Valerie Anand

[annis]

You've got the order right, Misfit- it's called the "Bridges over Time" series, about a family which nearly always manages to be on the losing side throughout history.
Here are synopses for the two without reviews.

The Ruthless Yeoman"
<The family of English serfs whose saga began in The Proud Villeins remains in bondage as Anand continues the series into the latter part of the 13th century. In the village of Rushley, Isabel of Northfield, young wife of Alfred Plowman, envies her beautiful cousin Rohese, who marries a freeman. When Alfred dies in an accident, Isabel seeks to raise her station by entering a nearby abbey, illegally offering as dowry the land to which she is tied. She is accepted for the land, which the venal abbess wrests from its rightful owner, but is turned into a kitchen drudge. An attempt at revenge fails, as does her bid for happiness through a love affair with a freeman. In her old age, she passes on to young kinswoman Nicola a talisman of their family's free ancestor, who was unjustly made a serf before the time of William the Conqueror. The unhappily wed Nicola and her brutal but talented craftsman husband, Thomas Woodcarver, escape bondage through deceit and build the possibility of a better future for their descendants.>

"Women of Ashdon" is the War of the Roses period
<Despite inroads into the gentry, the Whitmead family , still suffers. During the War of the Roses, young Susannah Whitmead is forced to marry neighboring landowner Sir James Weston. She grows to love her husband and his home, Ashdon House, but then Weston is killed at Bosworth while fighting for Richard III. Two more husbands take Susannah through the tumultuous early Tudor years . Her granddaughter, Christina Trefusis, marries a cousin in order to keep beloved Ashdon and leads an uneventful--if not particularly happy--existence until turbulent Elizabethan politics intervene.>

I've read "Proud villeins" and the "Cherished Wives" (set in the English Civil war period) and both were very good, though i'd like to track down the Norman series which you've just read. "King of the Wood" is about William Rufus, I think- the son of William the Conqueror who ws "accidentally" shot by an arrow while out hunting.

[Misfit]

Thanks Annis, Women of Ashdon is the only one the library has and I have it out now. I've put in an ILL request for The Proud Villeins before I try to find it on the cheap. The Norman series is good, although finding a reasonably priced copy of Gildenford is a challenge. Laura has suggested biblio.com and I just tried them, price listings here. There's a couple in the under $5 range and I would recommend snapping them up. It's running over $50 right now.

Yes, King of the Wood is about the murder of William Rufus.

[annis]

Thanks for the tip, Misfit-- there's certainly a big price range there, and as you say, most are at the higher end!

[Misfit]

I can never get over how some used books can go for such ridiculous prices, it does pay to shop around. Google's shopping search feature is handy too, and not just for books. I was have a h*** of a time finding a replacement folder for the lads at the sales counter (nothing else would do), and I tried that and lo and behold found the exact same product.

Hope you give the Norman series a try. William's pretty terrifying though....

[annis]

I don't know if you've read it, but there's a quite good novel about the Norman Conquest from the POV of the Normans
"Jackals in Iron" by Merlin Douglas Larsen.

The whole Conquest was a brutal affair, and especially the Harrying the North, which was basically genocide. That features in "Proud Villeins".

[Misfit]

Thanks Annis. The Harrying of the North is covered in The Disputed Crown. William was scary enough in Harold the King, Anand's book just cemented it. Ruthless as they come.

[Misfit]

Looks like there's been quite a price drop on both Abe and Amazon if anyone's interesting in snapping up a copy.

[Misfit]

There's a listing on ebay starting at $4.99 US.

**edited** The same seller is also listing The Norman Pretender and The Disputed Crown.