Book Review: Mistress of the Court by Laura Purcell & Giveaway

Mistress of the Court by Laura Purcell
Book 2 of the Georgian Queens series

ARC, E-Book, 448 pages
Myrmidon Books Ltd
September 25, 2015
★★★★ ½☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received from the publisher for TLC book tour

Orphaned and trapped in an abusive marriage, Henrietta Howard has little left to lose. She stakes everything on a new life in Hanover with its royal family,

the heirs to the British throne. Henrietta’s beauty and intelligence soon win her the friendship of clever Princess Caroline and her mercurial husband, Prince George. But, as time passes, it becomes clear that friendship is the last thing on the hot-blooded young prince’s mind. Dare Henrietta give into his advances and anger her violent husband? Dare she refuse?
Whatever George’s shortcomings, Princess Caroline is determined to make the family a success. Yet the feud between her husband and his obstinate father threatens all she has worked for. As England erupts in Jacobite riots, her family falls apart. She vows to save the country for her children to inherit – even if it costs her pride and her marriage. Set in the turbulent years of the Hanoverian accession, Mistress of the Court tells the story of two remarkable women at the center of George II’s reign.

The Georgian period is not one that I am all that familiar with. I have a vague understanding of George III from my American history classes and Queen of Bedlam also by Purcell. Beyond that, I am a blank slate. So everything in Mistress of the Court was entirely new to me.

From my perspective, I think Purcell did an excellent job of creating the feel of this time period - from personalities to politics to ways of life. I had a clear vision of George I and George II as well as Queen Caroline and Henrietta Howard. Even the secondary characters were well defined and stood on their own.

The novel covers time spent at the court in Hanover prior to George I taking the English throne (as well as after the ascension) and it was interesting to be able to compare the two ways of life and what it meant to the characters. Caroline and Henrietta had definitive ideas of what the move to England would bring to them…and as life goes, nothing turns out quite like they expect. Additionally, we see life for the poor (where Caroline begins the novel) as well as life in the court (which wasn’t always the glitz and glamour). Some great foiling of characters and settings here draws some great visualizations for the reader. I really enjoyed the back and forth between Caroline and Henrietta. They always seemed to need each other for something and it was clearly a love/hate relationship.

The narrative here raced right along and I found myself being drawn back to read at every chance I got. The characters were well written and I enjoyed reading about a new time/place. I found this to be excellent reading that I would highly recommend to others.

As a tidbit, the author has some great miscellaneous material related to this book on her website and even a scene that was cut from the novel if you need more to fill your appetite (I already checked them all out).

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Living In The Kitchen with Puppies
• Unabridged Chick

Buy the Book: Amazon | Amazon UK

Also by Laura Purcell:

Queen of Bedlam [My Review]

 

Find Laura Purcell: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Follow the Tour!

Monday, September 14th: Romantic Historical Reviews

Wednesday, September 16th: Raven Haired Girl

Monday, September 21st: Ace and Hoser Blog

Tuesday, September 22nd: BookBub – author guest post

Wednesday, September 23rd: Living in the Kitchen with Puppies

Thursday, September 24th: Bibliophilia, Please

Monday, September 28th: Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, September 30th: Books Without Any Pictures

Thursday, October 1st: The Maiden’s Court

Monday, October 5th: Broken Teepee

Monday, October 5th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Tuesday, October 6th: A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, October 7th: A Literary Vacation

Thursday, October 8th: Just One More Chapter

Friday, October 9th: A Bookish Affair

Monday, October 12th: Luxury Reading

Tuesday, October 13th: Open Book Society

Wednesday, October 14th: #redhead.with.book

Tuesday, October 27th: Reading Lark

Giveaway!!

As part of the TLC Book Tour I have a copy of Mistress of the Court by Laura Purcell up for grabs for one lucky reader and the giveaway is open WORLDWIDE!!! Yay!  Entries will be made through the Rafflecopter application below and the giveaway will remain open until October 17th.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Copyright © 2015 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Queen of Bedlam by Laura Purcell

Queen of Bedlam by Laura Purcell
PDF ARC, 432 pages
Myrmidon Books Ltd
June 10, 2014 (UK Release)
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical fiction

Source: Received from publisher for review as part of HFVBT tour

“London 1788. The calm order of Queen Charlotte’s court is shattered by screams. The King of England is going mad. Left alone with thirteen children and with the country at war, Charlotte has to fight to hold her husband’s throne. It is a time of unrest and revolutions but most of all Charlotte fears the King himself, someone she can no longer love or trust. She has lost her marriage to madness and there is nothing she can do except continue to do her royal duty.
Her six daughters are desperate to escape their palace asylum. Their only chance lies in a good marriage, but no prince wants the daughter of a madman. They are forced to take love wherever they can find it, with devastating consequences.

The moving true story of George III’s madness and the women whose lives it destroyed.”

The period of English history that I am least with is the Regency period and all of the King Georges. I think part of my aversion is that the majority of books that I see set during this period are light, fluffy romances – of which I have fairly little use. I will admit it was primarily the title that drew me in to this novel. I have always had some amount of intrigue about the “madness of King George” and also find stories about those who tend to be on the periphery fascinating. While George III and George IV are the primary male figures in this novel, the daughters/sisters/wives receive quite the novel treatment. This is certainly not a light, fluffy romance (although there are a few romantic scenes).

Despite the rather large cast of characters, the author does a fantastic job of creating each person in their own right. In a short span of pages I could easily tell Amelia apart from Sophia and Royal (and the same goes for the men as well, although they are featured on fewer pages). It is very easy for an author to focus on just one or two characters while the rest are introduced for a few sentences and then disappear to just show up in cursory scenes – not so here. I feel that I truly got to know each of them. I think that Sophia was my favorite character – my heart just broke for her.

Another strength in this novel was how the author sets the events in England within the context of events that are occurring in other parts of the world (particularly America, France, and some of the states and duchies that would become Germany). The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the conquest of Napoleon all occurred during the reign of George III and are all events I was familiar with and helped me to place the events within the context of the greater world. That is always an element that I look for in novels.

Early on in my reading, the constant use of the name, Royal, for Princess Charlotte, daughter of George III, grated on my nerves. I didn’t realize at that time that her title was Princess Royal as the oldest daughter to the King. I just found it to be quite annoying to have to hear “Royal” all the time when the sound just didn’t fit in the sentence. I understand that this was done to avoid confusion with her mother, Queen Charlotte. It was refreshing that upon leaving England Royal actually expressed disdain over not being called by her given name because of her mother being of the same name. I thought this might have been a breakthrough moment and that we would then see her being called Charlotte because they were no longer in the same scenes – but alas that was but a dream.

Of note – the cover is beautiful! It is one of my recent favorites. I have no idea how accurate it is to the time period (I’m never very good at determining those things), but it is certainly eye catching!

I look forward to more novels by this author and really enjoyed her writing.

This is author Laura Purcell’s debut novel (expect to see more novels of the Hanoverian women in the future). You can visit Laura’s website for additional information about the book.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Broken Teepee

You can follow along with the rest of the blog tour by visiting the HFVBT website or on Twitter with the following hashtag: #QueenofBedlamTour.

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon UK, Amazon US, B&N, RJ Julia (my fav indie bookstore).

 

Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court