The Steel Beneath the Silk

The Emma of Normandy Trilogy #3

by Patricia Bracewell

A breathtaking conclusion to Bracewell’s Emma of Normandy Trilogy, brimming with treachery, heartache, tenderness and passion as the English queen confronts ambitious and traitorous councilors, invading armies and the Danish king’s power-hungry concubine.

In the year 1012 England’s Norman-born Queen Emma has been ten years wed to an aging, ruthless, haunted King Æthelred. The marriage is a bitterly unhappy one, between a queen who seeks to create her own sphere of influence within the court and a suspicious king who eyes her efforts with hostility and resentment. But royal discord shifts to grudging alliance when Cnut of Denmark, with the secret collusion of his English concubine Elgiva, invades England at the head of a massive viking army. Amid the chaos of war, Emma must outwit a fierce enemy whose goal is conquest and outmaneuver the cunning Elgiva, who threatens all those whom Emma loves.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction, British Literature, 11th Century, Medieval, Audiobook

452 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 2, 2021

About the author

Patricia Bracewell grew up in Los Angeles where her love of stories led to college degrees in Literature, a career as a high school English teacher, and a yearning to write. Her first novel, Shadow on the Crown, about the 11th century queen of England, Emma of Normandy, was published in 2013. Its sequel, The Price of Blood, appeared in 2015. The final book of her Emma of Normandy Trilogy, The Steel Beneath the Silk will be published March 2, 2021.

Patricia lives with her husband in Oakland, California. Look for her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PatriciaBrac... and on Instagram as Patabrace.

Reviews

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This long awaited, six years, final episode of the amazing "Emma of Normandy" trilogy, is in my view an absolute triumph.

At the beginning of the book you'll find a Dramatis Personae featuring in this great story, a well documented Glossary, and two maps of 11th Century England and London, while at the back you'll notice an Author's Note where the historical details are superbly explained.

Once again the author has managed through her thorough research to make this period of history as believable as possible, for real and reliable documentation is so very hard to come by, and so the use of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is as an absolute asset to this wonderful historical tale.

Storytelling is of a top-notch quality, the story is brought to us in a most superb manner, very lifelike figures are wonderfully executed in this great tale of power and conquer, and all these factors combined make this book such a treat to read.

This volume starts where part two left off , that's in the year AD 1012 and it will end in the year AD 1017, and once again we follow the life and path of the formidable Emma of Normandy, Queen of England, and wife to King Ethelred.

King Ethelred is at the end of his reign and his reason is fading, and because of these factors he sees enemies everywhere, whether they are within in the way of his sons from his first wife, Athelstan, Queen Emma's real friend at court, and Edmund Ironside, or without in the presence of the Vikings with at first King Swein of Denmark, who will be followed by his son, Cnut, while also Ethelred's closest advisor, Eadric, the Ealdorman of Mercia, will also play him false in the end in his treacherous ways for power and wealth.

This is astonishing tale, which is accompanied with quite some romantic touches, coupled with loyalty and treachery at court and in war, you will finally encounter that after the death of King Ethelred a war will be fought by Edmund Ironside against the forces of Cnut of Denmark, that will come to an abrupt end after the death of Edmund himself, leaving the door open for Cnut to ask for the hand of Emma of Normandy and together rule England as its King and Queen.

Highly recommended, for this is an engrossing conclusion of a tremendous trilogy, and so if you can, read 1) "Shadow on the Crown" and 2) "The Price of Blood", to make this superb trilogy complete, and to come back to this episode I want to call it: "A Most Stunning Finale"!

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may have been a long wait between books 2 and 3 of this trilogy, but it is a rewarding finish I very much enjoyed and well worth the wait. The treatment of Emma throughout is respectful of what she went through with her string of marriages and birthings as well as threats to her security most of the time. To put it briefly, she was shrewd, adaptable and the ultimate survivor. With so little to be found in written records of what her life was really like, Bracewell has given us a believable version of what could have transpired.
Examples of her steel: "Emma rebuked him, her voice sharp as steel. And it must be the king, not you, who will determine if he has spoken the truth! Now, put away your sword!"
"She turned her face into the wind, steeling herself against whatever lay ahead. She had lived through other perils, and she would not give in to despair..."
"Make no mistake, there is steel beneath all that silk."


