A fifteen-year-old girl makes a bargain with God.  Grant her love, and she will endure any hardship He returns.  This is Isobel’s request as she arrives as a ward of the royal court when England’s upheaval, leading to the wars of the roses, begins.  And so her request is honored, but at great cost.

Lady of the Roses is a historical novel that chronicles the troubles in England under the reign of Henry VI and his French queen.  Told through the eyes of Isobel, the reader experiences firsthand the pain of civil war and the fickle whims of power hungry rulers.  Eloquently told, Isobel’s trials, all born with stoic courage (as promised in her bargain with God) take us from the reign of Henry VI to Edward and the families fighting side by side, and sometimes against each other as sympathies sway with the winds of change.

Growing up, I had a tendency to be bored with history and learned much more through stories such as this one that romanticize the past and give it three dimensions rather than the dull rote that lays flat on the pages in a classroom.  Sandra Worth has done an excellent job of bringing the wars of the roses to life.  While in some places I did feel information was forced into the story, either for the sake of education or Ms. Worth’s need to share her passion for history with us, the story held my interest.  History aside, the love story between Isobel and Sir John Neville is captivating in its sweetness.  I highly recommend this novel.

August 20, 2008