Dark Angels

Tamworth Saga #1

by Karleen Koen

Alice Verney is a young woman intent on achieving her dreams. Having left Restoration England in the midst of a messy scandal, she has been living in Louis XIV’s Baroque, mannered France for two years. Now she is returning home to England and anxious to re-establish herself quickly. First, she will regain her former position as a maid of honor to Charles II’s queen. Then she will marry the most celebrated duke of the Restoration, putting herself in a position to attain power she’s only dreamed of. As a duchess, Alice will be able to make or break her friends and enemies at will.

But all is not as it seems in the rowdy, merry court of Charles II. Since the Restoration, old political alliances have frayed, and there are whispers that the king is moving to divorce his barren queen, who some wouldn’t mind seeing dead. But Alice, loyal only to a select few, is devoted to the queen, and so sets out to discover who might be making sinister plans, and if her own father is one of them. When a member of the royal family dies unexpectedly, and poison is suspected, the stakes are raised. Alice steps up her efforts to find out who is and isn’t true to the queen, learns of shocking betrayals throughout court, and meets a man that she may be falling in love with—and who will spoil all of her plans. With the suspected arrival of a known poison-maker, the atmosphere in the court electrifies, and suddenly the safety of the king himself seems uncertain. Secret plots are at play, and war is on the horizon—but will it be with the Dutch or the French? And has King Charles himself betrayed his country for greed?

The long-awaited prequel to Koen’s beloved Through a Glass Darkly, Dark Angels is a feast of a novel that sparkles with all the passion, extravagance, danger, and scandal of seventeenth-century England. Unforgettable in its dramatic force, here is a novel of love and politics, of romance and betrayal, of power and succession—and of a resourceful young woman who risks everything for pride and status in an era in which women were afforded little of either.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Romance, Historical Romance, British Literature, 17th Century

530 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2006

About the author

My childhood was filled with glorious books, Little Women, Lad A Dog, Black Beauty, Little House on the Prairie, Caddie Woodlawn. They were as real to me as the life around me, a lower middle class one in a small oil refinery town in Texas. My grandfather, an invalid, was a huge fan of the writers Frank Slaughter, Frank Yerby, and Zane Grey. By the time I learned to read, I was sneaking his square, cheap (a dime, I think) paperbacks off and reading them. Pirates. Passion. History. It has never occurred to me to write anything but historicals, a kind of time travel into other minds, other lands, other eras, other cultures, other worlds. That's what I wish for my readers, that my books take them far away into another place and time and that they enjoy themselves there and maybe even learn an interesting fact or two.

My blog: http://www.karleenkoen.wordpress.com
My website: http://www.karleenkoen.net

Reviews

[Federico DN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Royally motivated.

Lasting friendships, hidden falsehoods, alliances, treachery, power struggles, arranged marriages, debauchery, murder. Common happenings in the everyday life of the english royal court. Money, power, and sometimes, sometimes even love. This is the story of Alice Verney, an ambitious young maid of honor; strong, manipulative and resourceful in her quest for status and power within the royal court of King Charles II, during the Restoration of the monarchy in 17th century England.

This was a mostly good historical romance, not great, but fairly entertaining. I think the strongest part of this book is the setting, the period was very well researched, and it really shows, you can fully immerse in 17th century England through all the book. Alice was a great character, not exactly likable, but admirable in many ways, and flawed. Richard Saylor and the Duke of Balmoral were also good, and the rest of the characters pretty forgettable. This is a weird series, this is the first book of a trilogy, but the last one to be was written. Reminded me a lot of Pride and Prejudice, The Dutchess and Marie Antoinette. Not exactly recommendable, but a decent read, and a neat surprise for a used book.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[2006] [530p] [Historical] [Not Recommendable]
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★★★☆☆ 1. Dark Angels
★★★★☆ 2. Through a Glass Darkly [3.5]
★★★★☆ 3. Now Face to Face

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Realmente motivada.

Amistades perdurables, falsedades encubiertas, alianzas, traiciones, traiciones, batallas de poder, matrimonios arreglados, libertinaje, asesinato. Sucesos comunes en la vida diaria de la corte real inglesa. Dinero, poder, y a veces, a veces incluso amor. Esta es la historia de Alice Verney, una ambiciosa joven doncella de honor; fuerte, manipuladora y decidida en su afán de estatus y poder dentro de la corte real del Rey Carlos II, durante la Restauración de la monarquía en la Inglaterra del siglo XVII.

Esto fue un romance histórico mayormente bueno, no excepcional, pero bastante entretenido. Creo que la parte más fuerte de este libro es el ambiente, el período fue muy bien investigado, y realmente se nota, uno se puede sumergirse completamente en la Inglaterra del siglo XVII a lo largo de todo el libro. Alice fue una protagonista genial, no realmente querible, pero sí admirable en muchos sentidos, y humana. Richard Saylor y el Duque de Balmoral también estuvieron bien, el resto de los personajes bastante olvidables. Esta es una serie rara, este es el primer libro de una trilogía, pero el último en ser escrito. Me recordó mucho a Orgullo y Prejuicio, La Duquesa y María Antonieta. No exactamente recomendable, pero una lectura decente, y una grata sorpresa para ser un libro usado.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[2006] [530p] [Histórica] [Not Recomendable]
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[Navessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I can't say enough about it. I've read it and re-read it and will continue to go back to it. The supporting characters that are based on real historical figures were well researched and their stories (Charles II, Madame) are a pleasing mix of historical fact and fictional intrigue.