Thank you to Bellastoria Press for this Advanced Reader Copy

[Nancy Bilyeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A queen's courage in the face of war, lost love, and betrayal takes center stage in this novel about Emma of Normandy, a woman whose critical role in English history is not as well known as it should be. I felt like I was plunged into the 11th century, thanks to the action-fueled pacing and sharply conveyed atmosphere. Anyone who enjoys 'Vikings' and 'The Last Kingdom' and is eager to read about the lives of women in such a tumultuous era should seize this book and prepare for an unforgettable saga.

[Candace Robb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steel Beneath the Silk is a triumphant conclusion to Bracewell's Emma of Normandy trilogy. As her husband King Aethelred and his sons confront the invading Danes on the battlefield, we watch Queen Emma wield power behind the scenes, forging alliances with cunning and diplomacy. Romantic, thrilling, richly embroidered with historical detail. Highly recommended!

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Shadow on the Crown, the first in the Emma of Normandy trilogy, so when I was offered a review copy of The Steel Beneath the Silk, I jumped at it. I even reread Shadow on the Crown to make sure everything was fresh in my head (it didn’t hurt that the British History Podcast is covering about this era) and it all paid off.

The Steel Beneath the Silk covers the last few years of King Æthelred the Unready and the transition from Æthelred to Edmund Ironside (for a very short time), and then to Cnut the great. Since this series is about Emma of Normandy, the book focuses on what she’s doing and how she’ reacting to all these events. If you want details on what’s going on, Emma’s Wikipedia page (and those of her husbands) can give you an overview.

The key difference between this book and Shadow on the Crown is that in the first book, Emma is still finding her footing in the English court. By the time The Steel Beneath the Silk starts, Emma has come into her own as a queen and she has managed to cultivate her own allies. She is truly a queen by this point and she acts like one.

Honestly, I loved this book so much. All the characters here are well-written and I find that I don’t have that many characters I hate even though everyone’s at war with everyone. The only one I dislike is Elgiva, who remains as power-hungry as she was in the first book, but I do appreciate her as a counterpoint to Emma’s character. The other characters who dislike Emma, such as Edmund and Æthelred, I could still somewhat sympathise with even if I disagreed with them.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was the character development of Cnut. He starts off as the villain, since it’s him and his father who’s invading England, but we gradually start seeing him as a pretty principled person. I don’t quite want to give spoilers but there was one relationship in the first book that had to end badly (because of what happens with Cnut – you could read Wikipedia/a summary of Emma’s life for the spoiler) and I thought Bracewell handled that transition seamlessly. Cnut gets rehabilitated pretty well in the reader’s eyes and I ended up really satisfied with the ending.

Now, one small confession: I mentioned this was a trilogy in my first review, but I forgot about the second book so I pretty much read the first book and then this. I have to admit, it felt pretty seamless but given how immersive and addictive these two books are, I’m definitely going to have to go back and read book two.

I can’t finish this review without mentioning the author’s note. If you’re interested in the history behind the books, you’ll definitely appreciate the discussion on why certain characters were written a certain way and when certain authorial decisions were made.

If you’re a fan of historical fiction or you just like really immersive books with well rounded characters, you definitely have to read the Emma of Normandy trilogy. I’m still learning about British history, but even without knowing much, I enjoyed these books so much and would definitely recommend them.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher but all opinions in this review are my own.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Renae · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a six-year wait, Patricia Bracewell's trilogy about Queen Emma of Normandy comes to a close in The Steel Beneath the Silk. The is an ambitious book that chronicles the massive upheaval during the final years of King Æthelred the Unready's reign, as seen through the eyes of several key players during the era—not least of all his wife, Emma. After re-reading Bracewell's first two books and then this one, my verdict is as follows: this is a perfectly good book, but it doesn't fully satisfy.

My primary complaint with respect to this novel is that it feels rushed, wooden, and a bit clumsy. While I don't think there is enough material here to expand out into two books, Bracewell had a lot of ground to cover, and in her attempts to fully paint the sociopolitical picture of the time, other aspects of good fiction writing had to be scaled back or altogether abandoned. In order to keep the complex dynamics between the various military leaders straight for her readers, Bracewell primarily relies on dry expository passages that read more like a summary than true, in-the-moment storytelling. And between the cramped plot movements and historical events, there is little space for the author to invest in the people who populate her pages. I do understand that certain genres (historical fiction included) tend not to emphasize character development to the extent that you might expect in, say...romance novels or many types of literary fiction, but Bracewell truly lost sight of her protagonist here amidst all of the war and scheming and moving pieces of international conflict. The Steel Beneath the Silk spends a fair amount of time telling readers what Emma and the other characters do, but aside from a few awkward attempts to tell the audience how Emma feels, there isn't much of a sense of character here. And there's certainly no "showing" at all. (This is made particularly worse, by the way, when the author crams a poorly constructed romantic arc into the final three chapters.)

