A Vain and Indecent Woman

Silk Road #16

by Colin Falconer

Power commands. Love defies. History judges.

'A vain and indecent woman,' they said.

England, 1341: When the young Joan of Kent is married at Westminster Abbey, the ceremony binds her not just to a husband, but to a royal lie. By order of her uncle, King Edward III, Joan becomes the first - and only - English princess to knowingly commit bigamy.

The marriage is meant to end a dangerous dispute and secure the Crown’s authority. Instead, it ignites a decade-long struggle that pits one woman against her family, her king and the laws of England itself.

Joan is no ornament of the court. Intelligent, resolute, and fiercely independent, she refuses to surrender her claim to the man she believes is her true husband - even as pressure mounts and punishment looms. Everyone expects her to yield. She does not.

Told through the watchful eyes of her long-dead father - a knight bound to honour, duty, and silence - this is a powerful true story of loyalty and defiance in an age when love could be treason and obedience a matter of survival.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, 14th Century, Royalty, Book Club, Historical

224 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2018

About the author

Colin Falconer writes fast-paced historical adventures that sweep readers across centuries and continents, from the battlefields of Rome to the intrigues of forgotten empires. His novels blend action, danger, and unforgettable characters in richly imagined worlds.

Born in London, Colin now lives in Australia with his wife and their cocker spaniels. Click FOLLOW for updates on new releases, or join his mailing list for exclusive offers.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend the book.
I do not give many five stars, but the author deserves them for this book. Mr. Falconer was a reader's 'find' for me after picking up one of his free ebooks just because the book was free. The author's mechanics were good--maybe a little odd punctuation here and there. He did not overload the book with too many characters. The book was historical fiction at its finest.

Joan was the daughter of Edmund and niece to King Edward IV of England. She loved Thomas Holand with all her heart. Initially, he loved her for all of her money, but he came around to loving her in his heart. To get there, an intriguing and poignant story is told by Edmund who watches over Joan from the other side. That is all I will write about the storyline or the golden nuggets of the truth about life scattered throughout the book. I have read several books in this series and urge other readers to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Falconer, for a good read.

I have no idea of where an earlier written review landed. This book was special in writing style. Joan`s dead father told the story. I did not have to reread pages to figure who 'he' was.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Joan, a traitor’s daughter, is trapped in a life controlled by the king, Edward III, who seeks to use her royal blood to forge a marriage that will him support and money for his wars to pursue his claim to the throne of France. But Joan, strong-willed and stubborn, has already set her heart on another – a lowly knight by the name of Thomas Holand – and will defy the king and her family to see it done.

I was excited to read Colin Falconer’s A Vain and Indecent Woman. His novel, Isabella: Braveheart of France, was the best novel dealing with Isabella of France and Edward II I’ve read and I had hoped that the combination of good writing and good research driving more complex characterisations would be repeated in his novel about Joan of Kent, a figure that I’m fascinated by and deeply fond of.

And there are definite strengths in A Vain and Indecent Woman. Chief among them is Falconer’s writing. It is really beautiful. I also appreciated his characterisation of Thomas Holand, how his love for and intentions towards Joan are scrutinised cynically, almost to the end.

But for me, the novel is hampered by a big problem: the choice of narrator in Joan’s deceased father, Edmund, Earl of Kent.

Now, let’s be clear, the problem is not that the narrator is dead. It is an unusual choice but not necessarily a bad one. One of my favourite historical fiction novels (The Burial) is narrated from the perspective of the protagonist’s dead baby and, whilst reading this, I pitched to a friend the idea of Anne of Bohemia’s ghost narrating her beloved husband, Richard II’s downfall and death. Having a ghost as a narrator means they are not limited in the same way a normal protagonist is and Edmund is privy to scenes and events that the reader would not be able to see if, say, Joan was the narrator of her own book. And, as such, Edmund can be with Joan in Flanders one moment and then back at England to eavesdrop on Edward III the next.

It is, however, an awkward choice to have Joan of Kent’s father narrate her life. She is famous for her “scandalous” marriages and life, often rendered as a wanton, sexual woman, and while I don’t support or accept that reading (she was twelve), we know that her life did include a consummated marriage when she was still a child. To be fair, Falconer ages Joan up a little and avoids most of the awkward bits. But there are still a few pieces that are awkward.

