Product Description

In A ROSE FOR THE CROWN, we meet one of history's alleged villains, Richard III, through the eyes of the woman who might have been the mother of his illegitimate children, a woman who chose to remain anonymous when the court rewards for a king's mistress would have been great, a woman who loved him for who he really was, no matter what the cost to herself.

As Kate Haute moves from her peasant roots in Kent to the highest circles of fifteenth century England, from her carefree girlhood to a much more worldly middle age, her path is inextricably intertwined with that of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III.

Fictional Kate is woven into the real lives of some of the Wars of the Roses most prominent characters at the court of the charismatic and sensual Yorkist King Edward IV, including John Howard and his wife, Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's kinsman Richard Haute, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and George, Duke of Clarence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #440480 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743276870
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Inspired by the historical record of Richard III's bastard children, Smith invents a spirited, "tawny-eyed" mistress for the 15th-century king in her sweeping debut. Kate Bywood is plucked from her peasant life at the age of 11 to join the household of her mother's noble cousins, the Hautes, as companion to her timid cousin, Anne. A brief, unwilling marriage to an older, wealthy merchant leaves Kate a young widow with a considerable fortune. A second marriage to George, an opportunistic Haute cousin who prefers the stable boy to Kate, leaves her yearning for love. In a chance encounter, she meets Richard of Gloucester, and the ensuing secret romance is filled with the passion and intimacy her marriage lacks. George is killed during an attack in the forest, and Kate bears Richard three children. The narrative flies when the lovers are together, but once Richard marries Anne Neville, and he and Kate are separated for long stretches, the story loses its spark. Readers hungry primarily for romance may also tire of Smith's details about the complicated internecine rebellions and rivalries among pretenders to the throne. Nevertheless, this story fills in some historical gaps and conjures a winning heroine. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Into the crowded ring of fictional treatments of fifteenth-century English royal court life, rife with strife, this first novelist tosses her colorful hat. From the start, given the novel's length, it is apparent that a copious amount of research has been done. The question is, then, for the first-time historical novelist, has it been done smoothly? What Smith accomplishes with elan is a very credible biographical novel about a woman whose true identity has never been known. Smith creates Kate Haute as the mother of the illegitimate children of the infamous King Richard III, who is reputed to have had his nephew, the boy-king Edward V, and the king's little brother murdered when Richard usurped the throne. Fans of historical fiction will little note nor at all care that this is the author's first novel. Smith's involved plot correlates well with the convoluted politics of the time. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Anyone interested in history, honor, and lost love will want to read A Rose for the Crown."

-- Sharon Kay PenMan, author of The Sunne in Splendour

"Move over Amber St. Clare! Here comes Kate Haute. The richly imagined story of the woman who might have been the mother of Richard's three illegitimate children, this tale plunges the reader into the treacherous politics of the War of the Roses."

-- Judith Merkle Riley, author of The Oracle Glass

"Remarkably assured debut spins a romantic yarn around England's much-maligned King Richard III.. a delightful, confident novel that should be a favorite with lovers of the genre. A strong new voice in the field of historical romance."

-- Kirkus Reviews

"In her first book, writer and musician Smith has produced a vibrant story full of careful historical detail and well-developed characters. More than just retelling historical events, Smith creates an empathetic and fascinating heroine in her own right. As Kate witnesses the monumental events that take place at the highest levels, the reader becomes engrossed in her story...highly recommended."

-- Library Journal

"Anne Easter Smith has done a remarkable job of weaving contemporary sources and scholarly evidence into the romantic, touching story of Kate and Richard's abiding connection to one another. The love Kate and Richard share is almost painful in its intensity. Kate is an appealing, fully drawn character who grows and ripens as the story progresses. Smith's Richard is certainly not the vilified hunchback king who killed his nephews in the Tower, but the fiercely loyal younger brother of Edward IV and later, husband of Anne. The Author's Note, extensive and wonderful, supports the existence of Kate or a Kate prototype.