I can say that it's evident that The Steel Beneath the Silk was meticulously researched, and considering all of the ground that needed to be covered, it's tightly plotted. I just can't help but feel that, in terms of execution, this book was not as polished as Bracewell's prior novels. I don't know the circumstances that led to the book's delayed release and change in publishers, but from an outside perspective, it seems to me that any difficulty in molding the source material into a workable novel is reflected in the way this book comes across as graceless and inelegant in terms of both style and narrative voice.

Overall, I found this to be a somewhat disappointing conclusion to the series. Particularly disappointing because, if you had asked me in 2015 to list my favorite books, I would have included Bracewell's Emma of Normandy trilogy in the lineup. But a lot of rain has fallen since that time, and my 2021 reaction to The Steel Beneath the Silk is more akin to a shrug and a nod than any kind of satisfaction or celebration.

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[Bruna Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ótima trilogia!

[Asheley T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I know this is long, but I have a hard time talking about stories like this one with only a few words. I love this type of historical fiction so much, and this period of history is one of my favorites.)

Emma of Normandy is historically important because of her two marriages to kings. She was married to King Aethelred the Unready and then she was also married to King Cnut the Great. She ultimately outlived both of her husbands and had a lot of influence on politics during her life. She was also a visible presence and influence when her sons were in power. But even though she was notable and influential, there is still so much that isn't known about her. We know more about her than most women during this time, but it is still just so little. That's why I love stories like this one, where the author takes real people and events, bases them heavily on history, and then fills in details by imagining how conversations may have gone or how decisions may have been made. This book featuring Queen Emma was quite thrilling for me to read.

There is so much that happened politically during Emma's life. So much! This book picks up in 1012 A.D., when her marriage to King Aethelred was about a decade old. They had been married for political reasons and their union sealed an oath between Aethelred and Emma's brother Richard, Duke of Normandy. When the Danes intensified their effort to seize the English crown, the relationship between Emma's husband and her brother was jeopardized and things got really interesting.

So my favorite part of this story is all of the kingdom politics. There are allies formed and oaths made, and oaths are broken and attacks are made. There is revenge and death. It took me a while to read this book because I liked to stop when something or someone interested me and to research more about it. Throughout everything, Emma was the most interesting to me because she seemed to show up just about everywhere I was reading, as a wife or a mother or a sister.

It was interesting to read about her relationship with Aethelred in this story, but it was more interesting to me to read about her relationship with Cnut. When Cnut comes into the picture as an invader for his father King Swein, he and Emma already know one another from an event in their past. You wouldn't expect that Emma would feel positively toward Cnut because he essentially stole the kingship from her own son, but her relationship with him did change from a purely political decision to one that had affection and admiration.

I loved this story. I genuinely loved reading the perspectives of all of the characters, even the ones that were bad guys. It is fascinating to have a means to visualize what may have happened centuries and centuries ago. I love that Emma had so much influence even though it was so hard to be a women in her time. I also really respect and admire the other women in the story for their influence, even as they weren't the decision-makers.

There were a few times when I was reading that I wondered if events on the page were recorded in history or were they fiction that the author included to move the story along (I mainly wondered this where the romances were concerned). Reading the Author's Note does answer these questions and more, as the author talks about research she used and liberties that she took.

I debated back and forth about whether to read the first two books before I read this one, and ultimately I decided to go ahead and start with this story since it begins a couple of years after another of my recent reads ended (The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett, which also includes Emma as a character). These two books are not related, but I loved seeing the continuation of Emma in their storylines, and I found it easy to pick up this series with this third book. I want to go back and read the first two, though, and I actually already own copies of them. Many of the marriages and relationships in this book were formed and developed during the previous two, so I think I would obviously have had more background knowledge coming into the story had I begun at the start of the series. I actually think I may read this one again once I've read the first two.