The main character, Alice Verney, isn't the most likeable person in the beginning. She can be petty, vindictive and scheming but as the book continues and her history is revealed you begin to understand why she's such a hard person. As the story builds, Alice's more positive traits come to light. You see her loyalty to Madame and her growing affection for Richard even while still determined to marry a man that she's convinced herself is better (see safer) for her.

You'll likely still find yourself frustrated with her unwillingness to forgive those that have wronged her and her inability to admit when she's wronged people in turn but by the end of the book Alice comes into her own and you begin to see the powerful woman she's to become in Koen's other books, Through a Glass Darkly and Now Face To Face

[Jenny Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

I had put off reading it because many of the negative reviews had made me think it would be a lesser book than Through a Glass Darkly and Now Face to Face. In fact, I thought it was a better book. But I'm coming to realize that there is a younger reader who doesn't seem to be able to get what the writers I most enjoy are doing with their stories. Maybe this is because they no longer value being able to sink into a whole new world and spend a week happily making their way through it each evening. Or maybe they just don't like reading about complicated people who don't read like romance heroines.

Whatever the explanation, I found this a totally satisfying historical novel of the kind that got me reading historicals years ago. There's enough history in it that I felt like I learned a little bit, and enough psychology to make me think deeply about human nature.

I'd read a couple other books about Charles II, who is far from being one of my favorite people in history. I though Koen captured his selfishness, sex obsession, and the way he used his charm and power to manipulate people very well. I also loved the way she brought alive the politics of a court, and made me think what a blessing it was to the English that after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 their subsequent monarchs were so drab and lackluster, which allowed the influence of the court to wane allowing for the development of what led to our modern style of politics. Charismatic royalty belong where we put them now, in the pages of novels, not on the world stage!

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the prequel to Through a Glass Darkly, where Alice is the formidable Duchess of Tamworth, glorious matriarchal grandmother of that book’s heroine. Dark Angels is the story of young Alice, and I expected it to be a similarly written riotous romp full of spirited characterisations, and charting the big romance between Alice and her beloved Richard.

It was nothing like that. Instead of being primarily about them, it centred more around the plottings and intrigues, both personal and political, of Charles II and his court (a monarch and era I admit I don’t have a great deal of interest in). Alice is a lead player, but instead of being a feisty young version of the future Duchess, I found her whiny and annoying. The other characters were equally forgettable, and to top it all, Alice and Richard only got together right at the end, with absolutely no build up.

Where was the flamboyant, fun romp of Through a Glass Darkly? Where was the passion, the pain? Where were those fantastic characterisations? All very disappointing. I still have hope for the third book in the series Now Face To Face though.

[Misfit · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 or 4 stars? I'm torn and still thinking about it.

I read this book when it first came out (rated it five at that time), but at that time I had not read Through a Glass Darkly, which Koen wrote long before this 'prequel'. In Dark Angels Alice is a young maid in waiting to the Charles' younger sister Minette, and then after her unexpected death (not a spoiler, that's historical fact) she goes to the household of Charles' neglected queen.

Oh well, there are enough reviews recapping the story. Through a Glass Darkly is focused on Alice's granddaughter Barbara, but Alice herself is very much a main character, and quite an indomitable one at that, and I always wanted to go back and reread this book and see that Alice as a young woman and how she first came to love Richard, so I picked this up for a reread. I still enjoyed the book, and it was definitely fun trying to find hints at the woman Alice was to become, as well as seeing Richard (who we do not see in TaGD), and looking for hints at what we still don't have the answer to about what happened to Richard in their later years. There's still at least one more book Ms. Koen needs to get around to writing.

Sorry to ramble. I did enjoy this reread, but it didn't rock my world either. For those who are interested in this series, even though Dark Angels is the first book chronologically, I would recommend reading this last. There are also a lot of characters (some fictional resembling real historical characters), but if you're not terribly familiar with the reign of Charles II, as well as Louis XIV, you might feel a bit lost.

My copy, original edition purchased, this time around Kindle edition via library loan.

[Kelly Lamoree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since it had been so long since the publication of "Now Face to Face," the sequel to "Through a Glass Darkly," I was operating under the dim reminiscences of books I read twenty years ago, which were favorable enough that I picked this one up with alacrity. Once I picked it up, I was trapped in it.

Here the main character is the architect of everything that happens in the other two books (to an extent): the woman who becomes the duchess of Tamworth, whose granddaughter Barbara is the focus of the second and third books. We are led to understand from those books that the duchess is indomitable, scheming and generally a Force to Be Reckoned With. In this book, we see why and how.

It is set mainly at the court of Charles II and Louis XIV, where Barbara's life becomes unwittingly involved with that of the woman later known as Louise de Keroualle. There is a lot of scheming and intrigue, but also genuine pathos and moments of joy as well. I have to say, once I finished this book and went to re-rad TAGD, it just did not measure up. This book is light years ahead in terms of writing and plot.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story wasn't as thrilling as the other parts of the series, but it did have its moments. To anyone who wishes to read the Tamworth Saga, "Dark Angel". should be read first to avoid spoilers. Granted "Dark Angel" was written many years after "Through A Glass Darkly", DA should still be read first.

[CA · Rating 4 out of 5]

No tengo mucho que decir sobre este libro, lo tomé esperando una historia ligera de intrigas y traiciones en la corte y eso es exactamente lo que obtuve.
Quizás la historia avanzó un poco más lento de lo que me esperaba pero nada demasiado aburrido.

Me esperaba una protagonista como la de la feria de las vanidades y si bien Alice tiene claras ambiciones de subir lo más alto que pueda en la escala social creo que su personaje se parece más a Emma de Jane Austen, en cuan entrometida es con los asuntos amorosos de todos a su alrededor y siempre queriendo tener la razón, de todos modos no la odié como a Emma.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know a lot about the time of Charles II, but going in fairly blank, it felt very real to see the back-door politics, the royal family squabbles, the tensions between France and England, Catholic and Protestant, rich and poor, town and country, etc.

The royal court also reminded me very much of a high school. Not much to do, not enough supervision, bored teenagers wandering around getting drunk, gossiping, playing pranks, trying to get together or break others up.

And at the center of this story – Alice Verney a courtier’s courtier, who is the kind of character you love to hate as much as you cheer on her character growth as she goes from a petty, vindictive, material girl to a responsible and sober (in the intellectual sense) young woman.

[Karína · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as I started questioning this book due to the unlikability of the main character, boom the dark elements started and kept up throughout. Very much enjoyed the dark elements, intrigue and sexiness of this book. Takes place in the court of Charles II and references Louis XIV and Monsieur.

[summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It took one misstep for a woman, one, and she fell into the abyss. How does one live life with no missteps?"

While set in completely separate eras, Dark Angels evoked memories of Jennifer Donnelly's Tea Rose series, in the sense that they both are dense, historical reads that beg to be taken seriously, but somehow manage to have the theatricality of a soap opera. Which isn't a bad thing, really--I loved Donnelly's first novel in the series--but such a structure can go horribly awry very, very quickly.

For me, Dark Angels fell on the precipice of this fate, and came quite close to tumbling over the edge several times. It's set in the court of known womanizer King Charles II, where blissful sinning abounds, and the average member of the court isn't any more intelligent than a brick. Had the characters not been strong enough, this would have been one hell of a headache to read. The savior? Alice Verney, our protagonist whose personality shines through the pages and redeems what might have been a lifeless, drawn-out novel. She's a maid of honor for both Queen Catherine and Princess Henriette and utilizes her position to maneuver those around her like chess pieces--including her father. Not only does she fight to secure herself a respectable marriage, she also fiercely advocates for those whom she serves and her friends.

But she's not without her own set of flaws. More harsher critics of her character might feel as if her flaws outweigh her positive traits. True, she's terribly prideful, and this pride clouds her choices until the very end, and she's stubborn as a mule to boot. For much of the novel, she maintains firm control over the Court; as the novel continues, she rapidly loses control of her circumstances, and here is where I witnessed the beauty of her character and her growth.

As I said in my status update; this meme really sums up Alice vs. the rest of the members of the court:



I hesitate to call this a romance because the pairing the author clearly expects us to support is very, very subdued for a tremendous portion of the novel. The book is more of a study in the frailty and ugliness of romantic love. It's downright depressing, really.

Speaking of depressing, one of my pet peeves in fiction is tastelessly manufactured grief; that is, sad events befalling the main character meant to lure in the audience into emotional investment. Not clear enough? Basically, I'm saying killing off multiple secondary characters for impact--especially characters we don't really care about to begin with--is lame af. It's an unnecessary ploy and so easy to see through. Once these character deaths began piling up, I felt myself becoming increasingly disconnected from the story. I didn't cry when a secondary character died; I scratched my head trying to discern how the heck said character foresaw their own death, and why the author decided to have the character capable of receiving prophetic revelations. Why??

The author attempts to tackle many angles in Dark Angels (whew, typing angels after angles gave me a headache there), from the mystery of a royal death to the betrayals (and subsequent pleas for forgiveness), to the implications of infertility to one's womanhood, to the licentiousness of King Charles' court. She unfortunately does not explore the intricacies of King Louis XIV's court, but the extensive research put into the English court has me in a forgiving mood. The multitude of topics Koen presents are, for the most part, solidly written, but I'm still not convinced that they were written as cohesively as I'd have liked.

Dark Angels was clearly written by a historical fiction lover for historical fiction lovers. The impeccable research is duly noted, and I freaking love Alice Verney, but I don't think these alone constitute a novel I'd love.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

For some reason, I could just not get into this. I enjoy historical fiction but maybe I am spoilt by Philippa Gregory's novels.
Also the era is not something I am familiar with so maybe this had a bearing on my enjoyment of it. I'm more of a Tudor and Victorian girl.
There were many names at the beginning that I was trying to get my head round. 🙄

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at a whim at the library with no knowledge of the book (Through a Glass Darkly) that it is a prequel to. Overall, my review is positive--I finished it in two days--for reasons to do with the plot and main character, but I do have some serious reservations about the writing itself.

The main character, Alice, is refreshingly ruthless and wily--a "born courtier," I think she's called. She's not one-dimensional, though; most of her ruthlessness is devoted to doing what she thinks is best for herself or those close to her... regardless of what they might wish. She's smart, sneaky and suspicious and also ridiculously obsessed with having whatever is the latest fashion (I guess that's in keeping with the time and her character, though). One plot point seems to force her out of character, however: for some reason, she never suspects the uber-suspicious-guy-sent-from-her-mistress's-mortal-enemy that keeps handing her mistress headache tonics might actually be poisoning her... until he succeeds in poisoning her. That was a bit ridiculous. I also appreciated that she came to recognize how much her pride was costing her, tried to change and did so with only limited success. That's a lot more believable than a complete personality transformation.

