August 1, 2018
Parliament and the King cannot reconcile, and civil war threatens to tear England apart. Much-hated Queen Henrietta Maria leaves her beloved Charles and their children to seek support for her husband's cause from the royal courts of Europe. Back in England, one of her former ladies-in-waiting, Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, attempts to remain true to former ties and keep the royal children safe despite the execution of her previous lover and her current affair with parliamentary leader John Pym. Vantrease's focus is split between these two women, and Lucy Hay has the more engrossing story as a sophisticated woman trying to navigate extremely uncertain waters. The cast of subsidiary characters is large, and the novel occasionally digresses into their stories to serve as a background tableau and highlight certain themes with regard to the war. There is much to enjoy in this quick read which offers a primarily feminine perspective on a conflict conducted by men. This is the first in a series, so Vantrease provides a cliff-hanger ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)