The Rose and The Thistle by Laura Frantz

 

Laura Frantz is back and inviting readers to join her back in the days of early 1700s Scotland. 

Lady Blythe Hedley is in trouble. Aside from her Catholic faith in a now Protestant England, her father has been secretly supporting the Jacobite rebellion putting their holdings and lives in danger. Sent to her godparents for safety she finds herself in a Protestant Scottish hold with her godfather recently passed and his eldest son navigating the ever changing political climate.

Frantz is one of those authors I know will pack a lot of emotion and detail into her plots and The Rose and The Thistle is no exception. Although some may find it slows their reading speed, I highly appreciated Frantz time to include Scottish dialect and brogue into the Hume's dialogue. It added such an interesting texture to the conversational segments and was a lot of fun to sort through, especially as Blythe began to try some out herself. 

Frantz also showed her usual skill in descriptive writing allowing the scenes and landscapes to jump off the page in the readers imagination. I'm always caught off guard just how vividly she writes and it's always such a joy to explore.

As far as main plot goes, Hedley and Hume are a fairly familiar contrast  in historical romance. So while there are no real surprises in the storyline, the ending does wrap up the main plot threads involving the main characters.

Which does lead me to some elements of the story that didn't quite hit their target with me personally.

Although I appreciated Frantz's happy ending their was a lot of really good luck and some reliance familiar plot twists (such as the brother confusion in battle). It felt almost too neatly wrapped up for such a messy period of history.

Also I felt the main characters were oddly firm on some beliefs and passive on others. The matter of Blythe and Everard's opposing sides in religion felt quickly resolved considering the historical ties and Blythe's own consideration of convent living prior to Scotland. I felt like this could have been a far more interesting point of conflict vs the typical spurned suitor which came into play.

Also, considering how tightly Blythe held onto her mother's fallen status (in an era where most women would have been keenly aware of how little power they had especially in relation to the king) it felt odd that her tightly held faith was so easily resorted into Protestantism for a wedding. It felt inconsistent to the character.

However, most of Frantz readers will probably be thoroughly charmed by Blythe, Hume, and the cast of supporting characters (including dear sweet Orin)

Book was provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. and Baker Publishing Group.