This is a marvelous book, long and complex, deeply satisfying and a great read. Highly recommended."

-- Historical Novels Review

"This is a strong biographical fictionalized account of the life of Kate Bywood that provides a warmer loving side to Richard III through the tender eyes of his paramour...Kate is a fabulous heroine whose story makes for a fascinating indirect look at another perspective of Richard III."

-- Harriet Klausner

"Move over, Amber St. Clare! Here comes Kate Haute, mistress of Richard III. The richly imagined story of the woman who might have been mother of Richard's three illegitimate children, this tale plunges the reader into the treacherous politics of the War of the Roses. With Richard, Kate shares passion, regal glamour, and, in the end, partakes of the bitter cup of loss."

-- Judith Merkle Riley, author of The Oracle Glass

"Anyone interested in history, honor and lost love will want to read A Rose for the Crown."

-- Sharon Kay Penman, author of The Sunne in Splendour

Customer Reviews

Behind every great man there is an even greater woman
At first while reading this book I thought I must have read it earlier so much of it felt familiar. In the beginning I thought that was because the main character in this book, Kate, is almost a carbon copy of Anne from Posie Graeme-Evans Anne series. But no, that wasn't it. Then I knew what it was.

You see, I used to write fan-fiction, stories that people wrote about their favorite TV show or movie or book, generally with the fan inserted into it. In this genera the "Mary-sue" character-a perfect person-pops up a lot. But there is one Mary-sue that pops up more than the others. This is the "Desirable Red head." She is small, slender, red haired and fantastically desirable to all people even if she looks like she's about twelve. She can also heal people amazingly.

That is the main character of this book, Kate. Physically she is exactly like the main character, Anne, from Posie Graeme-Evans' novels, and has the same healing skills (she also hooks up with a royal, just like Anne did.) She is the lover of Richard III, and the book is about her love affair and life with him. I suspect that "Kate" is just the body that Anne Easter Smith put her fantasy love for Richard into. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but this novel reads like well written fan-fiction.

This book isn't bad really-it's more that it's very predictable. There's a certain way that historical novels like this one go. The lovers have bad love lives before meeting each other. One of them (usually the woman) will be from a disadvantaged background and thus be refreshingly earthy. That one will have rose to riches in a way that made her spunky and cute, but tough. Both will be essentially virgins the first time they have sex and they will not only fall instantly in love but have a baby immediately. Eventually the noble one of them will have to marry and thus they will be parted as lovers (the married one will be far too religious to cheat on his wife) and their lives will end tragically apart. This novel is that to a T.

If the rest of the book was better written that might be forgiven, but its really not. The dialog is stilted (people always go "woe is me" when something bad happens) and there is absolutely no use of the setting (wonderful England!) None of the characters are fully fleshed out and their actions make little sense. Kate's cousin in law, Elinor, decides to make Kate rue the day she came to live with her just because Kate is prettier than her daughter! If the character isn't a Mary sue than they are either all evil, or all good and quite jolly. The central theme in this book, loyalty, is introduced when Kate's father give her a lecture on it including a definition of the word. To be less subtle would have been impossible. And the romance is...unromantic. I still don't understand why they loved each other-they just seem to after having talked for about five minutes.

I've read a lot of books like this one. This one is better than most, because the woman in it was real (if nothing is known about her, including no evidence pointing to her being Richard's mistress) it does a fine job of describing the war of the roses and the whole Lancaster/York fight. Not knowing much about the period I was a little puzzled because in this book Richard can do no wrong. I know that he's a fairly controversial topic for historians, but didn't he do something bad? This book provided no alternative viewpoint and parts felt like it was written by Richard's publicist! Of course, the author does belong to the Richard III society, which battles to clear his name, so that makes sense.