I enjoyed many of the other characters, as well--and there are quite a few! I imagine it would be hard to make so many supporting characters distinct without making them caricatures, and for the most part Koen achieves that. There is a glaring exception, which may be explained by her other books--perhaps this character figures prominently in a later book? Nearly 3/4 of the way through the book, a character's mother appears and is described as being witch-like and pagan--frankly iconoclastic in a way no other character was. It felt forced and unnatural, especially because she was suddenly the solution to a lot of problems.

It's hard to know if the plot or main character is meant to be the star of this novel, and I think it suffers for that. As I said above, I really enjoyed Alice as a character. The majority of the novel is written from her first-hand perspective and in her sense of time, but when she is no longer at court later in the book, suddenly the narrative jumps away to other players and leaves her development to be summed up in short passages. But at the end, it is Alice's story, not the major conflict in the plot, that is more-or-less resolved.

This brings me to my criticism of the writing. What I'm about to say next might seem nitpicking, but is it nitpicking if it distracts you throughout the book? The author jumps back and forth from different narrators--mostly Alice, then another character, then perhaps an omniscient narrator--but wait, it's not an omniscient narrator, it's actually another character and you just didn't realize it yet! A lot of books change narrators and voices. The problem was that Koen did so without any demarcation (e.g. an extra space between paragraphs or a new chapter). I think at one point she switched between two narrators within a span of eight paragraphs, giving the second narrator two of those. It was completely random and incredibly confusing. To me, it looks like lazy writing and editing.

My final criticism is definitely nitpicking, but again, this was something that distracted and confused me as I read. Koen has an affinity for run-on sentences and an abhorrence for the proper use of commas and conjunctions. I found myself re-reading sentences over and over just to understand what they meant, when a simple "and" would have cleared everything up. A lot of authors bend the strict rules of grammar for stylistic effect, and I appreciate that. But this was unwieldy, unnecessary and confusing.

Overall, good characterization and an exciting plot, but the balance between the two was off.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Verney, a maid of honor to Princess Henriette of France returns to England after her mistress's mysterious and horrible death, with the ambition to marry the elderly Duke of Balmoral. This ambition holds firm in spite of her attraction to Richard Saylor, an enterprising soldier who, while he appreciates Alice's wit and political savvy, is competing with the king himself for the affections of Renee DeKaroulle, a French beauty who cannot quite make up her mind whose affections she truly desires.

I was drawn to Alice the moment I started reading. Koen shapes the main character of the story to be someone who is cunning and daring, clawing her way up the totem pole for status and respect in a world where women were afforded little of either.

The historical England that Koen creates in "Dark Angels" is breathtaking. Her phrase and descriptions are truly believable and transport her readers directly into seventeenth century England and France. I was also drawn to Richard Saylor who I thought made a perfect leading man, and even though I knew it impossible throughout the entire book, wanted him and Alice to finally be together.

Despite its slow start, "Dark Angels" delivered for me. Towards the end the book became a page turner, but was somewhat of a let-down with its predictable ending, and sometimes tiring plot twists. Overall, it was a great historical fiction, and I will more than likely be coming back to Koen for more.

[HÜLYA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Başlarda beni biraz sıktı çok fazla detay vardı ama okumayı bırakmadım.Ve iyi ki bırakmamışım muhteşem bir kitap saray entirkaları,kişisel hırsları,aşk ve tutkuyu saray halkının ahlaksızlığını her şeyi anlatıyor.Yazar olayları o kadar iyi kurgulamış ki elimden bırakamadım.17.Yüzyıl İngiltere'sini okumuyorsunuz resmen yaşıyorsunuz.Yazarın yakın takipçisi olacağım dan emin olabilirsiniz. Historical değil bu roman tam anlamıyla bir tarih romanı,sanki bir belgesel gibi. Romandaki kadın karakter olan Alice normal bir karakter değil,o historical romanlardaki çıtkırıldım bir kadın değil aksine ne istediğini iyi bilen ayakları sağlam basan bir kadın.Saraydaki entrikalarla başetmeyi,yönetmeyi iyi öğrenmiş..Aşkı sevmeyi bilmiyor,onun anlamını bile bilmiyor.Çok çarpıcı bir karakterdi..Yakın arkadaşı Barbara'yı sevdiği ile evlenip saraydan ayrıldığı için bir türlü affedemiyor,affetmeyi sevmeyi zayıflık olarak görüyor.Fransa'dan gelen arkadaşı Renee'nin sevgilisi Richard ile evlenebilmesi içinde tek başına tüm entrikalar ile savaşabiliyor ve Evlenmeyi kafasına koyduğu Balmoral Dükü'nün ne yaşlılığı nede alkolikliği onu evlenme kararından vazgeçirmiyor.Ama aşkında yanı başında olduğunu kader birliği yaptığı Yakın arkadaşının nişanlısı ile olacağını önceden bilemiyor.Sonlara doğru Alice'in yaşadığı duygusal çalkantıları,acıyı,şoku resmen yaşadım.Uzun zamandır böyle bir kitap okumamıştım.

[Gilda Felt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, even more than Through a Glass Darkly, which I’m now going to have to reread. I admit, I wasn’t paying close attention to Alice as the old woman she is in Darkly, since she’s not the main character there. I want to know everything about her. But here, Alice Verney is the main focus of the story, and a wonderful heroine. She’s loyal and courageous, and will do just about anything for those she loves. But she also has the inevitable flaws. Her pride often gets in the way, and she can be vindictive. But much of this I chalk up to her age. She’s young, and still thinks that things can always work out if you try hard enough. She’s everything you would want in a lead character.

And just like Koen’s other books, this one is a real page-turner. There is intrigue upon intrigue, and a scandal or two. Or three. And since I’ve read about Charles II and his court in the past, it was easy to keep track of who was who.

