The House Of Lanyon

Exmoor Saga #1

by Valerie Anand

When two ambitious families occupy the same patch of English soil, rivalry is sure to take root and f lourish. A glimmer of initiative swells into blind desire, and minor hurts, nursed with jealousy, fester into a malignant hatred. When a bitter feud is born the price for this wild and beautiful piece of ground will take more than three generations to settle.

Richard Lanyon answers to no one save the aristocratic Sweetwater family, owners of the land he farms. His bitter resentment is legend within the bounds of their tiny Exmoor community, but as their tenant, Richard Lanyon must do their bidding. Still, even noblemen do not have the power to contain ruthless ambition, and the Sweetwaters are no exception. Driven to succeed, Richard is prepared to take what is not his, and to forfeit the happiness of his family to claim the entitlements he lusts for.

But no family can grow and succeed without the nurturing hand of a woman, and even Richard Lanyon knows this. Better still if the woman is clever and hardworking and can bear many sons, and with this in mind Richard arranges a marriage for his only son, Peter. But matches based on pragmatism often hide a multitude of sins, and so it is within the house of Lanyon. Although Peter and his bride, Liza Weaver, settle into marriage, each harbors a broken heart, lost dreams and unspoken secrets. And should their secrets ever be revealed, all that Richard has worked for will be destroyed.

Surviving the betrayals of the past means keeping one foot in the present, and an eye to the future. For it is the next generation that holds the power to achieve in one moment what eluded Richard Lanyon for a lifetime.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, British Literature, 15th Century, Tudor Period, Historical Romance

592 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Born in London, Valerie Anand knew at the age of six that she wanted to be an author. At the age of fifteen, she saw MGM’s film Ivanhoe. She walked into the cinema knowing that she wanted to be a novelist and walked out of it knowing that historical novels were the kind she most wanted to write.

Over the course of her long and distinguished writing career, Valerie has written many works of historical fiction and is well known for the Ursula Blanchard series of Elizabethan mysteries written under the pen name of Fiona Buckley.

Still living in London, Valerie Anand is a frequent visitor to Exmoor, the setting featured in The House of Lanyon.

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This so called "epic story" from Anand that offers a supposed "vivid portrait of fifteenth century English life" (to quote from the book jacket) is to this reader as flat, lifeless and bland as a piece of cardboard. The basic premise of the story is of the Lanyons who are tenants to the aristocratic Sweetwaters and bear a decades long hatred for each other and in the case of Richard Lanyon feeds an ambition to better their lot in life and to wreak revenge on the hated Sweetwaters. **Yawn***. Every twist and all too predictable plot turn in the story one could see coming a mile away. I had a very hard time sticking with this book until the final and not too surprising finish especially since there was not one character in this book that I even cared about.

Worse yet, the back story of the battle for supremacy between the Lancasters, Yorks and eventually Tudor houses was virtually non-existent, even though Richard and eventually Peter went to serve during the wars -- even the battle at Bosworth Field only got about four or five pages worth of coverage.

All in all a very mediocre book, and I'm having a hard time believing this book comes from the same author who wrote The King of The Wood. If you are dead set on reading this for yourself, I strongly urge you to get it from the library first, and then buy it if you love it. Side note, if you want to read a couple of excellent books on the history of this period and The War of the Roses, try Sharon Kay Penman's fabulous The Sunne In Splendour and Meredith Whitford's Treason.

[Anna Karras · Rating 3 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for Library Journal and it is historical fiction, but it was a departure from the type of historical fiction that is packing the market these days. This book is about a family, (or two families, really) and it focuses on their lives, even though it takes place in England during the War of the Roses. Richard III and Henry VII manage to get mentioned, but they are really just set dressing - the meat of the story settles around Peter Lanyon and Liza Weaver - two young people whose families have arranged their marriage, even though they are both in love with other people. It is is pretty decent family saga, complete with feuds, secrets, and a little bit of scandal. It's no Thorn Birds, but then, what is?

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

The House of Lanyon has its fair share of secrets and hidden lies. Richard Lanyon, the patriarch, wasn't much of a family man. His business was his life. His wife was a weak woman in his eyes. All but one of her children died due to feebleness. Peter, the one that survived was hardly a suitable heir. If the boy had his way, he'd have married that fishermen's daughter. That is had she not mysteriously disappeared.