I selfishly wish this series would continue because this book ends right in the middle of my interest in Emma's life. At the end of the story, she has a lot of life left and many things left to do. But I did enjoy this glimpse into the 11th century immensely and am excited that I can go back and read the two preceding novels about Emma of Normandy.



I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via HFVBT in exchange for an honest review. This in no way swayed my thoughts and opinions about the book.

[Judith Starkston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emma of Normandy, Queen of England in the 11th century CE, is one of the barely remembered women in history who deserve our attention. Patricia Bracewell has brought Emma to life in her trilogy with meticulous research and powerful writing. The Steel Beneath the Silk is the last book in Bracewell’s series, following Shadow on the Crown and The Price of Blood. Because Bracewell does an excellent job of giving just enough of the backstory from the first two books, readers can jump to this third book without reading the other two if they wish. They won’t be confused. But this is a stellar trio and Emma’s tale deserves the deep dive that all three books provide.

At the opening of this third book, Emma has been married for ten years to the much older King Æthelred. He goes down in history as Æthelred the Unready, so, as you can imagine, he’s not the ideal leader or husband. The Vikings invade regularly, and this threat has escalated so that their goal has shifted from raiding to conquering. Emma and Æthelred’s sons try to defend England in the face of the king’s incompetence.
Bracewell brings the 11th century to life in every detail, revealing the depth of her knowledge about the time and people. In the dramatic opening scene, she introduces a viking Dane named Thorkell and builds his presence with tangible vividness, using physical details to show his status and character:
“He was a Danish jarl, and he had come to London to parley with a queen. He wore a tunic of fine red wool belted with a colorfully embroidered silken sash. His dark blue cloak was trimmed with fur, and from a chain around his neck hung a slender silver cross. He was a big man who towered over his companions, and he stood with his arms folded across his wide chest, chin jutting forward and jaw clenched. His head was shaved bare except for a long, black tail of hair that hung down his back, and above his thick beard a livid scar seamed his cheek.”

I especially enjoyed the politics, intrigue, and treachery that threads through the plot. Both the English court and the Viking leadership were rife with conspiracies and double-dealing that raised the stakes and tension throughout and kept the pages turning with delightful speed. While Æthelred would have loved to sideline Emma into passive inactivity, she rises to the challenges facing her country and family with intelligence and skill, while staying within historically accurate behavior and thinking.

Bracewell faced a particularly thorny problem when constructing this third book. I won’t include any spoilers, but the known history of Emma’s life creates challenges for persuasive character development in the part covered by this book. There are so many gaps for Bracewell to fill in Emma’s life story, so much that is lost to history, but there is one startling known event that must have caused Bracewell a lot of sleepless nights as a writer. She surmounted this challenge with brilliance, creating a totally believable, seamless arc of development for Emma. She also achieved the essential, nuanced gradual shift in the readers’ understanding of Cnut, one of the key antagonists. In the process, she also brought the trilogy to a particularly thrilling conclusion. I am profoundly impressed.

I highly recommend Bracewell’s trilogy to all readers who love historical fiction focused on royal intrigue with a moving romantic thread, and a vivid, accurate portrayal of a long-ago world.

[casey (ink drinker) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talk about a book hangover. This was the best of the series and it's not even close. I'm just so sad it's over. A very fitting end to a truly enthralling series. Patricia Bracewell skillfully weaves actual historical characters and events with imagination to portray a little-known queen’s story.

The politics, intrigue, and treachery that threads through the plot were beautifully and accurately described. Both the English court and the Viking leadership were rife with conspiracies and double-dealing that raised the stakes and tension throughout and kept the pages turning at lightning speed. While Æthelred would have loved to sideline Emma into passive inactivity, she rises to the challenges facing her country and family with intelligence and skill, while staying within historically accurate behavior and thinking.

I truly do not have one negative thing to say about this series. I loved the characters, the prose, the unraveling of this small part of England's history. Patricia Bracewell has easily made it onto my list of 5 star historical (medieval) fiction writers along with Bernard Cornwell and Sharon Kay Penman. I hope she writes another book soon!

[📚 Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched look into one of the most fascinating times in British history. I found this book fairly interesting and entertaining, if a bit slow at times. It's a very in-depth look into the politics of the time with a decent dash of romance thrown in, but it lacks a bit of actual action. I really would have liked it if the book covered more years/historical territory. It goes so in-depth that the plot barely moves for chapters at a time. We see the same situation from multiple different POVs, which slows everything down.

