Gain Blessops Wife Edited By Barbara Gaskell Denvil Softcover

received a free copy of this book to honestly review,

If you are looking for a common bodice ripping, heroine falls head over heels, historical romance then you should move along, This story is rich in detail and full of interesting twists turns, The characters are very realistic and I got attached to a couple of them, There are some spots where the storyline is a bit hard to follow but overall a really good story, This was a book of two parts for me, I enjoyed the spy story, but found the romance and cringeworthy sex scenes quite tiresome,

When we first meet Tyballis Blessop, she's a battered teenage wife, worn down by the violence and vitriol aimed at her by her oafish husband and his vicious mother.
Then she encounters a mysterious man whose words embolden her the next time she's assaulted in her home and give her the courage to leave.
In something of an eyerolling coincidence, she meets up with the mysterious man, Andrew Cobham, again and joins the ragtag band of people lodging in his home.
From there of course, Tyballis and Drew fall in love, That's the bit I could have done without,

For the rest of the novel, Drew's trade as a spy for the Duke of Gloucester, the king's brother, plays a big part.
His assorted lodgers get drawn in and help him as he uncovers a Woodville plot to kill the king, remove Gloucester and rule as the power behind a puppet child king.


The author draws a strong picture ofth century London, the sights, the smells, the danger of a city with a powerful faction out to stage a coup.
She also paints an unusual picture of Richard, Duke of Gloucester soon to become the stillcontroversial King Richard III as a moral, upstanding, trustworthy man with a keen sense of justice.


Of the main characters, Drew is secretive and patronising and sometimes creepy calling the woman he's sleeping with 'child' Ew, No, thanks. . Tyballis grows a backbone over the course of the story, except when she's with Drew, where she suddenly needs constant validation and acts the simpering fool.
Some of the supporting characters are more interesting, like Caspar, the battlescarred street fighter who becomes Tyballis' champion,

The women in the story are generally treated by the men as property and referred to as sluts, whores, trollops and so on even by other women.
This got old very quickly, Maybe that did happen in the age in which this was set, but it didn't sit well with me, You could guarantee that practically every man in the story and every older woman would use a sexual slur virtually every time they opened their mouth.
I thought it was all a tad unnecessary, And in keeping with that, I don't like the title of this book, To refer to the main character solely as another character's wife and a minor character at that seems to deny her her own identity, For all her faults, Tyballis is more than just an appendage to a man,

Overall, I enjoyed this for the setting and the spy story, but not for the romance aspect of it, which didn't really drive the narrative forward at all.
I quite enjoyed this story, Set in the time toward the end of Edward IV and the beginning of Richard III this historical fiction is full of espionage, After just completing 'The War of the Roses' series, I read this novel fairly confident in this historical period so I was able to appreciate the creative license taken with the rest of the story.
It is cute and fun,


The main issue I have is the abrupt change in POV in the middle of a chapter, This may be an editing issue but it caused a lack of cohesiveness and made following the storyline tricky at times,

Overall, yay for an Aussie author! I think this is the first book I have read written by this author, but it is possible I tried one previously and discarded due to explicit love scenes.
As I am older and a bit more patient with this aspect, I would simply recommend skipping over those sections so as not to miss out on a good medieval depiction of life in London during those times.

The author explains at the end why she chose certain viewpoints as possible and considered them a good part of her fictional account as there are many facts that cannot be confirmed.
This time period includes the death of King Edward IV at ageshe goes with the poisoning theory and the issue of illegitimacy of his son preventing his crowning.
The period of the book goes on through his brother Richard ascending,
Most of the action centers on a young woman and the man who served his king as well as the king's brother Richard as a spy.
There are some very interesting characters in this book,
One check against the abundance of sex scenes one check against the enormous length of the book,

Kindle Unlimited I'm not a big fan of romance novels where people keep jumping in and out of bed with each other, That is one part I did not like in this book, Also, the political running around and backstory started taking up too much space with a lot of information being repeated towards the end,
I started reading this because the descriptions of society during theth

century was stark, frank and disturbing in certain ways but overall very realistic.

