"The Rose and the Thistle" is a story that takes place at the start of the reign of King George the First of England in 1715. Lady Blythe Hedley's father, the Lord of Northumbia, is a sympathizer of the Stuart line of kings that is in exile in France. Seeking to eliminate this opposition, the king is hunting down these Jacobite/Catholic sympathizers. To save her life, Blythe's father sends her to the home of her godfather, Lord Wedderburn, in Scotland. However, the lord has just died and his son, Everard Hume, has just ascended to his father's position. Trying to learn to manage the estate while hiding a Jacobite runaway threatens his very existence. Further complicating matters is Everard's brother is also reckless with his money and also a Jacobite sympathizer. To prove his loyalty to the throne, what will Everard have to do? And what happens when you fall in love with your seeming enemy?
I choose to read this book because I knew very little about this period of English history. Unfortunately, the book does not do a great job of explaining the political complications. You are thrust into the period without truly understanding how we got there. This makes it hard to understand the political intrigue the characters are facing. The other issue I have with the book is the short time period for the romance that is based mostly on physical attraction and not on the characters' getting to know one another. It makes it difficult to root for a romance that is based on so little when the political obstacles to such a marriage would have been huge.
In the author's note after the book, we discover that the author is descended from the Hume family. The book would have been strengthened by a forward giving a basic history of the Hume family and a brief history of England at that time. It would ease the reader into the time period and make the characters more relatable. I was given an advanced reader copy of the novel as part of the Revell Reads blogger team. All opinions expressed are my own.
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