It's very reminiscent of ASOIAF, but without dragons and the majority of the things that made that series so fun. There are a few too many instances of the words "across the Narrow Sea" and "King in the North" for it to be anything other than a deliberate mimicry. I get that Martin got these terms from history, but they are used so often in this book that it's like watching a lost pilot from some show made by the same people as GOT but set in the eleventh century. If you liked all the politics of GOT, you will probably like this book. If you found GOT too slow and only cared about the dragons and White Walkers, this book will likely be too slow.

My biggest complaint with this book was in the choices the author made regarding place names and personal names. She uses jarl and thegn, but then most of the place names are in their modern form (so Canterbury instead of the Anglo-Saxon Cantwareburh, etc). But York (which should rightly be called Eoforwic to the Anglo-Saxons) is called Jorvik?!?! Is there some method to this madness or did the author just arbitrarily decide which place names would be accurate to the time? I understand that at this time the spelling of place names was all over the place, but I strongly feel the author should have gone with either all Anglo-Saxon spellings or all modern/Norman spellings. Since she refers to Wales as the "Waylisc kingdoms" she should at least refer to the English as the Englisc. Maybe there will be an explanation for the place names in later copies of this book but there wasn't in mine. But my biggest pet peeve was how the author described everyone's age. No one is just 27. They are all X winters or summers old. Emma's son is six summers old and her step-son is twenty seven winters old. Why can't they just be X years old, at least occasionally? "Edyth, all of eighteen summers old .... had been wed for five years to the..." She can use years in this context but not for someone's age? It was just really overdone for me. And every single person's age is told in this way. Every. Single. Time. And not just at the beginning of the book either, but all throughout. If someone's age is mentioned, they're never simply twenty, it's "the man had seen only twenty winters, but he...."

All that said, there was a decent amount about the book to like. Names aside, the history of the book is solid and the author really shines when detailing some of Emma's more interesting accomplishments. I wish the series moved a bit faster--three books in and Emma is still only in her twenties--but I'm glad we got to see some of the stuff with Swein and Cnut. I could have lived without all the romantic drama between Emma and her step-son and without quite so many exclamation points, but I loved the little excerpts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The author does a good job explaining the political scene of the time and it's nice that we get to see all the sides of the political spectrum through multiple narrators, but everything just felt a little too drawn out and a little too slow-paced for my taste.

I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Sheryle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Emma of Normandy trilogy and it has been a long time coming. I was excited to see that it had finally arrived and even more excited to begin reading it. Unfortunately, that excitement did not last long. I was disappointed by many things in this book, beginning with the jarring cover which did not fit with the other covers. I was hoping in this book we would see a complete telling of Emma’s life. That did not happen. For approximately the first half of the book Emma seemed more like a secondary character, with the war between the English and the Danes being the main character. I felt that the characters in the book were secondary to the historical events of the time and that made for a very dull and plodding story. I know the war was important, but I would have liked to have gotten it over with and gotten on with Emma‘s life. It wasn’t until into the second half of the book that the story really became interesting to me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the book ended and there was still the most interesting part of Emma’s life left for her to live.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

[Amy Bruno]

The Steel Beneath the Silk Blog Tour with HF Virtual Book Tours!

March 1-30

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

For me, this was probably the best novel of the series, although there were still a few things in there that ended up dragging my rating down.

Look, I did enjoy reading about the time period, especially because I don't know much about this era in English history. I can understand why Bracewell ended her novel at the point that she did, although I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Emma and Cnut's relationship develop - especially because it felt like they didn't have much time to gain respect for each other in the last few pages before the end of the novel. Sure, we're told, but I guess I would have just liked a little bit more attention given to their relationship, seeing as how it defined the rest of Emma's life.

Speaking of attention, or lack thereof - I honestly thought that Athelstan's death was a underwhelming, especially when Bracewell has been pushing an illicit romantic relationship between him and Emma in the trilogy. For a character that had been given so much previous attention, everything was done pretty quickly and then hurriedly moved along. I thought that Bracewell could have let the moment sink in a bit more, and given it more time to make an impact on her reader, rather than the abrupt and rather downplayed send-off that Athelstan was given.