This is a spy novel, not a mystery per se, Tyballis Blessop learns to fend for herself and gains independence,
I was particularly taken up by the unusual historical account of the kingship of the time, According to this, Edward theth was poisoned, and Richard therd was an upstanding, just leader, Very different to what is commonly accepted if you believe Shakespeare's version
This book is based on some solid research and the author backs up her decision to go with this unorthodox version of history bu citing some nonfiction books including The Maligned Kind which will be my next read! Fact or fiction

Both the facts and the fiction are melded into a truly amazing tale of mystery, including all the intrigue you could wish for.
Mistress Blessop runs away from a husband who beats her, she ends up in a old run down house full of people from many walks of life.
For the first time she feels safe, Her adventures and the tales of the other characters in the house are beautifully written and described, So grab a cuppa of your favourite beverage, curl up in your favourite reading spot and lose yourself in the world intrigue, Highly recommend. DNF cant get past the sex scenesugh, Wince. No thank you. I love this series of books! The author does a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life, making you feel as if you know them.
There are several threads of storylines that all tie in together, sooner or later, and the mystery is always there, waiting to be unraveled, The sounds, scents, and people of the time period spring to life as you read and make you appreciate the luxuries of modern life! I'm on the last book in the series and hate to see it end! Too much graphic gratuitous sex

This book started out very well and then all of a sudden, about a third of the way in, it took this hideously graphic turn and there was so much sex graphically explained that it completely ruined the book for me.
So while I thought it was going to be a story about a female protagonist, it ended up being a story about a lecherous male user.
Very disappointing. I will not be reading the rest of the series, Ick. I found this book repetitive: a damsel in distress and her knight in shining armour, I enjoyed the background setting of the death of Edward IV and the succession struggles,

Furthermore I was shocked at the appalling editing of this book, In such a mass produced novel, one would expect words not to run together, nor repeating words and missing punctuation, I was quite disappointed. Extremely interesting

This historical novel is set in England, at the end of King Edward IV reign and sudden death, The plot encompasses a very hard political struggle for power and the throne, Plotting, spying are rampant while a romance ensues, The treatment of women during this era is appalling but commonly accepted, Loyalties on all sides is questionable,
I found the main plot fascinating albeit difficult to follow at times, Apparently there is not much left of the actual history of the time, but the author engineers a plausible scenario given what facts there are.

I would heartily recommend to other readers of historical fiction, A Good historical read

The real historical characters are well written and the fictional ones are well intertwined, The plot is interesting and moves at a good pace, The rather extensive sex scenes are too long and unnecessarily detailed, It prolongs the story and does not provide new info, They are sexual creatures, great, Move on.
This book has received a Discovering Diamonds :

" London, the setting for this tale, is as much a character as are the people who populate the city and the story.
We see it as it was back in thes"

Helen Hollick
founder DDRevs Another book I really wanted to like, but, atin, it just wasn't doing it for me.
It's also really long. There's palace intrigue, a bit of romance, some dastardly characters, and a bunch of "rude mechanicals" a la Shakespeare, Still, I kept finding myself picking up other books, . . even ones in PAPER in preference to this KOLL borrow, So, I sent it back,and Edward IV wears England's crown, but no king rules unchallenged, Often it is those closest to him who are the unexpected danger, When the king dies suddenly, rumour replaces fact and Andrew Cobham is already working behind the scenes, Tyballis was forced into marriage and when she escapes, she meets Andrew and an uneasy alliance forms, Their friendship will take them in unusual directions as Tyballis becomes embroiled in Andrew's work and the danger which surrounds him, A motley gathering of thieves, informers, prostitutes and children eventually joins the game, helping to uncover the underlying treason, as the country is brought to the brink of war.
But together Andrew and Tyballis have already discovered something just as surprising, Utter garbage and a waste of words, This story could have been told inpages and desperately needs an editor, The gratuitous sex scenes are dull and add nothing to the storyline, . . and they are cringeworthy. May I never skim over another page of moist curly groin hair, this was painful and tedious, Many many many times setting changes with no clarification, and mid paragraph entirely new characters are added in, I frequently had to reread passages to figure out what on earth was happening, Truly a monstrously long book that needs basic editing, BASIC fundamentals are lacking, voice, tense,characters and setting are all tossed about and leaves a reader annoyed and rarely interested enough to sort through the endless run on sentences to find meaning.
This book was not ready for publishing in this form, Read:
Started out pretty good but slowed down in the middle, Reading apg book should not seem like,pages, I give the author credit for creativity,

Problem: for me I'm a little bias when it comes to players in the War of the Roses, I feel modern era wants to make Richard iii less the villian, But he declared his nephews bastards to take the throne and then probably most likely murdered them,

The author explores Lord Hastings being a traitor, History has shown he most likely was only declared traitor and executed on the same hour because he would not have supported Richard stealing the thorne.
Loyalty killed him.

