About book Lady Defiant (European Renaissance Duo, #2) (1997)
The young Queen Elizabeth I is now on the throne. The French Cardinal of Lorraine would like to see his niece, Mary Queen of Scotts, as Queen of England instead. He's aware that there exists a piece of information that might just topple Elizabeth, thus opening the way for Mary, her heir presumptive.Blade FitzStephen is a spy in Elizabeth's service. He wants to get his hands on the information before the Cardinal does, and believes that the heroine, Oriel Richmond, might hold the key to it, albeit unwittingly. To gain entree into her home, he shows up as a suitor paying court to Oriel. He plans to use her to get the information, destroy the information, and then vanish. She falls deeply in love with him, and he proposes marriage to her to keep up the charade. He also falls in love with her, but has vowed never to marry because of his troubled past.This author is a really fine writer. She so seamlessly wove her history into the story that I felt as if I was immersed in the Tudor period. Her research is impressive, and her history isn't an information dump or encyclopedia, but another character. She creates wonderful, multi-faceted secondary characters who enrich the story of the hero and heroine. And she has written one of my all time favorite books, Lady Gallant, which is the first book in this series. So why only 3 stars?I would certainly give this book 3.5 stars if I could. My problem is that it's mainly a suspense story - a very good suspense story - and the suspense moves at a rapid pace. The romance is given less attention, and doesn't receive as much time as the suspense. I liked both Blade and Oriel, but in the second half of the book Oriel suddenly turned into a Tudor kick-ass warrior maiden, rushing off on rescue missions into places like enemy France. It just seemed out of character and an abrupt personality transition, especially since she had no arms training or combat knowledge. This heroine - who was supposed to be highly intelligent and quite an accomplished scholar - just seemed to go from one stupid escapade to another from that point on. So, the historical and suspense aspects of this book are very well done, but I felt the author really short changed the romance and the heroine.
Do You like book Lady Defiant (European Renaissance Duo, #2) (1997)?
