The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory is the first book in The Plantagenet and Tudor series. It tells the story of Jacquetta, the young daughter of a French nobleman whose family has given shelter to the maid Joan. When Joan is turned over to the English, Jacquetta also finds herself with the English forces as she is married to the Duke of Bedford. Since the Duke has relatively free reign as the English regent in France and as uncle to the English king he has delved deeply into alchemy and related fields. Jacquetta manages to befriend the Duke’s squire, Richard Woodville, who helps her to navigate the aftermath of the Duke’s death. While attending the English King Henry VI’s court Jacquetta and Richard fall in love and secretly marry. Managing to keep a place in Henry’s court Jacquetta befriends his new queen Margaret, also a French woman, and helps her learn to navigate life in England. Due to her own powers of foresight Jacquetta also becomes wary of the political machinations of the court and the danger of the York family, rivals of the ruling Lancasters.
I did enjoy this book and it was pretty well written. Though semi-familiar with the time period I must admit to being unfamiliar with this particular person so I do feel I learned something from reading this. At the same time I feel like there could have been more to the story. The story covered several decades in Jacquetta’s life in a surprisingly short novel. It did so by focusing in on several important areas and then essentially fast forwarding through the rest. While this did allow for a decent amount of depth on the areas and times relating to her court life it lacked depth on her everyday life. Honestly, I would have liked to see a little bit more of her everyday life even if just to get a better feel for her as a person and for the time period in general. The book was still really good though and the story was rather compelling so I did enjoy it. What was covered was obviously well researched in terms of dates and events even if I feel that some of the personalities might have been exaggerated some to inflate the sense of drama. Though I will admit the events probably needed little exaggeration. The story was well done and it did a good job of covering the events leading to the early stages of the War of the Roses from the perspective of a more minor participant. It could have potentially gone more in depth on some things though as this perspective also missed some things due to that minor role. Since it was focused more on Jacquetta that does make sense. It was still an incredibly compelling story and it did provide some pretty good insight into who Jacquetta was and her role in these events. Overall it was a good story even if some parts lacked the depth I would have preferred. I am giving it four out five stars since it was really well written.
This is a good example of historical fiction and if you enjoy that genre or if you just want to learn more about this time period and the War of the Roses than you might consider trying this one. However, I doubt it will hold a lot of appeal for readers who are not interested in those. It is predominantly aimed at adults but it is not particularly graphic in terms of violence or adult content though there are adult references. I could potentially see this being read by readers as young as fifteen though I would be careful about younger readers. If it sounds interesting though consider trying it. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you do.