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A Rose for the Crown A Novel Anne Easter Smith 9780743276870 Books

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A Rose for the Crown A Novel Anne Easter Smith 9780743276870 Books

This is the story of Kate Bywood, a farm girl from Kent, England, who rises through slender family connections to become the concubine of Richard the III. Before going any further with my plot/character assessments, I must say this book was far too long for the subject matter and material. I almost felt like the author (A.E. Smith) wanted to tell the tortuously complicated story of Richard's ascension and realized she had to make it palatable, so she wove in a romance. It could have been the other way around, but certainly the battles between the Yorks, the Lancasters, and the Plantagenets was the heavier of the two story lines. The book would have been so much better if it had been shorter!

It seemed to go like this: minor scene-setting, comments on clothing and fabric, someone having a baby, someone playing the harp, and then "Richard! Oh my darling I have missed you." Then more family scenes, battle tales and more battle tales, someone dies of the plague, then again, "Richard, my darling! I missed you so." It just felt like a carousel of the same stuff over and over again. I must add that I sniff out anachronisms very quickly, and when the author said that Kate's father used a hay bale as a mounting block, I started laughing. Hay bales didn't appear until the 1900s. Other than a few things like this, I was impressed with Smith's knowledge of the military campaigns and clothing of the period. But that's as far as I can go with my compliments. Very relieved to have slogged through this book and to set it aside. Not recommended.


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A Rose for the Crown A Novel Anne Easter Smith 9780743276870 Books Reviews

I enjoyed this book mostly due to the historical perspective of the author. As the author is a member of The Richard III Society I expected this novel to show Richard in a much more positive light than we are used to, and I wasn't disappointed. However, the author did not overly fawn over Richard too much, and showed both the negative and positive aspects of his character. The most positive aspect perhaps being his loyalty (to his wife, to his brother, to his country) and the most negative aspect being his sometimes unpredictable temper.

As a member of The Richard III society I was intrigued to find out how the author would write about the fate of the Princes in the Tower. Her theory wasn't as far-fetched as I thought it might be, and I find her viewpoint very interesting. For somebody who already has a sound base of knowledge of the reign of Richard III this book will spark your mind in many ways.

However, the reason I have given this book 3 stars as opposed to 4 stars is because of the narrative. It became boring towards the end, which is a real disappointment as the first two thirds of it were very captivating. The character of Kate Bywood has been created very well, and I love how complex she is. The author paints such a vivid picture of her that you start to understand her reasoning for the decisions she makes, and soon begin to know what decisions she will make even before she makes them. It is easy to believe that Kate Bywood is a real person, and not a fictional character. But of course she is just a fictional character, as nobody knows who the mother of Richard's bastard children actually was. I would like to think it was a woman such as Kate, although if this were the case my heart pines for the separation of the two lovers. Such a fate seems unbearable.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed the last part of the book more if the storyline had of been different- but that would not have been in keeping with what we know of Richard's life at the time.
A Rose For The Crown is a big improvement over this author’s other works I’ve read. The storytelling is more fluid without a ton of awkward descriptive side paragraphs or too perfect characters (though at times Kate had that stink about her). Phrasing sometimes read as awkward, but I could see the author’s reasons for those exchanges. Overall, I enjoyed this historical exploration more than previous attempts by Smith.

I think the ambiguity of my Kate Haute and Richard III knowledge helped spice this story for me. All I really knew about Richard was the propaganda that history has spewed about him and the fairly recent discovery of his bones under a parking lot. To see him from the eyes of one who loved him for himself rather than his position was an eye-opener. Kate’s simple faith and love made him more human to me, giving him more complex motivations rather than a lust for power and evil murdering personality.

Kate was a blank slate for me; I’d only read her name in passing. I enjoyed seeing her fleshed out into a woman with a personality all her own loyal, sometimes blind to reality, loving, and sweet. The author didn’t have much in the historical record to go off of; according to her author’s note, there’s even some doubt that Kate was Richard III’s mother of his illegitimate children at all. Yet, she was a great foil with which to see the times and Richard’s place in them.

The author pleases again in the history department. Her setting skills are handled with aplomb, as per usual. The reader sees, hears, and smells each scene. I’ve come to expect this from Smith. The one area where this book falters a bit falls in this area, though. There are locations in the narrative where the speech can get very stilted and awkward, dragged down with exact phrasing from the era. I can appreciate that the author was striving for historical accuracy; so I can understand the reasoning. Yet, at times these exchanges made reading enjoyment hard to reach.

A great window into a little known woman who saw much change in her life, this work was a pleasant diversion. Historical figures got new life and perspective, Kate giving us a new window into their soul. She, herself, shone as a loving, if flawed, personality. Some stilted conversational exchanges don’t condemn this book. When taken as a whole, the book is a great historical fictional work, and I highly recommend it.
This is the story of Kate Bywood, a farm girl from Kent, England, who rises through slender family connections to become the concubine of Richard the III. Before going any further with my plot/character assessments, I must say this book was far too long for the subject matter and material. I almost felt like the author (A.E. Smith) wanted to tell the tortuously complicated story of Richard's ascension and realized she had to make it palatable, so she wove in a romance. It could have been the other way around, but certainly the battles between the Yorks, the Lancasters, and the Plantagenets was the heavier of the two story lines. The book would have been so much better if it had been shorter!

It seemed to go like this minor scene-setting, comments on clothing and fabric, someone having a baby, someone playing the harp, and then "Richard! Oh my darling I have missed you." Then more family scenes, battle tales and more battle tales, someone dies of the plague, then again, "Richard, my darling! I missed you so." It just felt like a carousel of the same stuff over and over again. I must add that I sniff out anachronisms very quickly, and when the author said that Kate's father used a hay bale as a mounting block, I started laughing. Hay bales didn't appear until the 1900s. Other than a few things like this, I was impressed with Smith's knowledge of the military campaigns and clothing of the period. But that's as far as I can go with my compliments. Very relieved to have slogged through this book and to set it aside. Not recommended.