The only thing that would make this better, is if there was to be a book set between this one and Darkly. I’d love to read the story of Alice and her one true love.

[Yani · Rating 3 out of 5]

No sé si puedo afirmar que el libro me gustó. Tengo sentimientos encontrados porque, si bien Dark Angels no es malo, tampoco me pareció la gran cosa. Debería ponerle 2 estrellas, pero se merecía un poco más.

Los personajes y la recreación del período histórico son lo mejor del libro, sin duda. Alice no es la típica protagonista de una novela romántica y eso es genial. Es fría, manipuladora y ambiciosa hasta que... No lo voy a contar, claro. Y por la Corte van y vienen personajes secundarios interesantes, pero poco desarrollados. Tengo que aclarar que no leí los libros que fueron publicados anteriormente, así que no puedo hacer más comentarios al respecto.

La autora tiene buena capacidad para contar los hechos históricos sin abrumar al lector. Y la escritura no está mal. Tal vez las descripciones me hayan parecido un poco secas, pero la escasez de oraciones cortas (noté que la escritora las usa más para momentos de tensión) ganó mi simpatía.

[Sherry H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huh. That's it, it's over?

I was impressed by the author's ability to make me cheer for a thoroughly unlikable protagonist. Selfish, manipulative, unforgiving, arrogant Alice was a rich character. Most of the other characters were believable, as well - their flaws, their inconsistencies were presented with clarity and gave them great depth. Richard, however, needed more development - his powerful feelings at the end of the novel came out of (almost) nowhere.

I enjoyed this book throughout... but it needed another 50 pages to wrap up several loose ends. Did Walter out-run Henri? Did Henri remain on the loose? Did Dorothy find peace? Was a quarrelsome marriage Gracen's only comeuppance? Was Alice forgiven and welcomed back at Tamworth? I suspect the pre-written sequel won't tie these ends up... (sigh).

[Sarah W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the Restoration court of Charles II, Dark Angels tells the tale of young Alice Verney, a headstrong woman determined to be a duchess. Already betrayed by her first fiance, Alice plots her revenge in a court teaming with poison, passion, and politics. She encounters the handsome young Richard Saylor, a soldier with promise, and while a mutual attraction slowly forms between the two, Alice remains dedicated to becoming a duchess. While I always enjoy historical fiction set during the Restoration period, I did not find the characters of Dark Angels very engaging or well-developed. Alice is nearly unlikable at times, especially in how she treats her friend Barbara and her refusal to mend bridges with Caro. Despite this, Dark Angels remains an interesting look at Restoration England and the fascinating cast of characters found during this period.

[Freesiab BookishReview · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I remember liking this series more the first time. It’s very accurate and well written but I think it’s a touch too long. If I recall the books after are better. This one is setting the stage. There is a lot of drama, intrigue and attention to detail that I really enjoyed. Still a very good read.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about Alice Verney isn't nearly as wrenching as the two books about her grand-daughter, Barbara (Through a Glass Darkly and Now Face to Face). But it's gripping, none-the-less. As much as I think I know about the history of the British monarchy, the more I discover I don't know.

In Dark Angels, Alice Verney is a 20-year old maid of honor who grew up motherless in the English court, full of intrigue. Her father Sir Thomas is deep in the intrigues of politics, always seeking to better himself and his family by trying to decide which side has the upper hand and ingratiating himself to that power. Alice was destined to marry the Duke of Balmoral's heir, his nephew Lord Colefax, but Colefax practically deserted her at the altar, eloping with Alice's friend and fellow maid of honor, Caro, who was with child. Alice left the court of Queen Charlotte (Charles II's queen) to become maid of honor to his sister, Henrietta's court; Henrietta (called Madame) is married to the King Louis XIV's brother, Philippe (Monsieur). But it's a troubled marriage; Monsieur is and has always been flamboyantly homosexual, and while the couple seemed happy early in their marriage, when Madame and King Louis XIV became lovers, any love Monsieur held for her was lost. Philippe felt betrayed by both his wife and his brother. And so Philippe began to torment his wife in every way possible; his most flagrant torment was his notorious lover, Chevalier de Lorraine, who constantly vied for power with Madame within the royal household and usually won. The torment became even worse, however, when Madame complained to the king and Lorraine was exiled.

Against this backdrop, our story opens with Madam, her maids of honor, and Monsieur's "men" of court (sent to spy on Madam and cause trouble) arriving in Dover. Madame is there ostensibly for a royal visit with her brothers, King Charles II and James the Duke of York; but in truth, she's there to for the signing of the secret treaty of Dover that would unite King Louis XIV and King Charles II to fight together against the Dutch; in return, Charles will become Catholic and Louis will pay him well - well enough to give the monarch some freedom. Charles is constantly kept in line by his Parliament, who carefully dole out money and give the monarch only enough to be a king but not enough to truly rule his country as he wishes. Louis sees it his duty to return England to the Catholic church; but Catholic sentiment is still at an all-time low in England. So not even the wily, determined Alice knows of the treaty.

Alice does get to know Life Guard Lt. Richard Saylor, who accompanies Madam and her "court" from France to England. Alice feels something for Robert, but she won't acknowledge it. She doesn't really understand love, never having truly known it herself, except through her girl friends. Her father, Sir Thomas, has always used Alice however he could to get ahead; her mother died giving birth to her. Besides, Richard is clearly smitten with Louise Renee de Keroualle (called Renee), one of Madame's maids of honor and Alice's friend; Renee is the most beautiful of them all, and she's sought wherever they go. When Alice requires help to rescue the English maid of honor Gracen from the clutches of Monsieur's men, led by Alice's enemy d'Effiat, intent on debauching her in a "Black Mass" ceremony, she calls upon Richard to help. And so Richard joins Alice as d'Effiat's sworn enemy.

