The King's Bastard Grace

The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith
I fell in love with Anne Easter Smith's first book A Rose for the Crown and while I enjoyed her second book Daughter of York, it didn't come close to her first for me. So I was a bit unsure of where this book would fall. Luckily I enjoyed it almost as much as much first, which says a lot considering that looking back on A Rose for the Crown I love its story just as much several years later.

This book, like her first two, is about a member of England's House of York. The King's Grace is King Edward IV's bastard daughter Grace Plantagenet. Grace was a real historical figure, however there is a single mention of her in history which gave the author a lot of freedom to write a novel that's still about a historical persona. While all of her books are about members of the York family, I wouldn't necessarily call them a series. But I was happy that there were a few big cameos with characters from her earlier books.

The story is told from Grace's point of view, but one could say the actual story is about Perkin Warbeck. Warbeck was a pretender to this English thrown during Henry VII's reign and was supposedly one of the lost princes of the tower. The story of the princes is something that really fascinates me, I think because even today its a real live mystery. Hundreds of years later there still isn't any solid proof as to what happened to the two princes and who was responsible for it all. And as time passes it seems even less likely that the mystery will ever be solved.

I would recommend this book if you enjoy historical fiction. Although I think it would probably be the best decision to start with her first book A Rose for the Crown. So far I'm a big fan of Anne Easter Smith's work, and I can't wait to read her fourth book about the Duchess Cecily, also of the House of York.

~Shoshanah