This book is all about King Henry VII and his loyal, ruthless, wily enforcer, Sir Thomas Lovell (#youlikemebecauseimascoundrel), who are trying to discern if Sir William is a traitor like his brother, the Duke of Suffolk, or if he's innocent and just wants to live a peaceful life with his new wife, the much-older Lady Keelyn.
Into the mix come a troupe of actors seeking a new patron. One of them falls in love with a local girl who serves Lady Keelyn. Also, people die. Also, there's a shipwreck. Also, there's an assassination attempt. Like the two preceding books, this book moves at a fast pace and I didn't want to put it down to do mundane things like fold laundry or make supper or go to sleep at night.
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| (From my Bookstagram account) |
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some off-page lovemaking, spouses appreciating one another's appearances in a sexual way, people talking about illegitimate children and mistresses, a little mild cursing (I think -- I can't remember specific instances, I just feel like there was some), and scenes of violence and suspense.
I definitely agree--the series just keeps getting more awesome :D
ReplyDeleteLady Keelyn made me care about her character A LOT. Like, A LOT MORE THAN I THOUGHT. She was pretty great.
Katie, both Lady Keelyn and Edda had me really rooting for them!
DeleteAnd Lovell. Because Lovell.
Because he's Batman. ;-)
DeleteWell, yes, exactly.
DeleteI appreciate your enthusiasm for Lovell.
DeleteHe, however, does not care. ;)
I knows. 'Cause he's too heartless to care about ANYTHING.
DeleteExcept, like, Prince Arthur, and Prince Henry, and Meg Pole, and Anne Tyrell's kids, and . . .
. . . you know what? Let's just stop there. ;-P ;-P
You know what many of those things have in common, right?
DeleteChildren.
Like the ones he buried.
^^^Truth. He cares a lot about children. Which is why, I think, I like him.
DeleteAs I sweat blood and tears over the fourth book, which seems to be knitting itself together more slowly than the rest (mostly because it's closer to Actual Events and I have to figure out how to incorporate them in Not Boring Ways), it's good to hear each book is improving. Gives me hope this one will behave itself eventually! ;)
ReplyDeleteCharity, I'm writing a hard-eke-out book right now too, so I feel some of your pain. Looking forward to book 4! How many do you plan for the series to have?
DeleteI think part of the slowness issue is I'm working from a draft I wrote before "The King's Players." In the time since, I've figured out how to streamline the plot, which demands changing it -- so I am in the weird position of writing new chapters at the start, branching them into older material, and altering as I go, which is just tedious. But, it will sort itself out in a couple of chapters. I hope.
DeleteI am shooting for twelve books, but it depends on how long my good ideas last and how long I can sustain my interest. I know where I want to end, which would wrap up a lot of plot lines for Katharine, Lovell, Meg Pole, and Estrella, and leave them all in a good place (because I'm an idealist who hates sad endings). I have three more books loosely plotted after this one. I don't allow myself to plan too far ahead, since I don't want to lose my current plot thread focus.
(I am a type A personality. In case you wondered. LOL)
Charity, ahhhhhh, that does make sense. That can feel like piecework and get dull.
DeleteTwelve books! Sweet! I was afraid you were going to say like five or something.
I don't know if I'm a Type A or not, but I have my Once Upon a Western series pretty well planned out already, except for some of the short-story tag-alongs. I like maps, I like plans, I like knowing things Very Far In Advance ;-)
Yeah. Part of me is like "ignore the old draft and just make it up as you go along / let your creativity flow" and the rest of me is like, "But if you do that, you lose some good writing / dialogue, because that draft was DECENT." So I wind up mostly rewriting it all from scratch with just my old plot twists and turns in my head, but leaving half the document stuffed with old material in case I need it.
DeleteYou know, it comforts me to hear you want more than five books, because I always wonder if my reader is going to get tired of a longer series. New characters weave in and out all the time, but I don't want people bored with Lovell, or Katharine, or Henry. The early books are somewhat "condensed" in that they take place in short amounts of time, but I may move through time more quickly later in the series, since a LOT happened between 1502 and 1504 and less happened between then and 1509.
But, I never know until I get there. ;)
Good for you! It's comforting to have a sort of broad outline in your head for a series, I think.
As the person who entirely rewrote "The Man on the Buckskin Horse" from a different character's POV and scrapped basically all the writing except a few lines of dialog... I understand. Sometimes, this is needed.
DeleteI love a long series. A lot.
And yeah, I think knowing about where things are going for a series is kind of imperative, even when the stories are only loosely connected like mine. Otherwise you'll go nuts one day trying to connect dots. Or be internally inconsistent.
I finally bit the bullet and removed the entire existing last half of the manuscript to an "extras" folder, enabling me to free-write the rest, only looking into the file when I need to pull out a scene. It feels easier now.
DeleteOh, good. Because 12 books may be... um... a low number. Ha, ha. (I looked at my plans last night and went, "But I want XYZ to happen and ... I may need more than 12 books." Hope my mom doesn't tire of proof-reading them. ;)
Yes, it is. Do you plan on entwining your books at some point, or leaving them as independent stories? In other words, are they in the same time period and universe? Will your characters ever encounter each other? I have scenes and plot lines that won't pay off until later books, so I'm really being careful in how I plot ahead. (I knew where Lovell and Meg's issues would go from book one, but may not reach that climactic scene for several more books. I'll be laying the groundwork in book five that won't pay off until much later. Etc.)
Whomever said writing is easy... lied. Or is doing it wrong. ;)
Charity, good for you! That had to have been hard.
DeleteHey, one of my favorite series is the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. There are 20 of them.
My Once Upon a Western series takes place in a shared universe, and the stories do intersect a little, more in the background so far than in the books, though the one I'm working on right now has a small part for someone who was a main character in one of my earlier books. They take place from 1866 to 1883 (so far), and I'm not writing them in chronological order, so that makes the connections even less obvious. But they're there. Like, one of the daughters from Dancing and Doughnuts is the mother of Mary Rose from Cloaked... I just have never figured out a way to convey that, lol. Yet! I have a big timeline that keeps everything straight, though. So far ;-)
20 is a good number. I may shoot for that. ;)
Delete"Like, one of the daughters from Dancing and Doughnuts is the mother of Mary Rose from Cloaked..."
WAT?
That's cool. You def. need to figure out how to clue people in, because it's always fun to look for familiar faces or put little Easter eggs in your own stuff. :D
Charity, yup. There's a character from one of my earlier books who has a minor role in the Snow White book, which makes me grin so hard. I'm pretty sure all the interlocking bits will come to light eventually, either through future books or the short stories.
Delete