Once again, I do have a bit of a gripe when it comes to Elgiva. I can understand that she's there for an alternate perspective, that she's historically (within the novel at least) been an antagonist to Emma and is also a vehicle for Bracewell to explore the resistance against King Aethelred... but she honestly felt redundant and her POVs were some of my least favourite parts of the novel. In a novel that was jammed packed full of so many historical moments - invasions, threats and changes to regimes - Elgiva became an unnecessary burden to my reading experience, even though I know Bracewell wouldn't have wanted to cut her due to her role in the previous novels. I just didn't think that Elgiva was developed well enough beyond a caricature, and I think that if Bracewell had wanted to really explore the Danish side of things... well, she already utilises Cnut's POV multiple times throughout the novel. I would have been perfectly okay with just having Cnut be the method through which the reader gains access to the Danish rebellion. I hate that I'm saying this about an attempt to bring a female historical figure that so little is known about - and is so readily pushed to the side by history - but them's the breaks, I guess.

Regardless of my list of complaints, this was still a highly readable novel. I sped through it in only two days, and Bracewell does a fantastic job at making an extremely complicated and nuanced part of English history accessible to her readers. She's also a great writer, and I look forward to reading her next project, whatever it may be.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely magnificent telling of a much-forgotten but equally magnificent woman.

I hope all who have read and enjoyed this series go onto look into the factual history about Emma of Normandy to learn all the many ways she shaped English History.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect ending for an incredible trilogy.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. My only complaint in the last of this 3-book series is that Queen Emma finally marries someone who appears to respect her, and their relationship takes only 50 pages! I read close to 1,000 pages about men disrespecting and abusing her. I honestly felt a little cheated. A 4th book is needed! Other than this complaint, this series transported me into pre-England history and Ms. Bracewell’s research made the trip seem authentic and exciting. I hope she is already working on her next book.

[Rajiv · Rating 5 out of 5]

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“The Steel Beneath the Silk” was a wonderful ending to the series. The book was by far my favorite out of all of them.

Firstly, the author did a brilliant job in setting the pace with the storylines and the characters. There is so much in the tale! I loved how the author did a brilliant job in the emotions of the characters. There are also moments of gripping adventure, for instance, when Athelstan and Edward fight the Danes. There is treachery, betrayal, and revenge as the story progresses to a gripping climax.

Moreover, the characters highlight the series, but the author took them to another level in this book. Elgiva is a fascinating character, and I loved the emotions she went through. She goes through many emotions and never faced a dull moment. At times she is devious, as she plants seeds of doubt with Cnut against his father. But, she also shows fear when she hears of Tyra’s premonitions. I also found her hilarious when she deals with Gunnhild back in Denmark.

Similarly, even Emma shines in the story. My heart went out to her when she longs for Edward to show her some affection. One of the highlights is when Emma receives the ring from Athelstan. Also, I loved her scenes with Cnut and her bravery towards the climax. Moreover, one person who surprised me was Edmund. He is a gray character who you don’t know how he will react.

Then there are characters you love to hate, like Eadric. However, I wished we had seen more of Edyth. She does not appear much except in a few scenes to annoy Emma, and I thought she had potential.

Apart from that, this was the perfect ending to “The Emma of Normandy Trilogy,” and I loved it!

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not my first time reading the tale of the formidable Queen Emma of Normandy and given the story she has left to history I somehow suspect it might not be the last. I did not read the first two books in this series but I discovered that I do have the first one on my bookshelf. I have read about this fascinating woman in other books and was thrilled to again visit with her.

England in the 10th and 11th centuries is dealing with raids from the Danes who want to lay claim to England. It’s a time of almost constant war. King Æthelred, married to Emma of Normandy to strengthen his alliance with William of Normandy is hoping for help from that quarter but William has his own designs on England. He sees Emma as a way in – little does he know that his sister is not a wilting flower.

As Emma navigates court, her aging husband, almost constant war, a brother who is reluctant to send aid, along with an overwhelming fear for her children she finds a strength she didn’t know she had. She is the Queen of England and her people need her.

The Steel Beneath the Silk is a well researched, well written novel that brings Emma’s world to vivid life. It’s the last book in the series but one wishes there were more as Emma’s story does not end with Æthelred’s death. In some ways it only just begins. It’s a real page turner of a novel about a woman who refused to be lost to history and who left her mark in a time when women were considered chattel and only good for the sons they could give to their husbands.

[Tinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing and satisfying, this book is what historical fiction should be – utterly involving, true to history, and springing from the author’s genuine empathy for people who lived in the past. And it’s a distant, colorful, violent past. Bracewell’s England comes vividly to life at a time when its crown was a prize that many contenders sought and would stop at nothing to obtain. And moving throughout that turbulent world, peaceweaver that she was, is Emma, a woman fully of her time, but who would have been something much more than ordinary in any time. Emma’s commitment to her responsibilities as queen outweighs all personal considerations, for herself or even for her children, and this is all the more admirable and poignant because we as readers are privy to those considerations, even while we watch Emma make the difficult, courageous and honorable choice, again and again. We sympathize as we watch her struggle, we admire her intelligence and her astute knowledge of human nature, and we hope against hope that this extraordinary woman can find some personal happiness in the midst of it all.

Other readers have noted that we waited a long time for this third book in the series, and that it was worth the wait. I agree, and I envy those who are just coming to Emma’s story now, because you have all three books available to you right now. You could start with this one and you would not be lost or confused, but all three together comprise a wonderful reading experience. Highly recommended!

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunday, Easter Octave, April 1012. London, England. Patricia Bracewell’s The Steel Beneath the Silk
( Emma of Normandy, #3) is the final book in the Emma of Normandy Trilogy, and what an incredible story it has been for little known Norman born female who becomes the Queen of England when she marries Aethelred the Unready in 1002. Now it is 1012, and Emma has been unhappily married for ten years to the to the “aging, ruthless, haunted King Aethelred” even though three children, two boys (One will be Edward the Confessor) and a girl, have made a healthy appearances. The author cleverly brings the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle alive by quoting particular sections of this history before certain chapters and then illustrating this history through the extremely disastrous relationship of Emma and Aethelred. Then as Queen Emma continues to solidify her role as ‘peaceweaver’, England is faced with an invasion by Swein, King of Denmark, his second son, Cnut, and a huge Viking army plus Aethelred’s sons by his first wife. Where are they! Must Aethelred fight them as well? This time period is brutal. Emma must deal with her husband’s ill will, treachery from high-ranking nobles, and ambitiousness from all corners, but she refuses to give up. A truly fascinating woman! Adventure and betrayal abound, but Emma pushes forward. The entire trilogy will have the reader on the end of her/his seat. Excellent! Very highly recommended! 5 stars.

[Malory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. The trilogy is complete! I don't often finish a series quickly, but I gobbled this up. It seemed pretty close to being historically accurate. I kept a close eye on the timeline and people involved. The authors note also explains where she embellish or added to the story, which I appreciated. Some nitpicking, I didn't care for the cover of this one. And the beginning lagged a bit, I think because she was reminding readers of what happened last book (I believe there are six years between books 2 and 3), which I didn't need. Although the narrator was very good, much better than the 2nd book. There were moments of tears when some characters we came to love died, even though I was mentally preparing myself. More battles in this one as you are on the edge of your seat waiting to see who finally comes out on top. I knew who would, but it didn't detract from the story. I really enjoyed this series and I felt it gave me more of a feel for the time period and the men and women who lived. Especially the courage of a Norman woman who was Queen of two different Kings of England.

[Sarah W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I started reading this trilogy ages ago and I'm satisfied by the conclusion, although I do wish the author had decided to continue Emma's story. In this volume, England is conquered by Cnut and Emma struggles to find a way for her family and her self to obtain safety. The ups and downs of the Anglo-Saxon royalty and plenty of exchanges of thrones dominate this novel, leaving me impressed with how well the author manages to make a thousand-year-old story fresh, relevant, and compelling. In the future, I hope to find more books, fiction and nonfiction, about Emma of Normandy.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, top notch work from Patricia Bracewell. This author really is so excellent at making characters understandable & sympathetic, and her artistic hand filling in gaps of known history is excellent, believable, and satisfying.

While I do like how masterfully the political scene is expressed, the plot of events actually happening does trudge—as it does throughout all three books. Athelstan’s death was lamentably underwhelming & quickly passed over, and I wish we could’ve felt the grief & loss of him more. It was a certain kind of peace to witness Edmund & Emma’s collaborative armistice with one another. Elgiva’s character growth backslides heavily in this third book, & returns to more shrew than shrewd. My heart warmed for mother & daughter reunited in such supportive ways that saw to the heart of matters. I wish we could’ve had time to see, rather than be told, of the respect that grows between Cnut & Emma toward the end.

