Review and Guest Post: Queen of Last Hopes by Susan Higginbotham

It would be called the Wars of the Roses, but it all began with one woman's fury...

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, cannot give up on her husband-even when he goes insane. And as mother to the House of Lancaster's last hope, she cannot give up on her son-even when all England turns against him. This gripping tale of a queen is at its heart a tender tale of love: passionate, for her husband, and motherly, for her only son.

Having delved into the history of Britain quite a bit recently, I was very much looking forward to reading about Margaret of Anjou and her role in the War of the Roses. I have read a version of the story from the (ficticious) perspective of Margaret Beaufort, but to get a better picture of things, you need to look at all sides involved. I do believe this was the perfect book to illustrate the struggles of the doomed Henry VI and his Queen!

Ms. Higginbotham does a masterful job of presenting characters that are likeable (or in some cases, detestable) within realistic boundaries. It must be an interesting job to research the real people involved and all the historical "truths" available to us today. But, on the other hand, it would be quite daunting to expound on these people while maintaining the overall credibility. I found that some of the those involved in this story were portrayed in a sympathetic manner, where popular beliefs may disagree with this author's view or portrayal, for instance William de la Pole. When it all boils down though, this story was the beginning of a war with factions involved, and alliances would still be argued one way or the other, even today.

I was immediately drawn to Margaret of Anjou, her innocence, her growth and her sense of humour. Unfortunately, this makes it that much harder to relive her story throughout these pages. Ultimately, one cannot change history, but what Ms. Higginbotham succeeded at in Queen of Last Hopes, was offer a compelling version with a lot of heart and no small amount of tears from me.

And now a special treat for my readers! Please give a big welcome to Susan Higginbotham, who is here today to give the inside scoop on how she was able to write this story from the perspective of the former Queen of England:

When I started writing The Queen of Last Hopes: The Story of Margaret of Anjou, I chose to tell most of Margaret’s story through her own first-person narrative. How did I find a voice for Margaret?

Margaret of Anjou was queen to Henry VI and one of the leading figures in the so-called Wars of the Roses that ravaged fifteenth-century England. She left behind a number of business letters, most from the early years of her husband’s reign. They show the young queen’s energy and attention to detail, and her interest in activities such as hunting, but they reveal very little of Margaret’s inner life.

It was the last document Margaret executed—her will—where I finally felt her speak to me. Written at her borrowed lodgings in France about three weeks before her death in August 1482, the will is a simple one, reflecting the relative poverty of a woman who had gambled and lost all. There are no expressions of regret and no reflections on past glory. There are no affectionate words or bequests to loved ones, for almost everyone who mattered to Margaret—her only son, her husband, her parents—had predeceased her. Margaret simply requests that her debts be paid and that her servants receive their wages. She then asks that the French king, her heir, pay these obligations “should my few goods be insufficient to do this, as I believe they are.”

Yet in this short will (which can be seen at http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/subpages/lastwillanjou.html), Margaret does show a spark of defiance. In the opening line, she styles herself as “reyne d'Angleterre”—Queen of England. It was a title she had lost eleven years before in the bloody field of Tewkesbury where her son perished and the Lancastrian cause seemed permanently extinguished, yet in her last written statement, she allowed herself the small satisfaction of using it. Dying and destitute, she nonetheless refused at the very last to concede total defeat.

This was the Margaret—stoic and reconciled to her fate, yet with some of her old pride remaining—who narrates The Queen of Last Hopes. This was the Margaret who lent my novel her voice.

Guest Post: Carolyn Brown

I am very excited to present the first ever guest post on my blog! Everyone please give a warm welcome Carolyn Brown, author of Getting Lucky. (For my review, click here)

Carolyn Brown, take it away!:

Hi everyone. Thank you for letting me stop here during my blog tour to celebrate the release of Getting Lucky earlier this month. I brought the homemade cookies and sweet tea! Pull up a chair and let’s visit.

Getting Lucky is the third and final book in the Lucky Series. Luc
ky in Love came out in September of last year and One Lucky Cowboy in November. Getting Lucky is the story of Julie Donavan, a divorcee who moves from Jefferson to Saint Jo, Texas to get away from the gossip surrounding her daughter, Annie. And of Griffin Luckadeau, cousin to Slade (One Lucky Cowboy) and Beau (Lucky in Love), who has a daughter, Lizzy, the same age as Annie.

Two single parents. One running from a mistake in her past. The other one trying to get past a mistake he made in his life. Neither trusting the opposite sex. Neither looking for a relationship much less love and commitments.

