The end of 2010 is near and once again we are looking back at the best books we've read during this year. I read less this year than in 2009 and maybe because of that I have fewer favourites. This year I would award top honours to:
The second book in the William Marshall duo, this one pays closer attention to his wife Isabelle. The great heiress he married, who brought him great wealth and power and with whom, I like to think, he also found a great love. They lived in dangerous and trying times but faced the adversities together.
After finishing William Marshall's books what better way to revisit him than by following the story of his daughter Mahelt? A young Lady with a strong personality that finds herself divided between her birth family and the family she married into during the turbulent times that preceded the signing of the Magna Carta.
As the title indicates this is a novel about the Black Prince, the military man and the lover of the Fair Maid of Kent. But it is also a novel about Chivalry. About honour and justice, the love of God and the love of a Lady, about being true to one self and our moral values.
My honourable mentions are:
For the King by Catherine Delors
To Shield The Queen by Fiona Buckley
The Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod Eagles
No surprise to see EC on your list, and Alex's list, and it will be no surprise that it will be on mine as well.
ReplyDeleteLike I wrote to Alex, To Defy a King is out in North America in March. I was lucky enough to get a review copy. I'm looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteTHE SCARLET LION, I SERVE, and For the King are all on my TBR.
LOL To Defy a King made almost everyone's lists didn't it?
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