What do You think about Royal Escape (2005)?
All through the book Charles II is described as ugly. I thought this was an exaggeration, because he sounds like a pretty awesome bloke, but after reading I did an image search on Google, and he IS ugly! I'm gobsmacked he wasn't captured, he looks so distinctive! As a side note, apparently he was so inbred that his "inbreeding coefficient" was higher than the offspring of a brother and sister! Sorry for all the exclamation marks!I really enjoyed this, and feel like I've learnt a nice chunk of history, but it is a fairly heavy book. However, I've still given it four stars because I expected this, having read a lot of Heyer's novels.
—Katherine
The royal who is making his escape is Charles II of England. Those familiar with seventeenth-century English history will know that this king’s father – Charles I – was beheaded by the “Roundhead” parliamentary side of the Civil War, after which the second Charles continued to fight, though he was king in name only.This story opens at the Battle of Worcester, September 1651. Charles reluctantly admits that his advisors are right by urging him to flee, for the battle, and indeed the war, has been lost.The remainder of the book focuses on how Charles disguises himself as a commoner and is aided by a couple of nobles and several loyal poor people to avoid capture. His aim is to secure a safe passage from England to seek refuge in France.Whilst I like most of the characterization and numerous scenes, more occasions than not left me bored. Reason being that this is an extremely *slow* read. At times, when there’s some character interaction, the dialogue speeds the narrative up a little, but 90 per cent of this novel is slow paced.Although it’s well plotted and historically researched, the plot tends to linger in one place too long in several instances. I guess the author’s aim was to create suspense, but from this reader’s view at least, it just created tedium. What prompted me to rate this three stars instead of two was Ms Heyer’s portrayal of Charles II. Here he lives up to his nickname of “The Merry Monarch” and is by far the best character of the book.Huge potential for a cracking story lies dormant here, hidden beneath a snail-pace narrative.
—Phil Syphe
Not the best of Heyer's works, but if you are looking for a true historical fiction and are willing to leave the realm of her typical romance fare for a bit, this is an interesting timeline of the the escape of King Charles II. Heyer made Charles quite likeable, even endowing him with quite a reckless sense of humor; whether this is her elaboration or fact, it makes the somewhat ponderous story much more entertaining. As always, her thoroughness in historical research is gratifying and leaves the reader feeling both entertained and edified.
—Adrianna
