasty) and with the wonderful writing style of the author!


I had never read any books by this author before having the lucky chance to review this edition of 'The Dark Rose' from Sourcebooks Landmark.  I am now hot on the trail of the first volume in the Morland Dynasty series and will, more than likely, become a devotee of this excellent author!

This book is based on a fictional family with the last name of Morland and the time from is during the reign of Henry VIII - this volume roughly covers the years 1513 to 1549. It is, more or less, a romance, although there is much much more to this story. The historical facts as presented are quite close to factual although the lives of this fictional family - think the Ewings of the old "Dallas" television series.

The book is replete with romance, marriages, deaths, forbidden loves, natural disasters, crop failures, intrigues with the royal family (think Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Parr), rebellions, religious disputes - this book has it all  - and presents it all with a flair and believability that sets this author's talents apart from many other historical fiction writers. The book is founded on a fictionalized family but the events and history that surround this family are definitely based on good, hard historical facts.
This is a reprint of this excellent book - and some of the older covers are ones that I probably would not have considered buying in the past. I like this cover and I think it suits the book well.

I'm off to buy more volumes in this series. I don't believe that any historical fiction enthusiast will be disappointed in reading this excellent historically based novel!It's due for release in July I believe and can be pre-ordered easily - and often with a discount - on Amazon or through your  very important local bookstore. This is a great read!
 
 
PS:
In my early post of this review  that I first published in March of this year I added photos of two old style covers that I unearthed on line. One was the more recent, and better of the two IMHO, whilst the other one I most likely would not have thought to buy way back when I was managing a bookstore!If you're curious have a look in the March blog archives,


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