The Widow's Kiss

January 1, 2001
At age 28, beautiful Lady Guinevere Mallory has been widowed four times, and each bereavement has brought her more land and more wealth. Is she a murderess, a sorceress or simply a clever, though unlucky, woman? Set during the reign of Henry VIII and his dreaded minion, Thomas Cromwell, Feather's (The Least Likely Bride) latest historical romance is rich in detail and rife with intrigue. Lord Hugh of Beaucaire, himself a widower, believes his young son Robin has a legal right to some of the lands left to Lady Guinevere in the four marriage contracts she apparently wrote herself. He seeks the king's aid to secure his son's rights, and Cromwell, the king's Lord Privy Seal, encourages his investigation of Lady Guinevere. Lord Hugh does not know that the Privy Seal has plans of his own for the widow's riches. Hugh's stay on her estates gives him both reason to believe he may be right and reason to hope he is not, for he falls in love with Guinevere and her two daughters. He learns that two of her husbands apparently met their ends naturally, but discrepancies in her servants' stories about the most recent death require him to take her to London, where her saucy tongue sends her to the Tower. Will Lord Hugh save Lady Guinevere, and if he marries her, can he ever trust her? Typical of Feather's novels, the story succeeds as romantic fiction, with fine characterizations, sound historical background and an effective evocation of the precarious times when a king's favor or disfavor meant life or death. Striking cover art, romantic yet dignified, will draw in readers.

A complicated romance takes place in England during the rule of Henry VIII, when Thomas Cromwell was "Privy Seal." This makes a delicate and terrifying political background for the complex story of the lovely Guinevere Mallory, whose four husbands have died mysteriously (in 12 years) and left her all their properties. So the king and Cromwell have their eyes on this anomaly and send out Hugh of Beaucaire to bring her to justice either as a murderer or a witch. Jenny Sterlin has a fine time with timbre, moving from the high pitch of 8-year-old Pippa to the deeper pitches of Lord Hugh and the king. Though not filled with a virtuosity of accents, this tale makes for good fun. B.H.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine