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Rose Trilogy #2
A Rose in Splendor
Only Once in Many Generations Does a Woman of the Fitzgerald Clan Bear the Mark -- and the Gift--of the Rose...
She had seen him before in her dreams. But the handsome soldier hiding in the deep purple shadows of her father's stables was now terribly real. Deirdre was only a child, but felt she must help him escape the English troops - for she knew this wild Irish rebel with hair as dark as a raven's wing and eyes as blue as the summer sky was destined to be her one true love. Someday she would meet this fierce, magnificent stranger again...and he would remember the mark of the rose on her creamy white skin. Then he would know she was no longer an innocent girl, but a full-grown passionate woman, one ripe for the ecstasy of desire...and ready for an eternity of love.
She had seen him before in her dreams. But the handsome soldier hiding in the deep purple shadows of her father's stables was now terribly real. Deirdre was only a child, but felt she must help him escape the English troops - for she knew this wild Irish rebel with hair as dark as a raven's wing and eyes as blue as the summer sky was destined to be her one true love. Someday she would meet this fierce, magnificent stranger again...and he would remember the mark of the rose on her creamy white skin. Then he would know she was no longer an innocent girl, but a full-grown passionate woman, one ripe for the ecstasy of desire...and ready for an eternity of love.
439 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 18, 2015
I guess I was hoping for more after reading Rose Of The Mists. I wanted to really like the story of the Fitzgerald Clan, at least enough to give it a solid 4 stars. In my humble opinion it was more like 3.5. Although Parker's characters were great (even the supporting and minor characters such as Fey) I felt they could've excelled even more in the plot. There was that same ambiance of fairy lore and superstition that left the reader guessing as to whether Deirdre's dreams and visions were the product of her imagination or gave an inkling of a secret fate yet to be revealed. It was like this hint of foreboding that I thought would've been a traumatic experience in it's eventuality for Deirdre and Killian to face together, but it never really came. However, I loved the interactions between the couple and the somewhat minor obstacles they had (despite the fact that I may have been left hanging with another villian.) I wouldn't recommend reading this as a stand alone book, but as a good part in the trilogy. So, read this only if you plan on reading the trilogy.
December 2, 2019
3.5 stars ....it started out really good then about halfway through the novel once they got married, it kind of lost me which really sucked because I had such high hopes for this book
November 9, 2018
What started out as a great story left me frustrated and unsatisfied in the end.
Mostly I just did not like the hero enough! Either he was undeveloped, or just not to my liking or both. I suspect both.
I have read hundreds of romance books over the years; enough to know I hate it when a hero calls the heroine names, like "*itch" or worse, "stupid *itch". The heroine must have understood him better than I would have, or did, because I would have liked to slug him sometimes!
I also didn't think there was enough of a satisfied tie-up to the heroine's fairy powers.
Lastly, I hated the character of the bratty Fey child. All her crass, crude sexual talk left me squeamish and annoyed. It just seemed to be really pushing the envelope way too much.
And lest anyone think me a prude-I did not think the love scenes were enough, nor were they hot at all.
I was so glad to be done with this book.
Mostly I just did not like the hero enough! Either he was undeveloped, or just not to my liking or both. I suspect both.
I have read hundreds of romance books over the years; enough to know I hate it when a hero calls the heroine names, like "*itch" or worse, "stupid *itch". The heroine must have understood him better than I would have, or did, because I would have liked to slug him sometimes!
I also didn't think there was enough of a satisfied tie-up to the heroine's fairy powers.
Lastly, I hated the character of the bratty Fey child. All her crass, crude sexual talk left me squeamish and annoyed. It just seemed to be really pushing the envelope way too much.
And lest anyone think me a prude-I did not think the love scenes were enough, nor were they hot at all.
I was so glad to be done with this book.
March 8, 2026
I did not care for this book, I'm sorry to say. It was long, tedious with flat characters, and even with its few moments of excitement was uninteresting. I fought to get to the end of it.
A little bit about the story now. Deirdre was just seven years old when she came upon an injured young man hiding in the stables of her family estate. Even though they were being ousted by the English, wagons loaded and everyone prepared to leave, she insisted that they hide him. She knew that he was going to be the man she would marry someday.
But that would be years down the road. In the meantime, her family went to France and Killian MacShane became an accomplished soldier and was friends with Deirdre’s brothers. He also had an ax to grind with her father. Even after reading that scene, I’m not sure what that was all about, but it was such a minor part of the story. It didn’t matter.
Deirdre wanted to go home, back to the forfeited keep got the English had taken from her family back in Ireland. She was consumed by it and made foolish decisions because of it. She was an idiot anyway. She was immature, stupid, and put people at risk unnecessarily with her idiocy. I’m sorry. I just did not like her. I wanted to punch her in the face so many times because she was so stupid.
And what was the point of the character of Fey? The story couldn’t survived very well without her and I’m not sure why she was there in the first place. She was annoying and insolent and totally ungrateful. She was an ingrate who thought the world owed her. I don’t like people like that in real life and I don’t like them in books.
I’m not sure why I decided to pick up this book. Maybe it was because I like a little magic in my stories sometimes and I needed to change things up a little bit, but I do wish I had chosen a different book. This one just went on and on and on, and it took me forever to get through it. I was trying to come up with excuses not to read it. Seek and ye shall find.
Many people will like this book, but it wasn’t for me. I just got so tired of it, and I thought it would never end.
