The Raven and the Rose

by Virginia Henley

HER BEAUTY WAS THE SPARK...
Her hair was black silk against her ivory skin; her gray eyes burned with opal fire. The love child of King Edward IV, Roseanna Castlemaine was pledged to her father's most prized warrior. Baron Ravenspur was dark, strong, and commanding, and in the bedchamber, where he forced her to honor her marriage vows, she learned to crave his intoxicating touch. And still she swore not to love him even as she surrendered to the dark rapture of... THE RAVEN.

HIS PASSION WAS THE FIRE...
Lord Roger Montford's shoulders were broad within the coat of mail that made him invulnerable to everything but Roseanna's innocence. Obsessed with taming the fiery beauty who inflamed his flesh, he fell in love, knowing ruthless men plotted to topple the king he served and at the heart of the intrigue was she who would be either his death or his salvation...THE ROSE.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Medieval, Historical Fiction, Medieval Romance, Fiction

394 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

Virginia Syddall was born on December 5, 1935 in England, where her father, Thomas Syddall, taught her to love history. She obtained a degree in History in the University. In 1956, Virginia married Arthur Henley. They moved to America, and now they live most of the year in St. Petersburg, Florida, and they spend the hot summers in Ontario, Canada, where they have their two adult children and three grandsons.

Virginia Henley is a New York Times bestselling writer of historical novels. Her work has been translated into fourteen languages. She is the recipient of more than a dozen writing awards, including a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award, a Waldenbooks' Bestselling Award, and a Maggie Award for Excellence from the Georgia Romance Writers.

Reviews

[britta ⋆˙⟡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild old school bodice ripper delight with dramatic horse breeding FMC and obsessed knight MMC. King Edward and Queen Elizabeth war of roses Plantagenet drama infused.
TW: rape, incest, arranged marriage, death

[Regan Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 15th Century Romance and a Wonderful Tale!

Rich in history of 15th century England, this is a passionate love story between two stubborn, strong-willed people who reached for all life could give, rising to every challenge, including each other. I really enjoyed it, could not stop reading it and recommend it.

It is the time when King Edward IV ruled England though he faced threats from many enemies. Beautiful Roseanna Castlemaine rides and hunts with the best of her father's men and is an expert at horse breeding. She does what she pleases. At 17, she learns she is the illegitimate daughter of the King, who has been her mother's lover since they were 14.

Roseanna's "first love" is a landless knight, Sir Bryan, who writes her poetry. They pledge their love to each other though she has been betrothed for years to Roger Montford, Baron of Ravenspur. She has never met him and he's never claimed her. The King did that mostly to protect Ravenspur from having to ward off the parents of marriageable young girls as he'd already had two disastrous marriages that ended in the death of both wives.

Needing to be free of a betrothal that is preventing her from marrying the man she wants, Roseanna rides to the hunting lodge where Ravenspur is staying to ask him to drop his claim so she can marry Sir Bryan. But her plans go awry when she is beset by a storm and her horse runs away. She is found in a bedraggled state by Tristan, Ravenspur's younger brother who thinks her a simple village girl and decides she is a prize for his brother.

The rest is a well told tale of a difficult coming together...a worthy read well told by a master of romance.

If you like to read books in date order, here are the other books she wrote about the same time in chronological order (the first three form her Plantagenet trilogy):

* The Falcon and the Flower (1989) - late 12th century/early 13th
* The Dragon and the Jewel (1991) - 13th century
* The Marriage Prize (2000) - 13th century
* The Raven and the Rose (1987) - 15th century
* The Hawk and the Dove (1988) - 16th century
* The Pirate and the Pagan (1990) - 17th century

And, if you want Scotland's side of the story, you can read her Kennedy Clan books both set in the 16th century after The Raven and The Rose:

* Tempted (1992)
* The Border Hostage (2001)

I highly recommend them all!

