Becky Bookworm Book Review: The Steel Beneath The Silk by Patricia Bracewell (The Emma of Normandy Book 3)

 

A breathtaking conclusion to Bracewell’s Emma of Normandy Trilogy, brimming with treachery, heartache, tenderness and passion as the English queen confronts ambitious and traitorous councilors, invading armies and the Danish king’s power-hungry concubine.

In the year 1012 England’s Norman-born Queen Emma has been ten years wed to an aging, ruthless, haunted King Æthelred. The marriage is a bitterly unhappy one, between a queen who seeks to create her own sphere of influence within the court and a suspicious king who eyes her efforts with hostility and resentment. But royal discord shifts to grudging alliance when Cnut of Denmark, with the secret collusion of his English concubine Elgiva, invades England at the head of a massive viking army. Amid the chaos of war, Emma must outwit a fierce enemy whose goal is conquest and outmaneuver the cunning Elgiva, who threatens all those whom Emma loves.

The Steel Beneath the Silk by Patricia Bracewell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An absolutely magnificent telling of a much-forgotten but equally magnificent woman.

I hope all who have read and enjoyed this series go onto look into the factual history about Emma of Normandy to learn all the many ways she shaped English History.

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