* This is part of a series, but can easily be read as a standalone novel
A little bit about the story now. Deirdre was just seven years old when she came upon an injured young man hiding in the stables of her family estate. Even though they were being ousted by the English, wagons loaded and everyone prepared to leave, she insisted that they hide him. She knew that he was going to be the man she would marry someday.
But that would be years down the road. In the meantime, her family went to France and Killian MacShane became an accomplished soldier and was friends with Deirdre’s brothers. He also had an ax to grind with her father. Even after reading that scene, I’m not sure what that was all about, but it was such a minor part of the story. It didn’t matter.
Deirdre wanted to go home, back to the forfeited keep got the English had taken from her family back in Ireland. She was consumed by it and made foolish decisions because of it. She was an idiot anyway. She was immature, stupid, and put people at risk unnecessarily with her idiocy. I’m sorry. I just did not like her. I wanted to punch her in the face so many times because she was so stupid.
And what was the point of the character of Fey? The story couldn’t survived very well without her and I’m not sure why she was there in the first place. She was annoying and insolent and totally ungrateful. She was an ingrate who thought the world owed her. I don’t like people like that in real life and I don’t like them in books.
I’m not sure why I decided to pick up this book. Maybe it was because I like a little magic in my stories sometimes and I needed to change things up a little bit, but I do wish I had chosen a different book. This one just went on and on and on, and it took me forever to get through it. I was trying to come up with excuses not to read it. Seek and ye shall find.
Many people will like this book, but it wasn’t for me. I just got so tired of it, and I thought it would never end.
* This is part of a series, but can easily be read as a standalone novel
August 27, 2016
4 and 1/2 Stars! Exciting Irish Story with Fairy Lore Elements
This was my first by Parker and it just happens to be book 2 in her Rose trilogy (see list below). I think it reads well as a stand alone.
Set in Ireland and France beginning in 1691, it tells of the Fitzgerald family and their daughter Deidre who at 7, is already dreaming dreams that forecast her future. Her nurse tells her she is marked by the fairies—as witnessed by the rose tattoo she bears on her shoulder—and that her mother was a witch. The involvement of the Fitzgerald family and the fairy theme run throughout the book.
One of Deidre’s dreams tells of a handsome young man with nearly black hair and blue eyes, riding a dark horse and wearing a black cape. A man just like that shows up at their Irish estate just as they are forced to leave for exile in France after the Jacobite army loses at the Siege of Limerick. The young man, who suddenly appears in their stable, wounded and bleeding, is hiding from the English troops. Deidre’s quick action saves his life. Though her father is wary and her nurse disbelieving, Deirdre insists the dark haired stranger is destined to be her true love. Her father intends to assure she never sees him again.
Years later, Deidre has grown into a beautiful young woman and is living in France with her family when Killian MacShane, a hero of the French army and a friend of her brothers, comes to visit. Deidre instantly recognizes him as her destiny but Killian, an impoverished soldier trapped in a relationship with a conniving French noblewoman, is not so sure.
This is a well-told story with rich historical detail, vivid descriptions and interesting characters. As with many Irish historical romances, the abuse of the English and their laws that deprived the Irish of their homeland, their property, pride and often their lives, is woven into the tale. And there is the fairy lore aspect that makes this one different.
The Rose Trilogy:
ROSE OF THE MISTS
A ROSE IN SPLENDOR
THE SECRET ROSE
This was my first by Parker and it just happens to be book 2 in her Rose trilogy (see list below). I think it reads well as a stand alone.
Set in Ireland and France beginning in 1691, it tells of the Fitzgerald family and their daughter Deidre who at 7, is already dreaming dreams that forecast her future. Her nurse tells her she is marked by the fairies—as witnessed by the rose tattoo she bears on her shoulder—and that her mother was a witch. The involvement of the Fitzgerald family and the fairy theme run throughout the book.
One of Deidre’s dreams tells of a handsome young man with nearly black hair and blue eyes, riding a dark horse and wearing a black cape. A man just like that shows up at their Irish estate just as they are forced to leave for exile in France after the Jacobite army loses at the Siege of Limerick. The young man, who suddenly appears in their stable, wounded and bleeding, is hiding from the English troops. Deidre’s quick action saves his life. Though her father is wary and her nurse disbelieving, Deirdre insists the dark haired stranger is destined to be her true love. Her father intends to assure she never sees him again.
Years later, Deidre has grown into a beautiful young woman and is living in France with her family when Killian MacShane, a hero of the French army and a friend of her brothers, comes to visit. Deidre instantly recognizes him as her destiny but Killian, an impoverished soldier trapped in a relationship with a conniving French noblewoman, is not so sure.
This is a well-told story with rich historical detail, vivid descriptions and interesting characters. As with many Irish historical romances, the abuse of the English and their laws that deprived the Irish of their homeland, their property, pride and often their lives, is woven into the tale. And there is the fairy lore aspect that makes this one different.
The Rose Trilogy:
ROSE OF THE MISTS
A ROSE IN SPLENDOR
THE SECRET ROSE
August 13, 2013
This was a surprise package of a book. An epic story stretching from English occupied Ireland to France sees its interesting protagonists battle to regain Lady Deidre's ancestral home. The characters come to the novel with much baggage, the war weary soldier meets the fairy touched maiden, adding to the story's appeal and depth.
February 6, 2015
Love this entire series.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews