I love historical novels, this however fell short of the mark. I had a hard time liking any of the characters and I was getting whiplash from all the change of direction. Because of this I would put this down read a couple of books and then come back to it.

Village girl gives birth to lord's bastard - child taken away and reared by lord's wife. Child grows up, has affair with half-sister's husband, gives birth to bastard child, who is given to half-sister to raise as own.

Lazy storytelling to repeat same plot-line over again in the same book - especially as the initial story of Aubrette's conception took up too many pages in my opinion. Quite frankly, the whole premise of the story did not grab me - the characters seemed to be extreme versions of themselves, events were formulaic and overly dramatised, it was even initially unclear as to when this story took place - I initially thought it was at the time of the Conquest!

As to the main character Aubrette - bipolar doesn't cover it. By the time I finished reading my opinion of her was that she was just an attention-seeking whore who takes centre stage just to keep the story flowing. She moved from one emotional extreme to the next, her actions just did not ring true and I found her truly unsympathetic.

I forced myself to finish reading to find out just what was this "crusade" of the title was actually all about. I am getting a little more selective in my historical fiction - and this did not make the cut.

I liked this book, but it was very different. Thank you for the review copy.