A Far Horizon

August 1, 2018
Parliament and the King cannot reconcile, and civil war threatens to tear England apart. Much-hated Queen Henrietta Maria leaves her beloved Charles and their children to seek support for her husband's cause from the royal courts of Europe. Back in England, one of her former ladies-in-waiting, Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, attempts to remain true to former ties and keep the royal children safe despite the execution of her previous lover and her current affair with parliamentary leader John Pym. Vantrease's focus is split between these two women, and Lucy Hay has the more engrossing story as a sophisticated woman trying to navigate extremely uncertain waters. The cast of subsidiary characters is large, and the novel occasionally digresses into their stories to serve as a background tableau and highlight certain themes with regard to the war. There is much to enjoy in this quick read which offers a primarily feminine perspective on a conflict conducted by men. This is the first in a series, so Vantrease provides a cliff-hanger ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2019
Vantrease's latest begins with an in-last-week's-episode recap of character situations from the preceding novel, The Queen's Promise (2018). Loathed and pregnant Queen Henrietta Maria splurges on sumptuous furnishings and flees again to France, while her husband ineffectually attempts to combat Parliament and preserve his sovereignty. Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, falters when her lover, parliamentary leader John Pym, abruptly dies. Caroline Pendleton, widowed by war, barely survives in London until dashing printer James Whittier steps in. As in the first novel, Vantrease approaches the English Civil War through the plight of multiple characters. The cast is large, which may make keeping story lines straight difficult for those who haven't read the first book; and an abrupt four-year time jump, which sets up the next in the series, may also prove confusing. Still, both Lucy and Caroline are plucky heroines, and the shifting nature of the conflict is conveyed through crisp prose. The result is a quick read highlighting the predicament of a few women set against many subsidiary stories and the broad backdrop of English history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)