Madame is clearly happy in England with her brothers; but when they board the ship for Calais, she starts to get her headaches again. And when Philippe rudely snubs her by not showing up to greet her for her return, the headaches worsen. A new man in Monsieur's retinue, a Henri Ange, starts making headache potions for Madame; Alice suspects Henri - there's something not right about him; besides which, he's in tight with d'Effiat and rumored to be from de Lorraine's own staff. Richard has returned with the group as Charles II's spy, posing as an English tutor to Madame; but when Henri befriends Richard, he thinks Henri is harmless. Then Madame takes ill after more than one potion from Henri; but this time, she's in mortal pain and is crying "poison". Alice and Richard do all they can to help her and to uncover evidence of poison, but the goblets and all other implements are missing. Upon Madame's death, Alice and Richard return to England, where Alice resumes her position as a maid of honor to Queen Charlotte.

Alice is determined to get back at Colefax and to be a duchess. She's decided to become the wife of the Duke of Balmoral, even though he's an old man. She genuinely likes and trusts the duke, though, and she shares only with Balmoral hers and Richard's suspicions of Henri Ange and their investigation of Henrietta's death. Because of the threat of war between France and England, no one in either royal court wants to entertain the possibility that Henrietta was poisoned. Both courts want Henri Ange, who's disappeared.

But when Alice suspects that Ange is in England and that a plot exists to poison Queen Charlotte, who hasn't been able to bear a living child or heir to King Charles II, she again seeks Balmoral's and Richard's help. This opens even more dangerous doors of political intrigue, revenge, assassination, and power struggles in both the English and French courts. And to top it off, Renee is sent to be a maid in Queen Charlotte's court with Alice's sponsorship; it isn't until later that Alice realizes her father has used her to bring Renee to the attention of Charles - to become his mistress. Renee has been asked by the French court to spy on Charles, and it isn't clear whether she will or not. But Richard believes himself affianced to Renee; neither Alice nor Richard can watch as Charles takes every opportunity to press his suit. And Renee seems like a reed in the wind, unable to make up her mind whether to tell the king that she loves Richard (and thereby escape his attentions) or to give in to the flattery that a king's royal mistress is given.

And Henri Ange isn't through yet. He knows that Alice and Richard are his biggest threats. He knows that Richard traveled back to France and uncovered evidence that could incriminate him. Ange takes every opportunity to show that he can slip into the English court at will, unnoticed; but when Richard catches him and duels him in the courtyard, Ange poisons his knife and thrusts it into Richard's side, despite Richard having already defeated him. Alice runs up, takes Ange's knife from Richard and plunges it into Ange. But Ange has the antidote; and while imprisoned, Ange uses his friendship with the Duke of Buckingham, who "hired" Ange to do away with Queen Charlotte, to further his own gain. Even Balmoral is lured into letting Ange go long enough to secure Ange's own lover, incriminating letters, and the coins he was paid by Buckingham. But Ange once again escapes, after poisoning the old duke's favorite sherry.

Through it all, we wonder if Richard and Alice will ever acknowledge their strong attraction before Henri Ange has them both murdered? The book takes us up to a screeching end...

=============
On my own, I couldn't make the connection between Alice and the Dowager Duchess of Tamworth in the other series. I literally had to look it up through a web search. Once I realized that Alice is Barbara's grandmother, I made the connection between the scheming, court-savvy, strong-willed Alice of this book, who believes that she knows what's right for everyone and when they displease her, they lose her favor forever... until she loses her best friend, Barbara, and finally realizes the folly of her demands AND the scheming, strong Dowager Duchess who tries to rule her family and their destiny in the latter series. But when she's older, Alice is less able to affect the lives of those around her; she's been tempered and worn down by her failed attempts, and Alice sees less because it hurts less to do so.

In this book, Alice was annoying. She's too caught up in knowing all there is to know and trying to tell others what to do. While her loyalty makes her honorable and less treacherous than even her father, Alice isolates herself too easily by standing on principle. She doesn't recognize that she has to bend or break. And she almost breaks.

Unfortunately, the "break" comes too late to mend her fences, and Alice loses her will to live, which seems almost too melodramatic for this strong-willed personality. If it weren't for the skilled writing of the author, Alice would have become completely unlikeable and a caricature. But as it is, we're supposed to see how she's changed, softened, mellowed... opened her heart up finally to realize that she held too tightly to those she loved, not allowing them to breathe. And while we know that Alice and Richard marry and settle at Tamsworth, we breathlessly await for them to acknowledge their love to themselves and to one another.

Not as heartbreaking as her granddaughter Barbara's story, but thank goodness! Still, a well told tale against the colorful backdrop of real history.

[Aneca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first read by Karleen Koen. A book set in Charles II's court sound interesting and full of intrigue and I decided to pick. I also have a biography of his Queen in my TBR pile and thought this could be an interesting first introduction to the period.




The main character is a young lady, Alice de Verney, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine who followed Princess Henrietta to France on her wedding to Monsieur, the brother of the French King Louis XIV. The beginning of this novel sees them returning to England for a brief visit as Princess Henrietta serves as go-between for both Kings.