There also more notable side effects. We have an abundance of Edmund having “I’m a ghost, I’m frightening maids because I’m a ghost, he’s looking around but no one but me is here and he can’t see me because I’m a ghost” moments. And Falconer doesn’t really seem to have decided how Edmund’s ghost powers work. Edmund has no clue about Joan’s future. He doesn’t know who or when she’ll marry before she does or what the outcome of Holand’s attempts to have their marriage recognised will be or whether Holand really loves Joan. But Edmund knows that Edward III has just started the Hundred Years War, that men “will die soon in hedgerows at Poitiers” (location 3386) and Richard II will be deposed and the Wars of the Roses and the Battle of Bosworth Field will occur. How? Why? Why does he know these things – things that happen after he’s ascended to the light and left the world behind – but nothing about Joan’s future?

But the bigger problem is Edmund’s characterisation himself. I am a bit fond of the historical Edmund so I was eager to see him given more precedence in a novel. But in the end, I found Falconer’s take on him annoying and sanctimonious. Edmund’s big obsession is his execution in 1330 and the guilt of Edward III in not pardoning him even though Edward was still his minority and was likely bullied and pushed into it despite his desire not to have Edmund executed. The people really behind Edmund’s execution was Roger Mortimer and Isabella of France and Anthony Goodman suggests that, fearing Edward III would pardon Edmund, they had had orders sent on at extreme so that Edward III physically couldn’t stop his uncle’s execution. And yet, while Edmund continually harps on and on about his execution, the only person he really blames Edward. Sure he hates Isabella, but he doesn’t talk about her nearly as much as Edward. Edmund harps on it so much that when he mentions it with a “yes, still bitter about that” mention, I’m sitting there going, “I KNOW. You won’t shut up about it.”

And look, I get that being executed is traumatic and he’s entitled to be angry. But his anger and resentment never fade and it’s gratuitous and dull and repetitive. There’s no growth, no acceptance, just that bitterness and fury, all directed at a man who had very little say in Edmund’s execution.

Secondly, Edmund plays favourites within his own family. He has no interest in any of his family except Joan. His firstborn son (also named Edmund) is mentioned at the start and then never mentioned again – there’s not even one sentence about his son’s death. I had to go back and check and then look up Wikipedia to find out why Edmund’s heir suddenly had the name of his youngest, posthumous son. While Edmund begins with great affection for his wife, Margaret, it quickly disappears as does any sympathy he has for her and all he can do is berate her for failing their daughter. His other son, John, is barely mentioned except when Edmund talks about him in relation to how he’s spoilt and protected by Margaret and how if Margaret wasn’t so dedicated to John, she’d be more supportive and protective of Joan. One gets the picture that Edmund mostly resents John for taking attention away from Joan. He certainly doesn’t care one jot when John dies.

Part of this is because of the POV choice. The historical Edmund has no reason to scorn all of his other children in favour of Joan. The story Edmund, though, is meant to be telling Joan’s story so almost all of his attention must be directed there. He can’t be interested in his widow or his son for themselves because they’re only meant to be minor supporting characters in Joan’s story.

But does it stack up in terms of the story? Why does Edmund feel so strongly about Joan? He died when she was very young – four years old in this novel though historians suggest a later a birthdate for Joan and thus a younger age (1328 is suggested by Penny Lawne so Joan would have been two). There is no indication of a special bond between them in the few, short scenes before Edmund’s death and I very much doubt that Joan remembers much of Edmund. The scenes of her praying to Edmund instead of God rang false for this reason. So Joan is really just the favourite just because the story needs Edmund not to care about anyone else.

But is Joan herself special enough that it makes sense to focus on her? Again, no. We don’t really get a good sense of her character or personality beyond “wilful” and “in love with Thomas Holand”. Edmund raves on about her but a lot of that is just him telling us how great she is while we see her continually mooning after Holand and being steadfast in her refusal to renounce him. Sometimes she lies, sometimes she’s wanton. There’s nothing to suggest that she “cool[s] tempers and offer[s] wiser counsel” (location 4675) and her wit is limited to this exchange:

‘This is not the time to discuss this,’ she tells him.

‘When?’

‘The day after Nevermas.’

That’s witty only if you're a five-year-old.

