What do You think about A Crowning Mercy (2003)?
Can't believe this was written by Cornwell....had to go read another of his (Harlequin)to reassure myself that the Warlord series wasn't just a one-off!The plot was unbelievable, the writing style gauche at best and stereotyping abounded. The characters, therefore, were implausible and I certainly couldn't care less what happened to them. The book is readable but I almost didn't bother to finish it. I see there is a sequel - I won't bother reading it! I give it a resounding Barely Adequate as a read.
—Deborah Pickstone
This is the first book by Bernard Cornwell that I've had the pleasure to read. And, pleasure it was. :o)It's true, there are no great surprises and the story follows the familiar historical romance trope of downtrodden heroine who is really much more than at first she appears and who, in the end, is rescued by that tantalizing combination of love and a secret, noble past. Dorcas Slythe thinks she's the daughter of an epically nasty Puritan father at the start of the Protestant Revolution. Of course, she's not. She's the secret love-child and fabulously wealthy heiress to the aristocrat who was once the most handsome, charismatic nobleman in Europe. About to be married to a grotesque, greedy, slug of a man, she escapes to find her true ancestry, destiny, and love--a handsome red haired Lord whom she met while illicitly bathing naked in a stream. There are bad guys who seem good, good guys who seem bad, and even super-secret jewels. It's everything a girl could want to curl up with on a cold winter's night with her cat and a roaring fire...until her own lover gets home a bit later.... ;o)Enjoy.
—C.S. Einfeld
I really like Bernard Cornwell books and have a lot on my shelves at home. Women do not figure too much in his books so I thought that with his wife as co author it might make the female character more gutsy. It was a romance story and lacked the usual grit and edginess of Bernard 's books. I even got fed up with the trial chapter , which normally would have me glued to the book. Overall the book wasn't a bad read but I felt it lacked the grit and the ending felt odd and I needed to know what happened in Amsterdam. Perhaps there will be a sequel some time .
—Liz Chapman