The author explores Earl Rivers poisoning the King bc the queen was losing favor and power, which would have been foolish idea, The queen's family were very unpopular and to risk all on a child prince would have been idiotic, Rivers was appointed tutor of the prince bc the York Brothers mainly George repeatedly tried to steal the thorne,

The author doesn't include Richard excuting the earl Rivers and the half brother of the prince, Sir Richard is not included in the story but his only crime was bringing the prince to London, These unlawful acts weakened the York line and allowed the Tutors to gain power and maded Richard iii just as corrupt as the Shakespeare play portrayed.


Still the author explored an interesting idea, History is all about different views, Problem is cramming that much history in one story, Some editing would have been nice, Some parts were redundant. I lost count how many times the hr got kidnapped, The characters of the story were well developed and the descriptions were great, I would recommend this book for history lovers only, Blessop's Wife by Barbara Gaskell Denvil has received a Chill with a Book Readers' Award,
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"I loved it, I didn't want to reach the end, It had everything I enjoy in a book, "

"A great read that transported the reader instantly intoth century England, I felt I walked in the footsteps of the characters and lived their lives",

"Beautifully descriptive and a story that held historical facts, "

Pauline Barclay
Founder of Chill with a Book Awards
A Must Read

An incredible story ofth century England.
The author provides rich characters, exciting adventure and blissful romance, For readers whose passion is historical fiction, this book is one that continues to engage, reward, and mystify, I simply could not put this book down, As a reader of all books by Philippa Gregory, this author surpasses even those novels, I was born approximately two hundred years ago It sometimes feels that way in Gloucestershire, England, right in the heart of the Cotswolds, After a few years, I moved to London and fell in love with the history which oozes through the old stones, and the medieval atmosphere leaks from the beautiful old buildings.
For many years, I walked the old cobbled lanes and researched theth century from original sources, and the books in the British Museum, I worked there in the Department of Ancient Documents, a place which I adored, full of scrolls illuminated by medieval monks, and hordes of informative parchments.
My father was an academic and playwright, my mother was a retired teacher, and my sister was an author of fantasy, I had no other I was born approximately two hundred years ago It sometimes feels that way in Gloucestershire, England, right in the heart of the Cotswolds.
After a few years, I moved to London and fell in love with the history which oozes through the old stones, and the medieval atmosphere leaks from the beautiful old buildings.
For many years, I walked the old cobbled lanes and researched theth century from original sources, and the books in the British Museum, I worked there in the Department of Ancient Documents, a place which I adored, full of scrolls illuminated by medieval monks, and hordes of informative parchments.
My father was an academic and playwright, my mother was a retired teacher, and my sister was an author of fantasy, I had no other passion except the arts, and booksAlready a passionate reader half crazed by the avid consumption of literature, I had grown out of Enid Blyton when I was about six.
Next came a passion for Georgette Heyer, although far too young to understand romance, Once again it was the historical details I loved and I moved quickly onto Shakespeare, Dorothy Dunnett, Tolkien, C, S. Lewis and a host of others, I started writing. Nonsense naturally! But I kept it up and eventually write articles and short stories for current magazines and newspapers, I was also a tutor for scriptwriting, and a reviewer for Books and Bookmen, That kept me busy until I married, A husband and three little girls including identical twins were a full time job, and for most of the time I also worked at secretarial jobs, keeping the threat of starvation at bay and paying for the baked beans.
After leaving my husband, I started writing again but this time I was distracted by something different, as I had a wonderfulyear romance with a man who lived on his yacht in the Mediterranean, sailing during spring, summer, and autumn, and exploring Europe by car in winter.
My partner died, and I was bereft, deciding to come to Australia for a change instead of sitting around in stagnant tears, Writing again, and seriously this time, I wrote full length books in all my favourite genres, I was accepted by one of the big toppublishers, and two of my historical crime/mysteries were published in the traditional manner, However, although I was reasonably well paid and sold reasonably well, I also found myself disliking the control system, I had to write as commanded, insert bucket loads romance, accept covers I hated, and generally do as I was told, Now, happy and free, I self publish, and enjoy every minute of my writing, I live in Australia, adore the weather, the birds and the wildlife, and live a placid life during the day and a wonderfully exciting one in my dreams at night.
I have written fantasy and historical fiction, Very different genres, but all are crime mysteries in one way or another, I have almost finished my childrens series Bannisters Muster series, for middle grade children, no crime here, but a vibrant mixture of history and fantasy.
After this is complete I am moving onto a series of modern crime mysteries, and Im looking forward to that, Writing is and always has been my passion, now that I am able to do this full time, I am in my element and life couldnt be better a little sunshine might help though.
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