Perhaps, the match that Richard arranged wasn't much better. Time would tell on that one. Liza was a hardworking woman with a head for business. Her heart, however, belonged to a priest to be named Christopher. Thus laid the foundations of the marriage of Peter and Liza, both madly in love with another but trying to make a good life together for the sake of the family reputation.

The House of Lanyon is a great book to read on a cold and blustery winter weekend. It truly is an epic story about the lives and loves of a family in 15th century England.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me this book really brought to life the atmosphere and geography of the region. Many of the locations really exist and I found the historical descriptions of these fascinating.

Other locations are fictional, but there are enough clues from the author, to make me look at my map of the region. I found the authors obvious love of the area to be a bit like Thomas hardy and the way he fictionalises real places in Dorset and beyond.

I found the relationships between the different social classes and and their expectations very interesting. The way the story is interwoven into the history of the time had me veering off to read a bit more about this time in history.

I liked the characterisation and enjoyed the way the novel moved through time, giving a glimpse into changing intergenerational expectation.

I have already added the sequel to my 'want to read' list and have purchased a second hand copy.

[Sara Giacalone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Valerie Anand's writing. I especially love her amazing attention to detail and historical accuracy as well as her ability to create compelling "everyday" characters. The House of Lanyon was no exception. This book tells a very human story of several families living in Exmoor, their struggles for daily life (including details on farming, dying, weaving and house building), loves and interactions with great historical events - in this case major battles of the War of Roses. I am definitely looking forward to the second novel in this series.

[Lalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this historical novel very much. The author has the ability to recreate the time that she writes about to the extent that reader becomes part of the story.
This novel takes place during the War of the Roses and demonstrates how the events of this time affected farmers and merchants and disrupted their lives.The two main characters wed after unhappy love affairs have ended and they struggle to create a successful and happy life. This story has family drama, frustration, the day to day struggle of people trying to succeed against the odds of nature and politics.

[Caroline Heath · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Exmoor and I found this book in a second hand bookshop in Porlock which seemed very fitting. I loved the setting and I liked how it spanned several generations but as it covered such a massive time period the characters were not well developed and were unlikeable as a result. The overall historical feel was fine, though there were some things that occasionally stood out as definitely incorrect. My main issue was with the speech - I’ve not read anything else by this author so I don’t know if it’s usual for her but the speech did not flow, it was super clunky and SO full of exposition that at times I wanted to throw the book across the room. Why is this character explaining to this one where this village is when it’s 5miles away and they’ve lived in the area their whole life?? Why is this character telling this one who the king is when he’s been king for years???
I also found the continuing and recurring theme of several characters ‘epic and never ending love’ for people they’d had about 3 conversations with pretty irritating.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, quick read, but felt awkwardly anachronistic at times - on the one hand the detailed descriptions of medieval life rang very true, but on the other hand characters described things as "weird" or a character was described as "sexy," which felt jarring, whether or not those were words in use in medieval England (no idea). The end of the book also felt pretty rushed - a lot of exposition, a lot of things coming to a head for no particular reason, a lot of coincidences invoked. An entertaining read but not a re-read.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The story is of England in the 1400's..... all about the people and the land and a family and what went on in their daily lives. So good. It's been on my shelf for years....another one I should have gotten to sooner.

[Amy Beyrle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know much about this period of history, so I really enjoyed learning about it. I also really enjoyed her writing style. Very good!

[Kathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Easy reading and the history of England was interesting.

[Ale · Rating 4 out of 5]

È un libro che mi è piaciuto molto e mi ha fatto entrare per un pò nella vita dei Lanyon

[chucklesthescot · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the death of his bullying father, Richard assumes control of the family and decides to marry Peter, his son, to a local girl who has a family with prospects. It doesn't matter that Liza is involved with a trainee priest and Peter loves a fisherman's daughter when Richard has his own agenda. Richard is also involved in a fued with the Sweetwaters who he blames for the death of the woman he loves and now his sights are on the woman he wouldn't let Peter marry.

This is not a bad book. It was well enough written and there was nothing wrong with the actual story. It had the elements of love, betrayal and family fueds that you would expect in this kind of historical fiction. It just didn't end up appealing to me. I bought the book based on it being described as set against the War of the Roses but I found that the War was barely mentioned a few times which was a pity because I expected to see this family and their troubles being in with all the political upheaval going on in the country but the focus was on the family fueds with only a few mentions of the bigger picture which was a shame. I wanted to see the men going off to fight the wars and see what happened to them there on a regular basis but it didn't happen.