Part of this may be because we see Joan through her overly adoring father’s eyes. He thinks, like most fathers, that his daughter is the best person in the whole wide world! And maybe if we’d seen Joan through Joan’s eyes, or the eyes of someone more involved in Joan’s life, she would come across as more realised, more complex. But as it is, we just see Joan on the pedestal and really nothing else but her stubbornly sticking to her guns as far as her marriage to Holand goes.

The book ends with her agreeing to marry ‘Ned’ (Edward, the Black Prince) and an epilogue that quickly covers over the rest of her life. In a way, I feel that’s a shame because it’s a time when you get to see Joan really change and grow beyond her “scandalous marriage” image. Did she grow to love Ned more than the smidgen she did when she agreed to marry him? What was she like when she and Ned were ruling Aquitaine? How did she cope with Ned’s slow decline and debilitating illness? What was she like as a mother to Ned’s children? Did she play favourites like her father? How did she react when Ned died? What was her life like as mother to the king of England? Why does she decide to go into the afterlife with Holand and Edmund and not stay to watch over her children?

We just don’t know.

I also really, really doubt that “England fell apart when she [Joan] died, of course. There would have been no Bolingbroke [Henry IV, who deposed Richard II], no Bosworth Field, if she had been there to cool tempers and offer wiser counsel to her son” (location 4675). Again, within the novel, we have no scenes of Joan being anything but wilful and in love. Historically, we have no real evidence that she had any real input or influence in Richard’s reign and as far as England “falling apart”, it was only in 1397, twelve years after Joan’s death, that Richard’s reign began to enter its irreversible decline – it’s far more accurate to date the trouble in Richard’s reign to the death of his beloved wife, Anne of Bohemia, in 1394.

The characterisation of Edward III didn’t ring true for me – I don’t think he was a great guy, but I don’t think he was as stubborn, self-interested and so dedicated to his claim to France that he turns into a tantrum-throwing, wine-chucking screaming banshee at the suggestion he has no claim. Additionally, he’s known for being indulgent in allowing his children to choose their marriage partners so again the characterisation of him as being infuriated when his daughter decides not to go through with her wedding was also jarring.

I also found Edmund’s assertion that it was Edward’s mother, Isabella of France, who promised he would have the throne of France from the cradle and pushed him into making the claim, absurd and misogynist. Firstly, Isabella likely did not promise him that “from the cradle” as she had three brothers who all had a superior claim to the throne – it was only when they were dead and the crown was going to pass to her Valois cousin that Edward’s claim would even be remotely plausible and desirable. Secondly, this narrative detail and historical theory handily takes the blame and responsibility for over a hundred years of brutal, deadly warfare away from the man who actually begun the war and puts it on a woman who had no active role in the battle.

And really, I feel sorry for poor Ned, the Black Prince, who is depicted from the start as in love with Joan and goes out of his way to look after her and things to help her – sometimes her demand – but the text constantly denigrates for not being Thomas Holand. Sorry you’re not a 24-year-old man seducing and having sex with a 13-year-old, Ned. Sorry you’re not a child molester, Ned. Sorry you’re not having sex with other men’s wives at the same time as you try to woo Joan, Ned. You’re just not Joan’s real husband and she’ll only deign to love you a little bit. And hey, why wasn’t he there when Joan died when Holand and Edmund were? If he’s meant to be in hell that’s just stupid. Hopefully, he died and realised that he could do so much better than Falconer’s Joan and started hooking up with hot ghosts. Or maybe he’s busy looking after Edmund’s neglected kids and his own dead son or watching over Joan’s living children. Either way, Ned deserved so much better than how Joan and Edmund treated him in this novel.

On another note, while the writing is quite lovely, there are numerous typos (most chapters had the first two words squished together) and some anachronisms, such as Edmund calling Joan his “dumpling” (location 1115) or weird bits like “welcome to the siege, ladies” (location 3066).

