Alba Rosa Foe
“Alys arrives in England in the heart of the war of the Cousins and is to become a white Rose of York, however she has other plans, she wants freedom, but she comes across… love, scheming and treachery. Exiled from court, she now fights to survive. Alba Rosa Foe is a novel where History mingles with fiction, romance with war and life with death.”
I have not heard the Wars of the Roses called ‘The War of the Cousins’ before, and this had me considering whether to read this debut novel or not, as I wondered how accurate the historical detail would be. As the fifteenth century is unfamiliar to me, I am none the wiser on that score, although the overall impression does seem to indicate the author has done her research.
The novel is plainly a romance, and possibly has more than a few contemporary viewpoints than actual historical ones – women were not given the luxury of freedom, for instance, so would not have craved it. However, the characters are engaging and as a light, entertaining novel this should satisfy readers who prefer courtly love over bloody battles.
Cream paper would have been preferable to the somewhat glaring white, and chapters nowadays usually ‘run-on’ rather than start on a new page which eliminates blank spaces and occasional widow sentences dangling on a page. Another edit would have been useful to catch the several repeated words and occasional clumsy sentences – a final polish for an otherwise entertaining novel.
