Joanna Makepeace

Piers Langham is poverty-stricken and without friends when he saves a young woman who is serving as lady-in-waiting to Anne Neville, daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker. This action leads him, in a roundabout way, into the service of Richard of Gloucester (later Richard II), and he becomes witness not just to the battles but to the romance between Anne and Richard.
Richard is here cast as heroic and worthy of admiration, and the connection between Anne and Richard one of voluntary love, so this would definitely be considered hagiographic
A rather dated romance but the dates of the battles, etc. appear to be mostly accurate and the setting is not too far off.… (lisätietoja)

This is a romance set early in the reign of Henry VII. Isabel Hatfield's father, Sir Edwin Hatfield, and fiance, John Heyward suppported Richard III. Heyward died fighting, and Sir Edwin has fallen into a serious depression. Isabel accepts the new order, and hopes to persuade her father to rouse from his lethargy and do the same. There is a possibility of a marriage with their Lancastrian neighbors.

Sir Edwin comes alive again when a former colleague, Sir Adam Westlake, comes to request add for the remaining rebel Yorkists. Isabel bitterly resents the danger that Sir Adam creates for her family, although she is drawn to him.

Joanna Makepeace writes reliable historic romances. Her novels set in The Wars of the Roses are definitely Richardian. She tends to reuse basic plots, which doesn't bother me, since she does them pretty well. It does get a little funny when several of her heroines becomes the best friend of Anne Neville in France without meeting one another. Great "peanut books", as a friend of mine calls them.… (lisätietoja)