So how in the great green earth did they overcame their past relationships to get on about the business of finding happy ever after in Getting Lucky?

Julie Donavan brought baggage with her from Jefferson, Texas to Saint Jo. Not only in the form of a beautiful little black haired daughter with a white streak in her hair. Along with Annie’s assortment of Barbie dolls she packed up a past that included a cheating husband, a one night stand, a divorce and a town full of gossiping people. Looking up and seeing G. Luckadeau standing before her that first day of school was like being hit by a class five tornado!

(Exerpt)

Her first thought was “Damn, he even looks better with hair.”

Her second was “What in the hell is he doing in Saint Jo, Texas?”

Her third was, “Oh, shit, what do I do now?”

The man stopped in front of her and looked down. “Hello, we are the Luckadeaus. This is my daughter, Lizzy, who will be in your class this year.”

And I’m the woman you met in Dallas six years ago? She wanted to shout at him. Remember me? I’m Red.

Griffin waited for her to finish with the little boy, his pulse racing and his heart thumping. God Almighty, he’d never been attracted to a red head before. That was his brother’s choice of women. No one told him the new kindergarten teacher was knock-down-gorgeous or that she had eyes that could see straight into his soul. Desire shot through his body or was it plain old lust? Either one was something he hadn’t allowed in a very long time and he determined he would get control of it before he spoke again.

© Carolyn Brown, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2010

Griffin Luckadeau had no luck at all with his first wife who gave him total custody of their child Lizzy, for a “settlement” of ten thousand dollars. So he’s in Saint Jo, Texas raising his child alone, also. So even though he didn’t have to pack up his daughter’s Barbie collection, he’s got just as much baggage.

So how do they overcome their previous events and try to find trust, respect and love in a new relationship?

It’s about as easy as shoving a camel, hump first, through the eye of a sewing needle. It would have been a whole lot less difficult if the two girls hadn’t bonded immediately and wanted to be BFF’s. They might have been able to stay out of each other’s way even in a small town but that wasn’t happening with Annie wanting to spend all her time with Lizzie and Lizzie telling Annie all her deepest secrets.

Then fate jumped onto the hay wagon and began to throw both Julie and Griffin together at every possible chance. Avoiding each other was hard enough in a town with a population of less than a thousand people, but toss in a town meeting where they are on opposite sides or even the simple act of going to church and figuring out they are sitting on the same side of the church. Fate didn’t play fair either! It sent a fire and a near heart attack when they were too stubborn to admit the past and all its problems should stay in the past so the brilliant light of the future could shine.

Friends played a big part in helping them sling their past relationships into the garbage dumpster and trust their hearts. Mamie was a matchmaker.

Nellie and Ellen placed bets on when Julie and Griffin would tie the knot.

With that much help how could they continue to hang on to the past? It just wasn’t possible.

With the children showing them how to love each other and a spare child they’d taken in when his parents were picked up for drug trafficking, they finally tossed the past into the Red River and learned to trust their hearts and each other.

After all happy-ever-after depends on overcoming past relationships to find new love. New love cannot grow in the weeds of bad relationships. It needs a nice fresh heart to plant the seeds of love.


Do you like to read about people who overcome big hurdles before they finally admit that they really have found happiness?


GETTING LUCKY BY CAROLYN BROWN—IN STORES JANUARY 2010
Single mom Julie Donavan is looking for a place to start over. What she finds after buying a small house on five acres is nothing short of a nightmare.
Single dad "Lucky Griffin" Luckadeau has been crossing horns with his elderly neighbor for years. But when his daughter, Annie, decides she wants the new little girl who lives on the feuding property to be her friend, or better yet her sister, the sparks fly.
These two stubborn hotheads, who irritate each other beyond endurance, refuse to admit that it's fate that brought them together. And running from the inevitable is only going to bring a double dose of misery…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn Brown, an award-winning author who has published 36 romance novels for the library market, credits her eclectic family for her humor and writing ideas. She was born in Texas but grew up in southern Oklahoma where she and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, now make their home in the town of Davis, Oklahoma. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. For more information, please visit http://www.carolynlbrown.com/

Thank you Carolyn, it's been a pleasure featuring you here on my blog!

And, to show my readers some appreciation, I'm happy to offer a copy of the Lucky trilogy ( One Lucky Cowboy, Lucky in Love, and Getting Lucky) to one of my lucky followers :-)

To enter, you must be a follower of my blog and live within the U.S. or Canada.
+1 for tweeting or blogging about my contest
Contest closes Feb. 8, 2010

Thanks to Danielle at SourceBooks for allowing me to host this awesome contest! Good Luck everyone.