Book Review, By Love Divided (The Lydiard Chronicles Book 2) By Elizabeth St.John

 

I am loving being part of the virtual blog tours that The Coffee Pot Book Club organises - all the new books I am being introduced to, it is a bookaholic's heaven! Today, I am welcoming Elizabeth St.John and her fabulous book, By Love Divided on to my blog.

By Love Divided

(The Lydiard Chronicles Book 2)

By Elizabeth St.John

London, 1630. 

Widowed and destitute, Lucy St.John is fighting for survival and makes a terrible choice to secure a future for her children. Worse still, her daughter Luce rejects the royal court and a wealthy arranged marriage, and falls in love with a charismatic soldier. As England tumbles toward bloody civil war, Luce’s beloved brother Allen chooses to fight for the king as a cavalier. Allen and Luce are swept up in the chaos of war as they defend their opposing causes and protect those they love.

Will war unite or divide them? And will they find love and a home to return to—if they survive the horror of civil war. In the dawn of England’s great rebellion, love is the final battleground.

A true story based on surviving memoirs, court papers, and letters of Elizabeth St.John's family, By Love Divided tells of the war-time experiences of Lucy St.John, the Lady of the Tower. This powerfully emotional novel tells of England's great divide and the heart-wrenching choices one family faces.

Have you ever had that feeling when you pick up a new book and you somehow just know it is going to be absurdly brilliant? Brothers in arms and a family torn apart by a brutal civil war - the blurb and that amazing cover were all I needed to convince me that I had to read this book. 

I have composed some top tips that you need to follow to the letter if you want to get the most enjoyment from this book. They are as follows:

 • hot chocolate on tap

 • enough food close to hand, so you do not need to get up

• at least a couple of hours of utter peace and quiet 

- as if that was going to happen at my house! 

Nevertheless, I bravely battled on, snatching moments to read this book whenever I could. But Oh, how I longed for just a few hours so I could sit and read without any interruptions because this story really did deserve all of my attention. 

The story is so heartbreakingly tragic, especially when I realised it was based on a real family and real events. How absolutely awful for Lucy Apsley as she was forced to watch her family torn apart by something as ugly as politics. So very sad. However, Lucy's determination to not let their political beliefs divide them is heartwarming and just goes to show that there is always a way, even when opinions differ, to stay together.

I thought this novel was really really good. It is the kind of book that I will read again and again just because it is so beautifully written and the story is so very beguiling. This book is definitely a keeper. 

*Add it to your Xmas list and maybe Santa will bring it in your stocking! 

I received my copy from The Coffee Pot Book Club but you can grab yours from Amazon (Universal link) or Books2Read

Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them-- in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story.

Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort. A new medieval short story featuring these women, Road to the Tower, is within the recently-published Historical Fiction anthology Betrayal.

Connect with Elizabeth:

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Amazon Author Page • Goodreads