Valerie Anand

[Misfit]

I thought I'd start off a thread on Anand seeing as how her latest book is out, The House Of Allerbrook. From the blurb info on Amazon it appears this one is set in the time of Henry VIII. Only one review so far and I'm not trusting that one

So far I've read Gildenford, King of the Wood (loved those two) and House of Lanyon which I found quite dull. There are two books that follow Gildenford, finishing the story of the Norman invasion that are in that ever growing pile.

[Ariadne]

If you didn't like House of Lanyon because it didn't include enough political/religious history, you might like House of Allerbrook more. It actually goes a bit overboard in that sense, but it's still entertaining enough.

That one Amazon review oversimplifies a couple plot points (and has some very awkward wording), and I'm not sure I'd agree completely with what she said about the plight of women... while it's true it doesn't pull punches, at the same time it shows how some women (like the protagonist) manage to work within their restrictive environment to rise in power and station.

I read it from an ARC, which didn't include a family tree. I hope the published version does, because I was confused about the family relationships between the two books until about 3/4 way through the novel.

[annis]

I've read the first book from her "Bridges over Time" series:

"The Proud Villeins", the story of several generations of a family of serfs descended from a Norman knight captured by an northern English Anglo-Danish chieftain in 1039 and made a slave. It's a interesting view of English history ranging from the time before the Saxon defeat at the Battle of Hastings through to the 1215 signing of the Magna Carta, and includes the period of the ferocious Harrying of the North carried out bt William the Conqueror, which was nothing short of genocide.
I thought it was well done and a different perspective on a momentous period of English history.

[Margaret]

There's a review of Anand's The Proud Villeins by Moseyer (one of our new members here) at HF.info: http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Proud-Villeins.html. She liked it.

[annis]

Good review- right on the nail.

I keep meaning to get to the Normans series which Misfit mentions; they are supposed to be very good.

Valerie Anand is in her early 70s now, so I guess she's doing well to still be writing such extensive works. Sometimes though, inevitably, a bit of the edge goes off as you get older (speaking from experience )

[Misfit]

I really liked Gildenford, my only mistake was reading it too closely with Harold the King. The used prices are a bit high, but I lucked out and found a perfectly good hardback at thriftbooks for well under $10/US. Enough time has passed I should be able to get back into the other two in the Norman series.

[Misfit]

[quote=""Ariadne""]If you didn't like House of Lanyon because it didn't include enough political/religious history, you might like House of Allerbrook more. It actually goes a bit overboard in that sense, but it's still entertaining enough.

That one Amazon review oversimplifies a couple plot points (and has some very awkward wording), and I'm not sure I'd agree completely with what she said about the plight of women... while it's true it doesn't pull punches, at the same time it shows how some women (like the protagonist) manage to work within their restrictive environment to rise in power and station.

I read it from an ARC, which didn't include a family tree. I hope the published version does, because I was confused about the family relationships between the two books until about 3/4 way through the novel.[/quote]


I put in a hold at the library, they've got several copies on order. House of Lanyon for me was just flat out predictable as all get out and with unlikeable characters to boot.

As for that one review sitting there (even if I could manage to read it without my eyes rolling), that is one reviewer that gets more things wrong than right -- and then there's the times the review is for the wrong book altogether. But that's another topic altogether

[Margaret]

Amazon reviews should all be taken with quite a few grains of salt. The number of misspellings and grammar errors is often a good guide, assuming the reviewer is a native speaker of English.

[Misfit]

[quote=""Margaret""]Amazon reviews should all be taken with quite a few grains of salt. The number of misspellings and grammar errors is often a good guide, assuming the reviewer is a native speaker of English.[/quote]

Agreed, once you start looking under the blanket so to speak it's quite shocking. Although this one who supposedly is a former librarian born and raised in the US makes mistakes like peninsular or thirteen years old.
I have several reviewers and AF's that I trust but otherwise I take them with a grain of salt, if I don't see any familiar faces I get it from the library. Love those one review gushing wonders that pop up when a book isn't faring well.

[Misfit]

I recently finished the last two of Anand's series on Harold Godwinsson and the Norman Conquest, and they are very very good. In order,

1. Gildenford
2. The Norman Pretender
3. The Disputed Crown

I'm pretty sure that King of the Wood has some characters from the third book, I'd have to read it again to be sure.

She's got another series I was looking at but having a difficult time finding what it was about until I wandered over to Amazon UK. Apparently it starts at Gildenford, this time being about a Norman knight sold into slavery and then subsequent generations as they make their way back up the social scale. As best as I can piece together this is the order of the series (I added links to those that had reviews of any substance),

1. The Proud Villeins
2. The Ruthless Yeomen
3. Women of Ashdon
4. The Faithful Lovers
5. The Cherished Wives
6. The Dowerless Sisters