Blessop's Wife by Barbara Gaskell Denvil

Blessop's Wife Reviews

• 
  Kathy

  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 age 40 (she 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
• 
  Bookish Ally

  DNF can’t get past the sex scenes-ugh. Wince. No thank you.
• 
  Lauren

  Read: 6/8/20
  Started out pretty good but slowed down in the middle. Reading a 500pg book should not seem like 2,000 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.
• 
  Cindy Woods

  Extremely interesting
  
  This historical novel is set in England 1482, 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.
• 
  Carley Cesare

  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.
• 
  Adrielle

  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!
• 
  Fiona Andrew

  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.
• 
  Helen Hollick

  This book has received a Discovering Diamonds Review:
  
  " 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 the 1400s"
  
  Helen Hollick
  founder #DDRevs
• 
  Nadishka Aloysius

  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 the 15th 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 the 4th was poisoned, and Richard the 3rd 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 non-fiction books including The Maligned Kind - which will be my next read!
• 
  Leah

  I 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.
• 
  Nicki

  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 eye-rolling 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 of 15th 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 still-controversial 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 battle-scarred 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.
• 
  ML Carver

  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.
• 
  Andrew Kramer

  If you're looking for a romance novel set in the late 15 c. then Blessop's Wife is right up your alley. The characters are well-constructed, and the writing is good. (One complaint: The author changes scenes in the middle of the page with no demarcation, either in language or by some sort of literary separation.) It's clear that the author has an excellent grasp of the sights and smells of London at that time.
  
  The reasons for my giving this book two stars are as follows:
  --- The novel relies heavily on the relationship between Andrew and Tyballis, and doesn't really
  invoke historical fiction until the last part of the book. In fact, the sex scenes are so
  numerous that they actually begin to become tiresome.
  --- I thought that the Historical Mysteries series would follow a single character through
  multiple novels. Indeed, the way that Blessop's wife ends practically begs for a follow-up.
  
  While this book was well-written and well-researched, I found it wanting as a piece of historical fiction.
• 
  BookasaurusGretch

  Utter garbage and a waste of words. This story could have been told in 200 pages 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 re-read 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.
• 
  ChillwithabookAWARD With

  Blessop's Wife by Barbara Gaskell Denvil has received a Chill with a Book Readers' Award.
  
  www.chillwithabook.com
  
  "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 into 15th 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
  
• 
  Ann

  Another book I really wanted to like, but, at 45% in, 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.
• 
  margo wheeler

  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.
  
• 
  Stephanie Nelson

  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!
• 
  Cheryl Clancy

  A Must Read
  
  An incredible story of 15th 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.