Alice is a consummate courtier. Used to court life all her life she is very sure of herself and of what she wants and is not above manipulating others to get it. In the first chapters we find out that her travel to France is due to having been betrayed by her fiancé and best friend, when an unplanned pregnancy forces them to wed she deals with her feelings by running away and trying to avoid them now that she is back. When she can't avoid them she strikes back at them and refuses forgiveness.


Some people might have problems with Alice but I felt that for a while there was genuine pain behind her actions which helped me accepting them. It's when it comes to her scheming for revenge, she plans to marry her ex fiancé's uncle and so become higher than him in social ranking. Still, for someone who has lived with intrigue and scheming all her life this may just be ordinary behaviour. I also liked her faithfulness towards Queen Catherine. The Queen is in the King's good graces only when she accepts his infidelities and it seems she has few friends when she loses it.


I had more trouble accepting her behaviour towards her friend Barbara and one of the reasons was that I felt Barbara was left with friends that were less good than Alice. Despite all her stubbornness, her pride and her manipulations Alice actually seemed the best one of the lot. Through her eyes we see the King Charles II, his court, his advisors and how everyone is only interested in advancing themselves at the expense of others. I couldn't have been easy living surrounded by lies and deceit every day.


When Princess Henrietta's party returns to France and her arrival is soon followed by her death, Alice suspects poison was at work. She and the other English attendants are soon returned to England and after a while one of Princess Henrietta's Ladies - Louise Renée de Kerouaille - follows them. Without realising it Alice is also manipulated by others. Eventually she comes to that conclusion but what truly upsets her and drives her to her breaking point is the fate of her friend Barbara.


There is a thread of romance that follows Alice throughout part of the book and I thought that was not well woven in the rest of the story. The conclusion to that comes very abruptly after the man had been in love with someone else for most of the action and I did feel it was particularly believable. In fact, my biggest complaint of the book is precisely its ending. I felt there should be a conclusion, a moral if you like and that this ending comes too soon and cuts short the story and the sense of closure that I needed.


There are a lot more characters walking in the pages of this novel and I really enjoyed how Koen mixed real historical characters with fictional ones. I have since found out that this is a prequel to her first novel - Through a Glass Darkly - and I think that I'll have to go and find that one to add to my list. The urge to revisit an older Alice is big.


Grade: 4/5

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the good fortune to know Karleen Koen just as she was launching her successful writing career with Through A Glass Darkly, and when I lived in Houston, Texas. I discovered recently that in the more than a decade since I left Houston, she has written a couple more books, and I have just finished reading one of them.

Karleen Koen is a superb storyteller as evidenced, not only by this book, but by whole sequence of books leading to this one. I found Dark Angels such a compelling story that I read it cover to cover in just a few days.

In one sense Dark Angels is the story of three girls – Alice and her friends Barbara and Caro, who were among the ladies in waiting to the queen of England during the period of this story. By the middle of this book Alice has rejected the friendship, first of Caro, who married a man Alice had expected to marry, and then of Barbara, whom Alice thinks made a bad marriage.

At the same time this is a story about love, not just romantic love but spiritual love as reflected in First Corinthians, Chapter 13 of the Bible. Koen has built each of her books around Corinthians, which provides the epigraph for this book as well as for the titles for first two books---taken from Verse 12:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face...

Every variety of love, both illicit and otherwise, is on display and explored in this book.

Alice is a hard and calculating woman, raised by her father, in the absence of her mother, who died giving birth to Alice. She has no patience for love in marriage, taking her cue from her Aunt, who is most emphatic in asserting that it is a mistake to marry for love. Alice herself is set on arranging a marriage, to an older man, for whom she feels no love, but who can make her a duchess, with all the power she has ever dreamed of.

Ultimately this story describes the resurrection of Alice who has a spiritual awakening about love and forgiveness. Near the end of the book, when she overcomes her distancing from Barbara, to go to her in the midst of her difficult, and ultimately fatal birthing process, she is confronted with forgiveness by Barbara and rejection by Caro. It is this rejection that triggers her transformation, for at the moment Caro rejects her, she collapses, and spends the next couple of weeks flirting with death herself, first by attempted drowning, and then from illness, a total physical collapse.

Simultaneously, through all of this and through observing Barbara's marriage for love and her friend Richard's frustrated love for Renee, who becomes the King's consort, she questions Love, puzzles on it, wonders about it, and then is shocked to find herself in love with Richard.

My one quibble with this great story is Balmoral's timely death. It is too convenient, too contrived, and too predictable that he dies just as Alice has her realization and knows she wants to marry Richard. The phrase dues ex machina comes to mind

[Sandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welcome to the court of Charles II, hotbed of corruption, both political and moral. Enter Alice Verney, who aspires to a command a position of power within the court and seeks to attain her goal by marrying the aging Duke of Balmoral. Longstanding friendships are threatened by Alice's quest as well as her unequivocal need to control not only her own life but also the lives of those around her.

Alice is an unconventional heroine in the respect that she has always had money and been accustomed to the finer things. Unlike the "up from the gutter and into the glitter" characters that usually make their appearance in these historical sagas, Alice is initially not a very likable character. She is manipulative and deceitful, but does manage to present the reader with a colorful portrait of a woman of her era.

The author manages to evoke the flavor of the 17th century and capture of the Restoration-era mindset with its brazen women and conspiratorial men. Most of the characters in this narrative quagmire subscribe to the theory that their machinations and schemes are a necessary by-product of success and that "life isn't filled with easy choices and we all get our hands dirty from time to time". Personally, there is only one character in this entire novel that I would be inclined to trust with my life.

