Two Reviews: The Colour of Treason and A Rose of England by S.M. Harrison
Writing in the New York Finger Lakes September 11, 2024
Wednesday Reviews
The Colour of Treason and A Rose of England by S.M. Harrison
These books are 2 parts of a trilogy, though the third is a work in progress and a prequel telling the story of Jack, a popular supporting character. I’m looking forward to that but my personal favorite character was the Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville. Harrison winds a compelling tale set in the 1400’s England’s War of the Roses. Her history is spot on, leaving the fictional story to the personal lives of great men and the woman they all loved, Elizabeth Hardacre.
Elizabeth is one of those heroines in romantic fiction that men naturally fall in love with, or at least lust. Jack, Thomas, the Earl of Warwick, King Edward, her cousin Mathew, maybe even the reprehensible Higgins. She is also a heroine on a mission of her own to reach/save her father who supports the king and is under house arrest at Middleham Castle by order of Warwick. These men move her around England and France as if it were a chessboard, but most of those moves place her where she wishes to be, even if that ultimately means she is a spy for one side or the other. Harrison leaves us with plenty of nail-biting moments. What if she gets caught? Where is that Higgins bastard anyway? You know he’s going to show up again!
If the multigenerational conflict of The War of the Roses is not your obsession, you may enjoy the passion between Elisabeth and Richard without its warrior context. The history is not the most important part, after all. It is the wooing of Elisabeth, her soft heart and keen intellect, her courage and tendency not to do what she is told. Still, in the midst of all these competing male hormones, you know nothing good will come of the gamesmanship among the players. Who wins Elisabeth? Who has the right to her? Whom does she love?
The late medieval world Harrison creates is faithful to 15th century period which makes me happy. My own specialty is an alternative medieval history of the 12th century. Somethings change slowly over three centuries, others are vastly different. In either case, women walk a precarious path. They are wives in negotiated marriages, trapped as are their husbands. They are expected to do as they are told, but the interesting ones cast that to the wind. Spies and gossips carrying tales to their betters for reward or in discharge of their duty is a way of courtly life, even for minor titled families. No one is immune from choosing sides between King Edward and his cousin Henry, known for his lack of mental strength. Warwick who is the kingpin of the era has switched sides for the good of England, he says. His new loyalty is as much about his own growing power and the desire for revenge. He has made dangerous enemies, nothing he can’t handle. A change of loyalties is common in English politics. A successful noble knows which way the wind blows and when to change sides. There are battles, murders, attempted murders and an ongoing game of Who Do You Trust? I spoil nothing by saying Elisabeth sails safely through choppy waters between kings and Warwick, friends and lying bastard spies.
However, Elisabeth is not unscathed. She is devout. The choices she makes she believes put her soul in mortal peril. Certain she can never confess her sins, she expects divine judgment sending her straight to hell. Yet as much as she struggles with her conscience, she always concludes there was nothing else to be done. She repents none of it because nearly all her actions are rooted in love and loyalty, including her feelings for her absent father whom she would rescue if she could.
These books are not your typical historical romance. The scholarship is better. The complexity and motivation for these characters is deep. There are multiple plot lines which make you pay attention. The ending is not predictable, even for those of us who know the history. Harrison does not indulge in alternative history although there was a point when I wished she would. She writes a fast-paced story and the reader watches helplessly as fates clash and leave some men to rise and others to fall. You are drawn in and as much as you might want to deny the fates, to look away if only to protect your own heart you can’t. You have to know her fortuity, which is not clea
r until she turns around and reaches out on the last page.
Come on! Read these and join me while I wait impatiently for Book 3 the prequel. Highly recommended.