In the end I don't know what to say. This is not a bad book by any means, its just not original or historical enough for me. I will say that this book has made me want to learn more about Richard III. For the money this book costs you should by a history book, or one of the more "historical" fiction versions of Richard's life. This one feels a little bit too much like the author's fantasy of her love affair with Richard III.

Characters disappointing; not enough use of the setting, but not bad.
I must admit, I had high hopes for this novel. I love an intelligent historical romance, and this looked like it would be right up my alley.

Anne Easter Smith focuses her story on a character who is mostly fictional--her name is in the historical record but it's not clear what for. Smith theorizes that, given Richard III's kindness toward his illegitimate children, perhaps they were all the offspring of one beloved mistress. She surmises that this obscure name may belong to this mistress, and uses the scant historical record as the bones of the story she fleshes out here.

Kate Haute, Smith's protagonist, is that mistress. We follow her through two disastrous marriages and into her relationship with Richard, who will later become king. The spotlight really is on Kate, not on the politics of the day; you'll read a great deal about Kate's mundane life. When the politics begin to appear more heavily in the story, they've perhaps been absent too long. Suddenly the author is trying to cram years of background into a few pages to catch the reader up. It might have worked better to introduce more of the politics into Kate's conversations with Richard and other characters, such as Jack Howard. It's not that I didn't know what was going on--I'm relatively familiar with the history--it's just that it clunked a bit.

Where the story really failed to engage me, though, was in the character department. We'll start with Richard. I understand that Smith was trying to write a sympathetic Richard, but her portrayal is over-the-top perfect. I prefer the more conflicted, nuanced version written by Sharon Kay Penman in _The Sunne in Splendour_, warts and all.

Then we have Kate. Kate is a Mary Sue. Every man falls to his knees at the sight of her beauty, except the gay character. Everyone remarks at every turn upon Kate's independent spirit. She doesn't make mistakes much. She, like Richard, is just a bit too much. In addition, I'm not sure I've ever seen a more baby-obsessed character, which I just had trouble relating to. I know there was a lot of emphasis on childbearing in that time period, but it wasn't so much a sentimental thing as it is today.

The way Kate deals with her third child is confusing and doesn't quite seem in-character; her actions feel forced, as though the author was trying too hard to come up with a way that this child, historically speaking, could have been Kate's offspring.

Then we have Anne Neville, who is never really consistent--good-hearted or rude and snobbish?

I'm sounding like I didn't like the book; that's not true at all. I was pretty engrossed in it while it lasted. It's not _The Sunne in Splendour_--but few books are. You might want to give this one a try, if you go in knowing that the turbulent Wars of the Roses are fairly peripheral to the story.

Excellent Imagining of History
A Rose for the Crown begins with Kate Bywood as a young, outspoken girl who attracts the attention of a well-off relative and is taken into his home as a companion for his mousy daughter. Through many twists and turns, young Kate is married twice and becomes friends with Margaret and John Howard, later to be the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk. Through them, she is introduced to Richard of Gloucester, the future King Richard the Third. A love affair ensues that brings Kate into the circles of royalty and intrigue and ultimately heartbreak.

I wasn't sure at first if I was going to like this novel, as it spends a great deal of time establishing Kate's early life before she meets Richard. In fact, much of that could have been cut in order to get to the heart of the story, the relationship between Kate and Richard. It is from this point that the story takes off and doesn't let go. The author spent a lot of time researching her subjects and is able to seamlessly weave historical characters and situations into her fabricated world. While both Richard and Kate are very young at the time of their relationship, Smith brings them to life and makes us ache with longing for them to remain together. Smith has accomplished that rarest of tasks: she has taken the known facts and embellished them into a believable, tantalizing tale. I especially appreciated her author's notes at the end that established how she obtained her material and why she developed the story as she did.

While a bit slow in the beginning, this book is a wonderful tale of love and intrigue. The author's style developed substantially over the course of the book and she did a fine job of creating the tale of Richard and the mother of his bastard children. Recommended reading for those who enjoy historical fiction.