Read my #BookReview of The Godmother’s Secret by Elizabeth St.John @ElizStJohn @cathiedunn

 

The Godmother’s Secret

by Elizabeth St.John

Publication Date: 4th October, 2022. Publisher: Falcon Historical. Page Length: 350 pages. Genre: Biographical Historical Fiction / Historical Mystery

What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower. Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret?

November, 1470: Westminster Abbey. Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodville–witness the birth of Edward IV’s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabeth’s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict.

Bound by blood and torn by honour, when the king dies and Elysabeth delivers her young godson into the Tower of London to prepare for his coronation, she is engulfed in political turmoil. Within months, the prince and his brother have disappeared, Richard III is declared king, and Margaret conspires with Henry Tudor to invade England and claim the throne. Desperate to protect her godson, Elysabeth battles the intrigue, betrayal and power of the last medieval court, defying her husband and her sister under her godmother’s sacred oath to keep Prince Edward safe.

Were the princes murdered by their uncle, Richard III? Was the rebel Duke of Buckingham to blame? Or did Margaret Beaufort mastermind their disappearance to usher in the Tudor dynasty? Of anyone at the royal court, Elysabeth has the most to lose–and the most to gain–by keeping secret the fate of the Princes in the Tower.     

Inspired by England’s most enduring historical mystery, Elizabeth St.John, best-selling author of The Lydiard Chronicles, blends her own family history with known facts and centuries of speculation to create an intriguing alternative story illuminating the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. 

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚⭐ = A book in a million

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review 

The Godmother's Secret

📚📚📚📚📚

I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

The king is dead - now what? As Richard, the new Lord Protector gathers his forces to intercept his nephew (Edward V) and get him away from those upstart Woodvilles, Elysabeth is charged with delivering Edward safely to The Tower of London where he will await his coronation - a coronation that is destined to never happen.

This novel follows Elysabeth as the world around her seemingly falls apart. She must make a choice - should she try and rescue the young princes, or should she leave them to their fate? This novel is deeply moving and Elysabeth is right in the thick of it, trying to make the right decision, not only because she loves the boys but because of her godmother's oath. She is torn between wanting to respect her husband and her king's wishes, and following her heart. Elysabeth is a character that comes across as very brave, a hero, one might say, but she is not a hero for her own sake, but for that of the children. She is a very brave and extremely likeable character and one I enjoyed reading about her very much.

There are several very distressing scenes in this novel, I think it would be fair to call them harrowing, so I would advise having some tissues close to hand. Likewise, this is a novel that really begs to be read in one sitting because the action and the drama do not stop. 

If you enjoy historical fiction set during the Cousins War, then I think you should put this book on to your to-read list. It is a truly great read.

You can pick up your copy of this book over on Amazon

Elizabeth St.John

Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them— in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story.

Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort.

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