[Naksed · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the vein of Bertrice Small, The Raven and the Rose presents us with a willful, strong, never boring, often frustrating, heroine and the depths of hell that her own stupidity, combined with the petty jealousies and betrayals of false friends, and historical circumstances, drag her down to before she can recognize and be reunited with her one true love. The setting and plot are somewhat similar to Rebecca Brandewyne's Rose of Rapture. Between the two, Brandewyne's novel was more enjoyable for me.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. There is a sweetcake hero who enjoys ripping garments from the spitfire heroine, there are villains and battles. The characters are likable and the dialogues intelligent. The end of the book is rather unexpected, though. From forced incest to bigamy with two likable man - I didn't see that one coming. And Henley forgot about the divorce of one io the men. So, our heroine keeps two husbands (even if she livers only with one)! It's a woman's world!

[Auj · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 to 5 stars
Guys, it was so good. I need more. Seriously, most books I'm like end already! But no, I wish there was more to this book. Like an epilogue, or a sequel. Another book, please?

I'm upset not knowing what later happens to Roger, Baron Ravenspur. I say this because a lot of knights loyal to the Yorks were killed when Henry VII deposed King Richard III, Edward's youngest brother. God, with all the fighting going on, it was hard for any of the men to live a long life. I really really hope that Roger Montfort did. (Though I looked him up and he may have been a fictional character. Obviously, a man like him existed in his time.)

At the beginning of the book, I was like please just have sex already! Roseanna was a great, character, very strong-willed, stubborn, a little bit spoiled & vain, but also determined, headstrong, beautiful, and clever. She was a little spitfire lol. Then when Roger finally gets, or rather "tricks" (he won a wager), her into his bed we get a lot of love scenes, so that was nice. There were a lot more than I was expecting to be honest. (Not that I minded of course.) The prose was still a little purply, with one "manroot" I remember, but better sex scenes than Virginia's other books that I have read. Maybe this one was written later and improved lol.

I tagged this as "other-woman-or-man" because there was a squire?, Sir Bryan, that Roseanna met before Roger that she was infatuated with, though she thought she was in love with him, they actually barely knew each other. There's later a shocking scene with him and another character.

Roger also almost had insta-love for Roseanna. I think he was overcome by her beauty & through the wisdom of his age, knew that he had met his match and that she would be the woman for him.

The author threw us a big plot twist towards the end. I'm still a little bit upset/surprised. This book left me with a lot of feels & thoughts. I think I'm going to need to reread it someday.
I was a little shocked when Roger died. I was like wtf, this is a romance! Where is the HEA?! At that time, I wanted the book to make it sadder so it would make me cry, so I could grieve for Roger. I guess Virginia didn't make it too sad, because shocker, it turned out that he was alive all along!! *jaw drop*
Instead, it was his captain, Kelly, who died. I wish we got confirmation that Kelly killed his second wife. I guess maybe he did because why would he react so strongly as to knife Roger if it wasn't true?
So anyway, I was a little upset over his fake death.


George, Edward's middle brother, was despicable--no surprise there.

Yo, I need more of this book...Sad it's over. I would love a sequel with Ned, their son.

It's Just SO SAD! - Colin Hanks In Orange County GIF from Colinhanks GIFs

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a revolutionary addition to the genre of the romance novel-since it seems somewhat clear that the target audience must consist exclusively of underage girls and tweens at best - women from 30 upwards will be somewhat appalled by the way in which the protagonist's mother(aged 31, I believe) and wife-of-the-king Elisabeth Woodville (either mid-30s or mid-40s, I've since forgotten) are described: While Roseanna, the 16-year old heroine swans around in the (as we are constantly reminded PERFECT) ivory, ebony and crimson of her skin, hair and lips, for those older women, things do not look so bright, as when we are informed, that, after a long sorrowful night her mother looks each and every of her years (31! goodness!) and the queen, who turns her gray hair into bright blonde through alchemy seeks the heroine's assistance to make her presentable to none other than her husband who may know nothing about the chemical stunt.

