"Mistress of Mourning" is a historical set in 1501 to 1503 in England and Wales. There was also a romance and a mystery to solve. I think what I liked most about this novel was that I felt like Varina was really a woman of her time rather than a woman with a modern mindset, and I found that an interesting viewpoint. Granted, she pushed the edges of what was acceptable in her time, but I felt like the motive for most of her actions was to help others find peace and safety rather than to try to get her own way.

The setting and characters were vividly described and came alive in my imagination. The characters were interesting and varied, and the main characters reacted in realistic ways to the situations they encountered. The suspense was created by the romantic tension, the danger to Varina and others, and the mystery of who killed the princes in the Tower years in the past.

There were no explicit sex scenes, but there were two intense, vaguely graphic kissing scenes. There was a minor amount of explicit bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting and intriguing novel.


I received this book as a review copy from the publisher.