Perilous Alliance, A

All reviews appear on Amazon, Goodreads GR facebook, LibraryThing plus LT Twitter, eyes.2c review blog

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0144FPSTO?keywords=perilous%20alliance&qid=1443790818&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1 (Oct 1, 2015)

LibaryThing and LibraryThing Facebook and Twitter http://www.librarything.com/work/16527692/summary/122028676 (Oct 1, 2015)

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1405723215 (Oct 1, 2015)

eyes.2c reviews blog http://eyes2creviews.blogspot.ca/2015/10/elizabethan-intrigue.html (Oct 2, 2015)

Elizabethan intrigue!

Ursula Blanchard, illegitimate half sister to Queen Elizabeth, is once again called upon to serve Queen and country. This time the requirement is to marry for political reasons. Ursula has already buried three husbands and remarriage is not on her horizon--although it seems to be taken for granted by those arounds her, Sir Francis Walsingham being the main proponent. Ursula is already fighting off neighbours with an eye to her lands and possessions, and now the court takes a hand. The proposed alliance is with Count Gilbert Renard, the illegitimate son of King Henri II.
A big question for Ursula is just how much does she have to keep giving, how many times is her life to be disrupted due to her relationship with the Queen. The dangers of childbirth for women, including Ursula and the Queen are referenced. Other issues include the problem of succession, the place of Catholics under Elizabeth's regime and the reality of courtly marriage being just one more move on the chessboard of national or international relations.
Ursula's reasons for acquiescence are as complex as she is. Her complex relationship with the Queen is the leading one.
It seems that there is a French spy at court and that particular worry invades Ursula's haven, along with all the other matters. One of her servants is murdered, another disappears, and the life of an English spy in France is being threatened.
Intrigue and fast action thread the pages and Ursula's pleasing life is sorely disrupted and threatened from all sides. As the plot unravels we are treated to insights into at a strong woman, wary of her position, with no illusions about her value to the court, who somehow maintains her understanding, insights and compassion.
A fast paced, very human, historical mystery.

A NetGalley ARC

A Perilous Alliance Fiona Buckley 4 stars

Mistress Ursula Stannard has buried three husbands and now enjoys a peaceful rural life with her young son Harry and her devoted household. However Ursula is not the simple widow she may appear; the illegitimate half-sister of Queen Elizabeth I, she has another role as secret agent to the Queen.

Suddenly her whole comfortable life is threatened; England needs to build an alliance with France against the rising power of Spain, and Elizabeth needs Ursula to marry the French Count Renard and ideally produce a child with royal blood. Ursula most definitely doesn’t want to remarry, and she certainly doesn’t want to move to France, but she has been backed into a corner and is forced to entertain the Count, and expected to accept his proposal.

On the morning of the wedding there is a startling hiatus to the planning and life becomes extremely complicated.

So begins a desperate quest to save the life of an English spy, Christopher Spelton, who Ursula discovers has been betrayed. She must advise the Queen’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham, of the peril to Shelton, and must also set off herself, with her closest retainers to try to avert disaster.

Their journey leads them into a series of adventures, and meetings with diverse families and characters, including the chillingly evil Captain Garnett. Instead of taking Ursula and her party to Calais as agreed, he has altogether different plans for them.
This is an enjoyable book with lots of suspense and a number of denouements coming thick and fast. I must admit I found Ursula an unlikely spy and special agent, but somehow the author does make it work. There are convincing ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, romance, adventure, pirates and white-slavers and mutiny which makes for an intriguing and page-turning tale.

After a daring escape, Ursula and her party must report to the Queen and to Walsingham before undertaking a final task and a four hundred mile Journey to Edinburgh.
The ending is, as it must be, predictable with all living happily, if not for ever after, but all in all an enjoyable romp through Elizabethan England.
Pashtpaws

Fans of Elizabethan intrigue will enjoy this Tudor mystery. The book stands alone, but there are enough non-spoiler hints at the backstory to entice new readers to look for Buckley's twelve earlier titles.