Finally, let me say that the book ends on a somewhat unfulfilling note. Two of the characters, Henri Ange the poison-maker, and Walter the young stable hand disappear from the pages without a resolution to their stories. Guess I am one of those readers who wants all loose ends neatly tied up with a big red bow. 2 1/2 STARS.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing and one dimensional. Koen’s strengths are her ability to develop her characters and environment richly, both main characters and supporting characters, with a full load of politics too. In Tamworth #2 and #3, she writes in Outlander style, with multiple storylines richly built, causing you to feel deeply entrenched in her world. That was not the case in this book. It followed one story and did not develop supporting characters very much. It just wasn’t noteworthy as a complex and compelling historical fiction, like her others. I’ll hide my other complaints under a spoiler tag.

I had high expectations of experiencing Richard and Alice’s life together. This was 400pgs of Richard being madly in love with someone else, until at the end he suddenly looks different at Alice and realizes that he also loves her. I could go with this story line more if we had some more details and small moments between Alice and Richard to really buy into their budding love. Maybe with a different description, this book would have worked – see Alice’s coming of age – rather than marketing it as the love story of Alice and Richard. I saw that she’s writing more about these two, and so I will hold on to hope that we’ll get to see their amazing and powerful partnership in action.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

i got this cause i enjoyed the author's other novel, "through a glass darkly" and this was a prequel of sorts to that. this book ALMOST had it. ALMOST! but then it went and pulled one of my pet peeves, which is a tacky ending. I started to get worried when a new plotline seemed to be starting and I could tell there were only about 10 pages left in the book :( it seems like a case of editor-itis, because there were all these wonderful plotlines that seemed to be going places but most of them just got dropped and even the main one was like "oh. is that it?" And I know they don't get picked up again. because I've read the book that comes "after" this one. Oh well, maybe the third book in the series, "And Now Face To Face" will take care of them...I have that too and plan to read it next.

Otherwise LOTS of lovely historical detail about life among the royal court and the rich and beautiful in Restoration England. Characters beautifully drawn. The tone in Koen's books is so melancholy and sad but you can't help but get sucked in. Because I loved this till literally the last page I'll be keeping it. I guess I could write my own ending or something ;)

[Gaile · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central character is Alice Verney. Alice is a manipulator. At the beginning of the book, she has lost her finance to a girl he got pregnant. Maid Of Honor to King Charles's sister, she returns to England when the princess dies and becomes Maid Of Honor to the queen Of England. Her she strongly disapproves of her friend's choices of finances. She decides on the aged Duke Of Balmoral for herself.
In the meantime, the Duke is managing a large spy network.
All around Alice, everyone falls in love except herself including Richard Saylor, who serves the King as a soldier but owns an estate of his own.
Unfortunately the King lays a claim on the woman Richard wants
while Richard is sent back and forth from England to France as a spy for the Duke Of Balmoral.
Angry at her best friend, Barbara who marries a man Alice considers beneath her, she refuses to have anything to do with her until Barbara dies in childbed. Stricken with guilt, Alice falls sick.
Along the way, a dangerous spy gets arrested and there is also poisoning but all ends well for Alice.
This is the only one of Karleen Koen's novels I like.

[JW · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a young woman's scheming during the Restoration, I almost gave up on this one. I didn't really care about the heroine, I didn't like really any of the supporting characters and I just couldn't get into this book, which can only go into the category of "women's books". Which is just an adjective, not a judgment (c'mon, the protagonist is a women trying to get a rich husband and there's a lot of dress descriptions).

But I needed something to read at the gym and ended picking it up from the bottom of the locker. And the selfish, petty people in the book started to reveal depth, and backbone. And I started skimming the fashion exposition.

There's very little violence (a duel is described more by the events surrounding it than the sword work) but as the book carries on the pace definitely picks up, even when the characters aren't in "action" I had to make myself slow down my reading pace. It never lets up until the end.

It's a prequel, which I'm glad I didn't know about until I got to the afterword.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Angels by Karleen Koen
"She had stepped atop a huge coil of rope for this view, and a sailor, eyeing her statins and the single strand of fat pearls at her neck, had warned her to be careful, but she'd sent him off with a withering comment to mind his own business. She wasn't one to suffer fools--or even those who weren't fools--telling her what to do."
And with these lines we are introduced to Alice Verney (and with these lines I immediately loved her).Alice is a courtier in the court of King Charles II. Stubborn, tenacious, and fiercely loyal, Alice does her best to help her friends, hurt her enemies, and marry well. Koen's writing is fun to read- lots of dependent clauses and full of parenthetical phrases (I love parentheses). Her characters were realistic and if not likable, then at least understandable. Koen spends a lot of time writing about various underlings and courtiers instead of the royalty they surround. I would have enjoyed a little more history and a lot less detail about the sex lives of some of the characters, but all in all a good book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a treat for me... it's a well crafted historical novel set in the reign of Charles II of England. And that has to be one of my favorite periods in English history. This is the prequel to Through a Glass Darkly Koen's earlier novel and the main character in this novel is the grandmother in the earlier novel. I reread Through a Glass Darkly after reading this novel and doing so definitely lent a new flavor to it. Dark Angels is set mostly in the court of Charles II, which is a court full of intrigue, verve and chaos. It's a time of great social change in England as the country swings wildly away from the strictures of Cromwell's reign. But while the country is, with significant enthusiasm (at least in London), straying from the rigid morality of the past, politically there is great concern about the possibility of a return to a Catholic monarch. All these competing social movements play into the novel. It's a romp!