So once it is established that overage women are no good, despite the king (her father!) sometimes getting nostalgic with her mother (goodness again!), it is plain to see why men fall for the not-yet legal Roseanna: Youth and beauty all, major capital, convince

a) the (somewhat older, we are not informed whether he looks every and each of his years) guy she is betrothed to to marry her, despite his earlier bachelor tendencies, when she is conveniently drugged and placed naked in his bed (Nay, he does not touch her till long, long after their wedding night, when he gets her to confess undying love, but it is always good, you know, not buying the cat in the bag).

b) the king's fiendish brother to rape her (twice)
and
c) another guy to marry her, whom she does not have the hots for, but despite what everybody says it's not exactly fun being raped by the king's brother so there.

Of course you're asking: How now, what happened to her first husband? Well, it seems he was squashed to death by a horse - or was he? And yeah, towards the end, the first husband magically reappears and the heroine is suddenly saddled with two husbands. Since there is no monk to discuss the finer theological points, the husbands come to sort of a gentlemens' agreement, deeming the times so hard and life-threatening that Roseanna may best stick out for a while, see which of her husbands survives, and stay with him.

Now our questions:
Does the king's brother get punished?
-No, he does not.
Is there any evil gay character?
-I am glad you asked. Roseanna's brother, who is envious of his extremely beautiful and part-royal sister and feels pure hatred towards their poor old mother, and who sort of gets involved in a greater plot against the king (not his father!), is totally gay. Good Roseanna and her mom overhear every little bit of his nasty plot that he recounts while he is thrustingly making out with the other guy involved in that special treason, and in a spirited moment Roseanna's mom (who is old but knows how to wield a bow) kills two birds with one arrow (and a side of dagger).

Yay? Yay.

[Elis Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good news in this one is the rapey creep is actually the villain of the piece. We can go ahead and like the hero because he's a decent guy who manages to be an alpha male without being an



She's Roseanna Castlemaine, the secret love child of Edward IV and her mother, Lady Joanna, who is married to Neville Castlemaine. Years ago, her biodad betrothed her to Roger, Baron of Ravenspur—who is one of his buddies. She doesn't want to marry some old guy, especially a guy who's left her unclaimed well past the age young ladies usually wed. And she has this fair young knight on the hook who writes her pretty poems and is her brother's inseparable friend (let's just say he's a safe date).

So she gets it in her head to ride over to Ravenspur and ask him to let her off the hook. Only she's dumped off her horse into the mud and looks much the worse for it when Ravenspur's idiot brother comes upon her. He laughs when the muddy little peasant says who she is, then gets the brilliant idea to take her back to Ravenspur's hunting lodge, where an orgy is underway. She's drugged, stripped, and laid at Ravenspur's feet. The first time she lays eyes on him she's naked in his bed and he's suggesting they do something about it.

Anyhoo, once he's laid eyes on his hellaciously gorgeous bride, he's not so opposed to marrying after all, and apparently her wishes don't matter to anyone but her. So she vows to make her unwanted hubby's life a living hell. Rose is a spoiled brat who does have some legitimate grievances, but she's also just contrary over silly stuff. While I usually hate books where the guy gets all paternal and paddles her ass, there was a time or two in this one where I wouldn't have minded much.

Meanwhile, treason and traitors abound, the Wars of the Roses are on, and reports of Roger's death are greatly exaggerated, but what's a little bigamy between friends. The rapey creep is Edward IV's brother George. I'd have enjoyed it if one or the other of the wronged hubbies had been the one to drown him in a vat of wine.



I'm giving this one 3 stars. It had some great history and as I say, it was nice to see an alpha male who wasn't a jerk. Not a list-topper, though.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read: 6/29/20
Okay story! The history was interesting even if the author sped up certain events and omitted others. The h is the secret illegitimate daughter of king Edward iv and Roger is his best friend. The H was a great alpha male character. He was patient, understanding without letting the h run roughshod. Why he loved the h is a mystery. The h was another spoiled brat and not cute spoiled like in Tempted. Sometimes I liked her and other times I wanted to slap her.

Problem: The whole book I kept waiting for them to consummate their marriage. I hate in books where married couples still haven't had sex. It's frustrating and unrealistic.

