4.5 Stars

Ida de Tosney arrived at King Henry II's court at age 15 to be his ward. But the King favored her immediately and she became his mistress. Ida really had no choice and was his mistress for years and they even had a son together. When a handsome, shy young lord, Roger Bigod, comes to the court for the King to settle his inheritance, Ida is smitten. She flirts with Roger at every chance, but Roget is very cautious of not offending the King. Will Ida be able to convince the King to give her up and let her marry, and what will become of her son?

This was my first book by Elizabeth Chadwick, but it won't be my last! I am not used to fiction based on historical fact being so romantic! Sigh, Roger was absolutely swoon-worthy. I loved that he was so shy and honorable. Ida was pretty feisty and very forward about how much she liked Roger and she took control of what she wanted and eventually convinced the King to let her marry Roger.

I loved Ida and Roger's flirtation at Henry's court, but I loved even more how the story told about their actual marriage. Ida feels things for Roger that she had never felt for Henry. Ida and Roger have lots of ups and downs in their loving relationship, and Roger's service to King Henry makes everything more difficult for them and their family.

Roger's love of hats was an ongoing joke and never failed to make me smile. Little things like this made the characters really come to life.

I liked how the author wasn't afraid to use jealousy as a plot line. Of course Roger would be jealous if his wife had been the King's mistress! Who wouldn't be?

The only reason this book didn't get all five stars from me was because the last 100 pages or so seemed to deal more with Ida's two oldest sons instead of Ida and Roger. I liked the ending and it was good to see everything come full circle, but I felt like the focus on the sons moved too far away from the main story.

Overall, this is fantastic historical fiction with a lot of romance!


ARC sent by publisher in exchange for honest review

reviewed for http://inthehammockblog.blogspot.com