In terms of historical accuracy, I’ve mentioned some things above – Joan is aged up, Joan would not necessarily have prevented Richard II’s deposition or the Wars of the Roses, Isabella of France was not the chief driving force in starting the Hundred Years War. Edmund refers to Joan as “Joan of Woodstock” which is odd, given she is most famously “Joan of Kent” and while she was born at Woodstock, medieval conventions meant that she would have rarely been referred to as such by her contemporaries which favoured the family/house name over the birthplace (e.g. Henry Bolingbroke would have been referred to as ‘Henry of Lancaster’ during his lifetime). Edmund claims she saved John of Gaunt in the Peasant’s Revolt and while she provided sanctuary and brokered peace between him and London, this was not in the Peasants Revolt but on another occasion, prior to Richard II becoming king – Gaunt was famously in Scotland when the revolt occurred. While Edmund claims that she “stood by her son, the second Richard, when he rode from the Tower to confront the ringleaders and the baying mob” of the revolt, he doesn’t deal with the accounts that she soon turned back and was in the Tower when it was stormed.

And I mean, you can excuse some of that as an adoring father seeing Joan through rose-coloured glasses because Best! Daughter! Ever! but it also feels like the work of an author who was in a rush to finish things and didn’t fact-check or edit this book as thoroughly as it needed.

So, for me, this book was a disappointment. The few things I enjoyed about it are undercut by how irritated I was by the narrator and his obsessions.

[Cindy Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a life!

What a story! I had no idea. Joan should be lauded by women everywhere for her determination and final success at marrying for love at a time when women had no voice in their choice of husband, especially wards of the King of England in the 14th century.

Colin Falconer is not a great romance writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I liked the style here of Joan's father narrating from the grave as he watches over his daughter Joan. The simple fact that a 12-year-old girl falls in love with a knight of the king's guard is enough to interest the romance readers, and then to have her defy the court, including her own mother, for love is astounding.

This is a definite good choice for readers of" historical fiction and those who like true romance. Should be made into a movie!

[Christine Cazeneuve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page turner

Interesting twist on the telling of the story of Joan of Kent. Told by the spirit of her deceased father. Couldn't put it down. You will come to appreciate Joan in a different light at least compared to other books I have read. I enjoy this author's writing style.

[Katherine Rankin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun, spooky, fall read. It’s a historical fiction book written by the ghost of the main characters father, offering a unique perspective. Main character is very girl boss. I loved it.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neither vain nor indecent

"She may look to some in our day as a modern Guinevere because of her beauty, her royal blood and tangled history. But she was so much more." But what father wouldn't say the same about his beloved daughter. And in this case, the daughter is Joan of Woodstock, and her father, the tragic Edmund, brother to the previous king and uncle to the current, Edward III. Her father Edmund is the narrator of her story, but in the form of a ghost following his beheading by his nephew after the Duke of Woodstock is set up by is former sister-in-law, the Dowager Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.

But it is not just her father who believes Joan lovely, her beauty even from a young age and her royal blood makes her a hot commodity on the marriage market. Her cousin, the king, has promised her hand to a prospective ally in his perpetual war against the French. But even at age thirteen, Joan has her own ideas and undertakes a clandestine romance with a poor but valiant knight, Thomas Holland.

They say patience is a virtue, and in the case of Edward of Woodstock, who would be later referred to by historians as the Black Prince, it worked out to be true. Childhood friend and confidant to Joan, Holland's untimely death provides Edward the opportunity to pronounce his long silent love of Joan.

Excellent read with substantial research, this book explores the life not only of Joan of Woodstock but the royal family as well. And in the end Edmund Woodstock proves, "If you have had a daughter, you will understand. They are not always the first love, but they are the love that lasts."

For ten years she holds out for her love of her Lancelot, Sir Thomas Holland. And at last fate allows them to be married and live happily ever after, or at least until the Wheel of Fate turns again, this time taking her beloved, Thomas.

[Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

$.99

Joan of Kent was known for her beauty and scandalous marriages, and yet there is not a great deal known about her, at least not as much as I would like to read about. I’ve read a couple of other books about her that read more like trashy Harlequin romances and left me feeling disgusted that I had wasted my time. I was going to give her one more shot, and I like with the author did to her story.

Joan was the granddaughter of King Edward and yet her father, Edmund, was put to death by his nephew, Edward III for no other reason than being a loyal brother. Things did not go well for his wife and children after his hanging until Edward started making decisions for himself and not being guided by his mother and her lover, Roger Mortimer. This story is told through Edmund’s POV as a ghost who stays around to look after his little girl, Joan.

Things pick up for her and her family, but when she is only 12, she secretly marries Thomas Holland, a man more than twice her age and definitely not fitted to her station in life. The following year King Edward III tells her she must marry William, the heir to the Earl of Salisbury. She is not believed when she tells people she is already married to Thomas, and this book covers mostly those 10 years when they defied everyone, including their King.