The villians in story were great. I didn't see the surprise twist at the end. All in all it was pretty okay book.

[Lady Whitbrooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok so this was my first book by this author and it was good. I loved the story and the plot had many interesting twist and turns some made you angry some made you sad. It definitely did not progress and I had expected but the ending was good. It was definitely a roller coaster ride.
What I did not like. I didn’t like the “extra” men. And I didn’t love Rossana’s defiant stubbornness, unfortunately it did not right itself will 2/3 a way through the book. ☹️

Plot -interesting
Steaminess- 7 (1-10)

I will read more from this author.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read this book in many years but I still remembered parts of it. It's a beautiful story but the rape scene is hard to take so please be prepared. But it is a recommend. Virginia is one of the first authors I have ever read, she has a special place in my heart.

[Jenny Tomlinson (Ross) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in middle school when I read this book. It is just a good romance(sex) novel. I read it again some years later but not sure when.

[Blondie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roseanna is not my favorite heroine however I still enjoyed this book. Ravenspur was my kind of hero though.
Ms Henley knows how to keep the reader looking forward to what will happen next.

[Sukhi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking for a good, easy, quick, entertaining, put-your-head-in-the-sand-to-escape-the-fate-of-the-world book. I'd heard about Virginia Henley as one of the original classic romance novelists, and decided to give this one a try. I am very disappointed in the book.

The story revolves around Roseanna (the rose in the title), and her husband in an arranged marriage, Roger (the raven of the title). I didn't really like that the heroine was foolishly headstrong, stubborn, pouty, spoiled, and petulant ALL THE TIME. The hero was a little better, but I don't think I could ever say I really liked a man who chose to marry a girl of seventeen when he was clearly in his thirties. I don't care how much people can claim that true love doesn't discriminate against age. At a certain point, there is too much difference between age groups and generations, and this was pretty much a man taking advantage of his station in life. This makes my second objection to the book a little strange.

I didn't like the unrealistic nature of the story. Yes, it's true that girls had to marry often much older and wealthier men in medieval England, or whatever the time period is when the War of Roses took place in England. But the story had PANTIES in it! As in, the heroine takes her PANTIES off in a love scene! OMG! There were NO PANTIES around in that day and age! They are a MODERN invention! There were many other things that I simply could not suspend disbelief to accept, especially when it came to dialogue.

Perhaps the reason I couldn't suspend disbelief was because of the uneven pacing of the story. Some parts of the story were stretched along to no end, while important plot events were quickly skipped through. I expect that pacing in a story to vary, and considerably so. However, the skill with which time moved forward in this story was especially clunky, and boring. Henley takes five pages to summarize the war between King Edward and the kingmaker Warwick. All she really had to do was perhaps summarize the war in a short paragraph, or start the next chapter with something along the lines of, "After the battle had been waged and Edward regained his throne..." Do you know what I mean? Having to read through all the details of the war is one thing, but when the author goes through the motions, it feels like eating sawdust. Totally unappealing.

So, yeah. I am not picking up another Henley any time soon. So not my thing.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

OH MY GOODNESS, I swear I have never cried at a book so much as I cried at this one. First though, to sum it all up, I loved the Hero, didn't particularly like the Heroine because it's one thing being strong-willed, independent and having a temper, but she was so ridiculously rude and arrogant, it got on my nerves. I liked the hot-and-cold aspect of how Roseanna felt about Roger though XD When Roger "dies" though, is when I cried uncontrollably; because at that time they were both madly in love, admitted it to each other, they had a son (his heir!) and everything was perfect...then he goes to fight and word comes back his dead. Then, I started to panic. It wasn't until Burke went to see for himself, found "Roger's" body and buried the remains himself that I started crying like hell. Because by then after all that, it was so believable, and I had never read any reviews on the book, so I genuinely believed it!! I was distraught, honestly -.- the ending was the biggest shock ever. On my "Ending's ratings list" it would be very low. In my romance novels, the endings are what I remember and treasure most (second most actually, to the hero and heroine) and this particular ending consisted of: incest rape, briberies of all sorts, and a random marriage, for heavens sake!! When Roger came back though and it was found out that he wasn't dead, I was actually as much annoyed (at the author) as I was happy. Virginia Henley put me through hell all for nothing, and his random appearance was so random and it didn't make any sense. What I disliked most about the ending was that nothing was explained about what happened to the other people.
Anyways, all in all though, I liked it - ish - only recommend it if you don't mind the over-use of 'colourful language' (lets just say) and an annoying heroine.

