The King’s Mistress by Terri Brisbin
Hey look I read a beta hero book. It was odd to see a Harlequin Historical with a nonvirgin/been a kings whore/had his baby heroine. That took guts, at least I think so.
I would recommend the book on that alone. Brisbin’s writing is something I find I enjoy, she was the one story I really liked in The Betrothal. She doesn’t seem to always take the easy way out, not that she doesn’t wrap up some things with a nice neat bow. But not in normal HH fashion.
I don’t read many beta boys and I have to say I am not much for REALLY beta boys. But I don’t like over the top alpha’s (mostly) either so I think I might just be bitchy and hard to please. Then again, I can’t really think of too many beta hero’s. Maybe I have read them and just didn’t notice.
And Marguerite of Alencon isn’t a good girl. She doesn’t always make the right choices. And when she fucks up, it isn’t so much TSTL, as it is a reflection on what she has learned growing up as she did.
But how in the hell she couldn’t have known what a whore Henry II was is laughable. I guess it feeds into the want that ‘this’ person loves you, that you are different and you will make a impact in this person’s life. So you see what you want to see and not what is there. Or not.
I digress…
I would recommend this book. It is a good HH with a good written character in Henry II. There is some life in him and he isn’t just holding up the wall. Sort of makes me what to go pull out a historical fiction novel and read. Although I think the only thing I have to do with Henry II is The Book of Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Or not, I think I will go read Drive Me Crazy by Nancy Warren.
Have you read The Book of Eleanor yet? I have a 12 yo daughter who is studying medieval history and is a big fan of Queen Eleanor. She is pretty mature and a precocious reader. Is this book appropriate for her? I don’t mind sexual references, but no descriptive scenes for her. Thanks for your advice!
Debbie F.
No I haven’t read it yet. But I posted on my lj to see if anyone else had and will thumb threw it tonight.
I perfected looking for sex scenes when I was 13 and reading Jackie Collins. LOL see my mother didn’t want me reading Sweet Vally High because of some boy/girl cover. So I took to reading books with nothing on the cover ;). I had read all JC, DSteele and lovely good for me books like Scrupples by the time I was 14 :).
post comes from the ever wonderful toniann:
I’m going to say no. Was the sex graphic to someone who’s read NC-17 fic? No, but would I let my twelve year-old niece read it? Not in a million years. Sex, adultery, even rape; being a mature reader is all well and good but, this gets into adult topics (and not even well). It’s not the most graphic book I’ve read, per se, but the whole book is almost entirely *about* — well, sex, adultery, and even rape. So imho, not a good choice.
Also, it must be said, the book is WILDLY inaccurate, historically, and fictionalizes past the point of suspended disbelief, imho. I think it’d be a poor historical fiction representative of the era.
The problem is, I can’t think of a good one that isn’t slightly too graphic…. get her a copy of the play “A Lion in Winter”, maybe?
Whatever you decide, hope that helps.
A rec from Sarah Ellen Parson:
Eleanor of Acquitaine and the Four Kings by Amy Kelly
It reads like a novel, but it’s NOT. It’s a true historical account of her life AND it doesn’t have explicit sex in it because it’s a history book.
It is THE definitive biography of the woman.