The House of Allerbrook
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Lady-in-waiting Jane Sweetwater’s resistance to the legendary attentions of Henry VIII may have saved her pretty neck, but her reward is a forced and unhappy marriage with a much older man and a harsh life on his farm. Her only consolation is that she still lives upon her beloved Exmoor, the bleak yet beautiful land that cradles Allerbrook House, her family home.
Played out in this remote, forbidding place, Jane’s long and storied life is fraught with change: her fiercely protective nature leads her to assume responsibility not only for her own husband and child, but also for the rebellious son of her wayward sister. In time, she regains the position of a woman with status and property, but she cannot ignore the rumblings from London, as the articles of faith change with every new coronation.
Jane’s small world is penetrated by plotting, treachery and even thwarted love as those she holds dearest are forced to choose between family loyalty and fealty to the crown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anand (The House of Lanyon) depicts colorfully the turbulent and bloody 16th century, when England, under the rule of Henry VIII and his heirs, was rife with court intrigue, religious unrest and political espionage. Jane Allerbrook, lady-in-waiting to one of Henry's least-favored wives, flees court after catching, to her dismay and peril, the romantic attention of the king. With the help of dashing adventurer Peter Carew, Jane returns to the safety of her family manor, Allerbrook. Francis, Jane's brother and guardian, is enraged that Jane has ruined her chances for a politically advantageous marriage, and bitterly marries her off to local country bumpkin Harry Hudd. Jane accepts her lot, even as she pines for Carew and chafes under the yoke of her boorish husband, but fate and duty force her to fight for her family, her land and her country. Though Anand weaves a few too many important figures and famous plots into the life of one lady of the moors (Forrest Gump comes to mind more than once), her story has plenty of satisfying action and historic detail.