It is rewarding & satisfactory where this trilogy closes in Emma’s life, and yet I feel her story is only once again beginning & I am left nearly frothing at the mouth for the rest of Emma’s life to be elegantly taken on by Bracewell. My interest is intensely piqued for a look-see into Emma’s next era, & tantalizingly left bereft at the wondering! Bracewell makes me hunger for more historical fiction in my hands anon.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic conclusion to a thrilling trilogy about the fearless and formidable Queen Emma of Normandy. Bracewell ties every loose plot thread into a tidy bow. While reading this book, I kept thinking "you really can't make this stuff up." It's a story with as many twists and turns as Game of Thrones, but with every element rooted in the historical record. We get murder and betrayal, sieges and battles, romance and revenge. With a historical fabric as textured as this, who needs fiction?

[Jenny Q]

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[Katharine Ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Steel Beneath the Silk" - written by Patricia Bracewell and published in 2022 by Bracewell Press. This conclusion to the Emma of Normany trilogy was just as good as the previous two - full of violence as the English and Danes warred in the early years of A.D. (now CE) 1000, intrigue and treason among the powerful, and a nice dose of romance. The prophecy was given, "Whoso would hold the scepter of England must first hold the hand of England's queen." Emma was England's queen twice and lived through so much turmoil. Bracewell is a masterful storyteller and in her author's note discusses the liberties she took to fashion a story from the thin historical references available - she did a wonderful job and I'm sorry it's over. The trilogy is a worthy contribution to works on English history.

[Alexandra Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been a journey. As someone who was interested in Emma's life before reading this trilogy, I knew what was coming from me and was willing to read that and accept the deaths I knew would occur and the tragedies, Emma's hardships, her pain and eventually her journey towards happiness.

At the beginning of this novel, Emma is at her lowest — her eldest son taken from her, her awful and dismissive husband on the verge of losing a war despite the moments he believed he was winning, her own life at risk as Danish invadors were taking England. At the end, you could say Emma is at her greatest — queen once again, married to a man who respects her, at the peak of her life.

But what of the sacrifices made by her to get there, the pain she endured, the hardships? Emma's long life was not easy — from 1002 to 1016 it was filled with uncertainty, pain and misery, and from 1016 to 1035 with a certain happiness or at least content, and then from the death of her husband until her own death in 1052, Emma goes back to a life of uncertainty, even if she put her son on the throne for a certain period of time, we know that doesn't last. Emma got what she wanted for a time. She became the type of queen she always wanted to be — an advisor to her husband. But looking back at 1002, from the day she married Ætherled, you can see how her suffering, pain, and losses shaped her in the formidable woman she was in 1016. Emma's life wasn't easy but somehow when so many lost their lives during the Danish conquest (Edmund, Athelstan, Ætherled, Swein Forkbeard, Eadric Streona, and so many others), Emma, a widowed queen whose life was on the line managed to get out on top. It takes skill to manage that.

Emma has been, from the moment I learned about her, an inspiration for me and this book does not fail at bringing to life an amazing, intelligent and wise woman who ruled England for many years both at the side of her husband as son, Harthacnut. Her courage, even when overcame by fear, is to be appreciated, her determination to keep her sons alive, and her dedication to them is admirable, her willingness to let them hate her, only to see them alive, her willingness to do whatever it takes just to make sure her sons live is appreciable.

Who was the real Emma in the end? A power-hungry woman? A pawn in a game she didn't understand? A brilliant strategist, a mother caught between her love for her sons and their lives? A woman forced to make the best of her situation? The ambitious queen some would portray, who decided to change sides when it fit her, who chose to remarry a conqueror instead of being sent back home? No matter the response, her intelligence, her patience, her love for her sons, her determination, and her courage are traits that should never be dismissed.

Overshadowed by other great queens, Elizabeth I, Empress Mathilda and Mary I, Emma remains a mostly unknown figure of medieval English history, but can we deny the impact Emma had over English history, that her very existence, determination to survive and love for her sons gave the Normans the claim they had to the English throne? No, we can't. Emma is one of the women who shaped, through her actions, and maybe not even intentional the fate of England.

[Bmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but the writing style was pretty repetitive and it ended very abruptly where I tend to think the story was really getting started. I'm a lot more interested in the relationship between Emma and Cnut, and the integration of Vikings in England's government than a relationship between Emma and Aethelred's son or even Aethelred himself.

[Debbie Kreiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! But I want more. I want the rest of Emma's story written by Patricia Bracewell!