I have read about her story and never thought much of it, but this time I was reminded not only of how young she was, but for how long she stuck to her guns when it would have been so much easier to give in to the pressure and marry William of Salisbury. Of course she goes on to marry Prince Edward but the book barely touches on that although he is always in the background of this story.

[Dani Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really not impressed with this novel at all. It was incredibly dull and repetitious. Understanding that Falconer might not have had much information to work with, isn't necessarily excuse and even his way of telling it was silly. The characters were were flat and lifelessly boring. Since Falconer chose not to bring any life into his characters they're actions seemed very ill-thought and unsupported. I have been a great fan of Falconer in the past, but this was honestly painful to struggle through. I just kept waiting for the story to pick up, and it never did.

Joan of Kent, the protagonist of the novel spends it passively defying king and country for her love of Thomas Holand, whom she doesn't know at all. Just the plot itself is so not enjoyably, understanding this is a true story, maybe it wasn't worth retelling. The plot is also told by Joan's father who has been killed. He floats around observing but unable to make any reference to someone's feelings or reasons for decisions. I hated this story and couldn't want for it to end.

[Rosie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Joan of Kent told by the ghost of her father Edmund Of Woodstock A fabulous read and a great love story

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bonus star for having a ghost be the narrator, which is a cool conceit, but the book just didn’t work.

[Dawna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light, quirky reading

This is a fun, readable, historic novel told from the perspective of a ghost. A pleasant jaunt back in time to remind us of a high-spirited beauty who was noble born.

[Wytzia Raspe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a ghost story but a ghost's story: review of "A vain and indecent woman" by Colin Falconer

I have read many of the historical books of this writer. He also writes contemporary action novels but I like to read about historic events. This new novel reads as if you are reading a romance novel and I only realised in the end which important historical figures the story was about (I am not from the UK). So let me start with a short history lesson first as that will enhance your reading pleasure I think.

Have you ever seen the movie "Braveheart"? For those who did and remember: still remember that gay crown prince? That one stirred quite some commotion in medieval England as he had a couple of male favourites who used their influence to gain power. In the end the king is dethroned by his wife and young son. After a putsch the son regains power from mum and her lover and becomes a famous king and the father of 'The Black Prince' who was a powerful general during the Hundred Years War. During those times Joan of Kent was regarded as one of the most beautiful women of Europe. (end of history lesson)

The novel starts with the half-brother of the gay king mentioned above leaving his castle to go to parliament. Before he realises it he is sentenced and executed. His ghost refuses to leave to heaven and he stands guard for his beloved daughter irritated by the fact that he cannot do a thing.

The story of Joan's life is told by the ghost of her father hoovering around her. I think it is a brilliant trick to tell a story like that. It makes us all-seeing witnesses. Like I said the novel reads as smooth as a romance novel although it has believable character developments and interesting historical facts explained like jousting only a small part of tournaments, the merchant republics in Belgium in those days, royal arranged marriages that developed into loving relationships and the like. You certainly would not want to be a woman in 14th century England! Even the very wealthy girls were just ordered around.

I can certainly recommend this book. I got a copy of the manuscript from the writer so I could help with fishing typos and mistakes out but had no time to do that so I just read it after it was published.

And guess what: next book I picked up was a detective and who were witnesses of the murder there? Joan and Eduard!

AMAZON:
"ONE PRINCESS. TWO HUSBANDS. BY ORDER OF THE KING.
A princess falls in love with a handsome knight; the stuff of fairy tales, but not very remarkable, even in an age where love was hardly a prerequisite for marriage.
It is the princess, Joan of Kent, who is remarkable. Forbidden by the king to marry, she does it anyway, in secret. When the King discovers what she has done, he is furious. He has more pressing concerns than love and forces her to bigamy.
But still she will not give up.
Who is this young woman, who would dare defy her family, and even her king, for ten long years just to win the man she loves? Will she succeed – and what will happen if she does?
She was known in her time as ‘a vain and indecent woman.’ This is her true story, told by the one man who knew her best, - though she did not remember him at all."

http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreeb...

[Debbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started this book I think it was a different Joan of Kent, but this Joan is just as interesting. The story is told from the point of view of her father, who has been executed and is hanging around as a ghost. Joan is known for being married for 10 years to 2 men at the same time; one marriage consummated and made for love (at least on Joan's part); the other is a political marriage and never consummated. The story is interesting, and young Joan (she's barely 13 at the time) is a strong, intelligent young woman, who knows what she wants and is determined not to be thwarted for political or other reasons. It's a quick read, just over 200 pages, and as is typical with a Colin Falconer book is very well researched. Definitely worth reading!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, adventurous historical fiction/romance, set in the 1300s. A young woman's father is killed by the king. His "spirit" goes on to watch over his lovely and intelligent daughter as she lives through challenges, a great love and a long life. Despite the heavy politics of marriage, she goes against all the rules of the kingdom and instead pursues true love. The format of the father watching over his daughter was an interesting literary technique and the story kept me hooked. I enjoyed learning about the political landscape and complicated family dynamics of the wealthy, so long ago in an easy to read and entertaining format. I may have become a new Colin Falconer fan.

[Irene Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free advance e-copy of this book from the author and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. This is a well-written and great story with an amazing plot and excellent character development. This is the story of Joan of Kent who falls in love and is too young to marry but does so anyway going against the king. She also marries a second husband and becomes a bigamist. This book is well worth the read and I look forward to reading more by Colin Falconer in the future.

[Janet Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful Middle Ages Historical Fiction
This is a neat story told by the dead father of the heroine. That in itself makes for an interesting perspective! The story is rich in detail of the 1300's. Told in modern English, all the reader needs to know is a rough understanding of the Hundred Years war. The story is told well, the plot is complex and well thought out. The politics and palace intrigue is an important part of this story. The characters are also multilayered. I will be looking for more of this author's work. I received this ARC book for free and this is my honest review.

[Lyn Stapleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent historical novel from Colin Falconer. I didn't know a great deal about Joan of Kent, only that she was married to Edward the "Black Prince" and that she was the mother of Richard II. This details Joan's journey and her marriages before Edward. Well written and well researched. I enjoyed it very much.

[Lynne Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misleading title

I saw a lines about this book and took the time to look for it. The title is very misleading, as is the picture on the cover, but enough of that. This book was written by a man of which there are few in historical fiction. I was surprised at the tense the author used. I won't spoil it, but I loved this book. I did not want it to end.

[Nadine Wiseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully realised life of Joan of Kent

Written from the point of view of Joan's dead father, whose restless spirit cannot leave his feisty daughter, this is a poignant tribute to a woman of immense strength of character. Authentic and well-researched, a convincing portrait of a fascinating woman.

[Anglea Sieg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fresh perspective on the bride of the Black Prince

I read so avidly this took me only a few hours to read but was so interesting I couldn't put it down. I love English royal history both fiction and non-fiction the perspective of the heroine's late father was such a fresh look at Joan of Kent a real joy to read I look forward to this author's other works

[Hebby Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book and thought it was very well-written, especially for a historical fiction book. I have no fault to find with this book, except for the cover. The heroine is blonde and fair in the book, not certain how we ended up with this cover?

[S franke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good!

I just finished-it earned 5 + stars. Very well written. Lovely characters driving drama. I loved the perspective of a farher ghost watching the action. I read a lot of these books and this is now a favorite. Very good

[Marianne Ashby]

I loved seeing the story through the eyes of Joan's deceased father, following her throughout her life and cheering her on for decades from beyond mortality. Such an interesting way to tell a story. Well written, good historical.

[Maureen D. Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read.

I found the story entertaining, but was not fond of the unusual perspective of the dead father as the narrator.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting history from a ghostly point of view.

Really enjoyed the narrative . History from several characters lives that kept me reading for hours at a time. Highly recommended.

[Diana Burd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling history

Very interesting andI different the characters really came alive on the pages I will definitely buy more books by this author

[NANCY M Kanzenbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's pleasing reading at the beach.

Entertaining if grammar and bad spelling doesn't bother you. Story line is good. I enjoyed reading the references, and research.

[Candy Mayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having her dead father as the narrator was a different touch. Nice, historical novel.

[Rebecca Key · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of this book was the decision to use a "unique" narrator. It turned what could have been a ho-hum historical novel into quite an entertaining read.

[Sekhar N Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

A good historical fiction even though more fiction than facts. A little more depiction of life and less of story would have made the read worthwhile