Philip II of France and Richard I (the Lion Hearted) were rival kings and in this re-imagined history, lovers. They were raised with different expectations. Philip always knew he would be king and a sense of duty to his country was instilled in him from his earliest years. Richard was the second son. He was not slated to be king until his older brother died. He had a great deal of conflict with his father who he hated. These two very different men from different backgrounds come together in a poignant romance.
The book is well researched. The author spends much of the first part of the book going into the historical and political background. I found this very well done. It laid the ground work for the romance, but did put the actual coming together off until the later part of the book.
I am not a big fan of telling history and presenting characters with actions and desires they didn’t have, at least as far as we know from the historical record. However, the author is upfront about this in both a note at the beginning and another note at the end.
The two men are well portrayed. The author does a good job of letting reader get to know each man by alternating chapters where each tells his own story. I thought it as an effective device. The writing is quit lovely and makes the story more believable. While not really historical fiction since it takes liberties with the history, it’s a satisfying romance.
I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.
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