On tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club — The Godmother’s Secret by Elizabeth St.John #BookReview #HistoricalFiction @ElizStJohn @cathiedunn

Scroll down to read my 5 STAR review of The Godmother’s Secret by Elizabeth St.John. Thank you to The Coffee Pot Book Club for inviting me to be a part of this tour.

The Godmother’s Secret
By Elizabeth St.John

What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower. Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret?

November, 1470: Westminster Abbey. 

Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodville–witness the birth of Edward IV’s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabeth’s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict.

Bound by blood and torn by honour, when the king dies and Elysabeth delivers her young godson into the Tower of London to prepare for his coronation, she is engulfed in political turmoil. Within months, the prince and his brother have disappeared, Richard III is declared king, and Margaret conspires with Henry Tudor to invade England and claim the throne. Desperate to protect her godson, Elysabeth battles the intrigue, betrayal and power of the last medieval court, defying her husband and her sister under her godmother’s sacred oath to keep Prince Edward safe.

Were the princes murdered by their uncle, Richard III? Was the rebel Duke of Buckingham to blame? Or did Margaret Beaufort mastermind their disappearance to usher in the Tudor dynasty? Of anyone at the royal court, Elysabeth has the most to lose–and the most to gain–by keeping secret the fate of the Princes in the Tower.   

  

Inspired by England’s most enduring historical mystery, Elizabeth St.John, best-selling author of The Lydiard Chronicles, blends her own family history with known facts and centuries of speculation to create an intriguing alternative story illuminating the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. 

Hold on to your hats because Elizabeth St.John is going to take you back in time and throw you headlong into one of England's most talked about historical mysteries. Yes, that is right, the author is taking us back to the 15th Century to discover what really happened to the Princes in the Tower. 

You know what really fascinated me about this book is that the story is told from a woman's point of view, a woman that is kin to the author herself - how cool is that? It is strange that only recently people have begun to take interest in the women of this era, although Lady Margaret Beaufort may be a name one would recognise if discussing this era, but as for those who were also in the thick of it, they seem to be lost to history. So, it was really refreshing to read a book from the point of view of one of the ladies that were there, that would have been a part of it, and her position as Godmother made sure of that.

I am trying to think of an author who writes in a similar style, and all I can think of is Philippa Gregory, but this book is more honest with the historical detailing, Elizabeth St.John does not make villains for the sake of a good story, nor does she make saints. There are a lot of flawed characters in this book, which made the story really realistic. Considering the topic it is, at times, a highly emotional read, let's not forget about those two frightened little boys who were ripped away from the safety of their family - if only Edward IV had not died when he did. 

Although this book is an alternative history, it does not read like one, and I would love to think that the conclusion of this book was the conclusion of what really happened, because the thought of those two boys being secretly murdered is just too horrible to even imagine.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book. It ticked all of the boxes and then some. 

If you would like to grab yourself a copy of this book then head over to Amazon. And check this out, it is free to read if you have #KindleUnlimited subscription. So what are you waiting for? This book isn't going to read itself!

Elizabeth St.John

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.

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