[Oliviana Georgescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

O încântătoare poveste de dragoste, o captivantă carte historical-romance ce evoca în paginile sale o fascinantă atmosferă de epoca din Anglia domniei lui Edward IV. E o carte frumoasă, frumos scrisă și bine documentată, făcând referire la personaje, fapte și date reale, familiarizandu-ne cu intrigile de la curte și masinatiunile politice ale vremii.
În prim plan avem un personaj feminin cuceritor - Roseanna Castlemaine, o tânără de 17 ani de o frumusețe răpitoare, îndrăzneață, nonconformistă, rebelă și răsfățată. Primise o educație îngăduitoare din partea lui Sir Neville Castlemaine, cel care o crescuse alături de mama ei ca pe fiica lui naturală. În realitate, Roseanna era o bastarda regală, rezultatul iubirii dintre mama sa și Edward IV, pe vremea când erau doi adolescenți abia ieșiți din copilărie. Roseanna află cu surprindere acest lucru cu ocazia unei vizite pe care regele o face la domeniul Castlemaine.
https://www.delicateseliterare.ro/cor...

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Virginia Henley book and I have to give it 3 stars because the ending felt really rushed. At one point, I was going to give it 2 stars because the storyline was really getting on my nerves!! For one, I like a strong female character in the books I read, but Roseanna was a bit much. And talk about conceited! Then, things got pretty interesting: Ravenspur's "death" and all the crazy crap that happened afterwards. I like when a book can surprise me, and never in a million years would I have thought Roseanna would have been forced to have sex with 2 different men, and one because he was her new "husband". It was all quite tragic which made the book go up to 4 stars in my estimation. But that darned ending ruined everything. Plus, I was extremely disappointed that Ravenspur didn't kill George. Extremely disappointed!

I'm going to continue on with more of Henley's books. Hopefully, they'll be worthy of at least 4 stars...

[Casie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book jumped all over the place, had so many characters that it was hard to keep up and the ending was extremely rushed.

I loved Roger throughout the whole book, but I couldn't stand Roseanna. Only towards the end did I come around to her.

Speaking of the ending, it was rather abrupt and left a lot to be desired.

Others have wrote a summary about this book better than I could, but I was really disappointed.

[Bambi Unbridled · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last 10% of the book is unexpected, and I don't know that it improves on the story. But overall this was a good read and somewhat tame compared to other bodice rippers of the time. The issue surrounding Captain Kelly should have been flushed out, and it would have been nice to see a showdown between George and Ravenspur.

[Ruksar · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is so happy happy flow till its 3/4 th part but the 4/4th part of this book is so shocking i was STUNNED.for that shock i am adding one more star coz it actually takes guts to write such things in a good happy flow.

[Gwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an exciting romance.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story...wild language...aka foot notes a must!

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

[Adeline Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lub all Virginia Henley novels!!

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this book 4 stars, but towards the end it became really random. It finished without resolving some of the bigger plot points.

[Theresa Almeida · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I remember right this is the book that had the name I wanted to name Rachy 1st

[Tiffany Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henley was one of the best!

[Antoinette Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cried, I laugh and I was in total accord when Joanna Killed her son. This book had me in suspense had me on edge and I cried at what Roseanna experience at her lost and at the hands of her uncle.

[Melissa DeHart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good historical romance set in the time of Edward IV. Typical bodice ripper interlaced with historical drama.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!!

[Valarie38hotmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first romance novel I have ever read. Some 22 years ago, still one of my favorites. A very unforgettable book.