There is also the issue that Richard had no redeeming qualities at all and was an evil bully who never stopped picking on his son and Liza for every little thing. I couldn't even sum up any sympathy for him over Deb's death as he was just so horrible all the time. There was only so much of him I could take!

If you go into this looking for a historical fiction with forbidden romance, betrayal, fueds and so on, you might like it. But don't expect a big War of the Roses storyline as it is way in the background.

[T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book since it's set in England in one of my favorite time periods, but I was severely disappointed. I liked the idea of the story, and some of the plot, but otherwise the execution was just not my cup of tea. It's a family saga, more or less following one woman from her early years when she has a "passionate" love affair which sparks a series of events that follow her through the rest of her life.

It was a slog. I didn't care about any of the characters who were all terribly flat, and all spoke in long winded paragraphs of exposition. With many exclamation points! Like this! They always talked like this! There was just so much telling, and most of the plot twists were predictable. The setting and time period hardly influenced the story except in the broadest possible sense, so it didn't really work as historical fiction or romance. Very disappointing all around.

[Gilda Felt · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not my favorite of the Anand books, it's one I quite enjoyed. As in all her books, life doesn't always come out happily, or the way the characters might wish. But that's part of her books "charm," for lack of a better word. The reader can't be certain if any character will survive, or live 'happily ever after.' That's certainly the case for Peter Lanyon and Liza Weaver, the book's two main protagonists. Both love someone else, yet are powerless against their family's desires for them to wed. What their marriage means, to them and to those around them, is the main focus of the book. I found reading it a muted delight, but a delight, nevertheless.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started a little slow but was really engaging as the story went on. At first, the author's style of introducing something and then going into the past was disorienting, but once I was used to it, I found it worked well.

If you like late medieval historical fiction (War of the Roses and the like), this was a good read. It was also nice that the subjects of the books were farmers rather than kings and queens.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started off real slow. I thought it was going to be like a grown-up version of a Little House on the Prairie book, and I HATED Little House books. Anyway, it got more interesting after the first 100 pages or so, so I'm kind of glad that I stuck with it. I like the relationship evolving plots. It's not so much about farm work in the end. :0)

[Joanna Reiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it really is a saga. It had some moments in it, but no plot to speak of. It's just telling about this family who don't have an easy life, but in the telling, even the extrordinary things seem ordinary.

[CLM]

Peter Lanyon and Liza Weaver are in love, though not with each other. Thus begins the 50-year saga of the Lanyon family in Anand’s new historical novel, set in 15th-century England.

I have always enjoyed this author, who also writes mysteries as Fiona Buckley.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a 100%-historically-accurate book, this is not it. Yet it's still entertaining as it follows the soap opera of the Lanyons and the Sweetwaters through three generations. Entertaining as a "beach read", but not something I'm likely to re-read any time soon.

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

As Valerie Anand also writes under the pseudonym Fiona Buckley in the fabulous Ursula Blanchard series, I wanted to like this book. Although, I read it to the end, I mostly found it flat with little to send me on to the other books in the series.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The word that epitomises this book would be 'average'. There were a few sections that had promise however for the most part I had to force myself to persevere.

Jo - Historical Romance Review

[Marvin Soroos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a readable novel in the tradition of English sagas---this one set in the latter 15th century. It center upon the tensions between a landowning family whose economic and social dominance is challenged by former tenants who seek to overtake them.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good...Looking back their were some slower parts but I didn't really notice at the time.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book, not great. I will not read any more in the series.

[Genevieve · Rating 2 out of 5]

very disappointing, personal plot line interesting, but is not set well in the period, takes place in Exmoor in 1400s.

[Dilys Myhill · Rating 3 out of 5]

forbidden love & intrigue a good enjoyable read.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story, but couldn't really connect with the main character, to me she was quite weak.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good, will have to get the next one.

[A.E. Walnofer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard time deciding if I was going to give this book three stars or four, but since I read it cover to cover (it's not unusual for me to not finish a book) I went ahead and gave it four stars.

What I liked about this book included the realistic way the story of the families unraveled. It was nice to read about the commoner's way of life in the South of England during the War of the Roses, as opposed to the focus being on royalty, which is often the case in historically fictitious books.

What I didn't like was the dialogue. It was full of unnecessary information that seemed to be included in order to reveal things to the reader rather than to the character being spoken to. This made the conversations seem unrealistic and rather silly.