The highly anticipated Philippa Gregory novel featuring Jacquetta Rivers is finally here. The Lady of the Rivers is the third book in the Cousins’ War series, and is just as good as the previous two novels. Jacquetta Rivers is an independently thinking woman in an era where women are to be obedient to their husband. She has the gift of Sight, but is afraid to practice her talent for fear of being accused of practicing witchcraft. To make things more difficult, countrymen are starting to fight countrymen since King Henry the VI is unable to rule, and many are reluctant to allow Queen Margaret of Anjou (a foreigner and a woman) to hold all of the power. The house of Rivers are behind the Lancaster King and Queen, but the tide seems to be quickly changing, giving rise to the York families. Once again Gregory has captured the voices of historic figures so well. It is so easy to get swept up into the court of the fifteenth-century with her descriptions and language. Like many of Gregory’ s previous books, I found it hard to stop reading once I started. She does such a good job of showing court intrigues and where all the secret alliances and meetings might have taken place. It is obvious she has done countless hours of research, but she adds great drama to the story when filling in the missing gaps of history. As a side note, I loved how this book compliments the past two in the series. It was fun to see events that occurred in the other books through Jacquetta’s eyes. I can’t wait to see who she focuses on next in the Cousins’ War series. This novel comes out on Tuesday October 18th.

Philippa Gregory has once again brought to life the corrupt world of the fifteenth-century English monarchs in her latest novel, The White Queen. This is the first book in her Cousins’ War series that historically leads right into her books about the Tudor Court. In The White Queen, Gregory takes us inside the War of the Roses, where England was battling against itself in order to find the “true king”. It is the story of a commoner, Elizabeth, marrying the York king of England. The wedding ceremony was done in secret, and many believe Elizabeth has placed a spell on the king; it was widely known that Elizabeth’s River ancestors were witches. The rest of the story is about the York house’s efforts to keep control of the country and out of the hands of the house of Lancaster. To me it was refreshing to see a happy royal couple in Gregory’s novel; there was no corruption between the king and queen. There was, however, enough plotting and scheming within the house of York to keep me eagerly turning the page. I also enjoyed the hints of magic that surround the queen due to her water goddess ancestor. Gregory adds a bit of folklore to her story when talking about Elizabeth’s ancestor Melusina, which as a reader I found to be a nice side story. All and all, it was another great piece by Gregory.

This is easily my favorite Philippa Gregory novel. Gregory captures Mary and Anne's rivalry perfectly and has great depictions of both women. She shows how ambitious Anne was in her quest to hold Henry and become queen, as well as bringing to light the family pressures that were placed on her. The court intrigue in this novel is some of the juiciest scandalous and devious manipulations that I have read to date. Overall, Gregory does a wonderful job of showing you how complicated all of the court allies were and how hard it was to stay in King Henry's VIII favor; you really find yourself transported to that time. I would recommend this as the first book of Gregory's to read, however I have loved the majority of her English court novels.