I'm having a real love/hate relationship with the main character of this book!! At times I really dislike her and think she is incredibly stupid!! Then something happens and I think she is going to turn her life around and live sensibly and make good choices....but she just can't seem to help herself so far because she is so wildly crazy about Lord Carlton!So...I tend to get caught up in specific time periods or genres....after having finished 2,046 pages with the Alice, the Duchess of Tamworth and family during the English Restoration Period...now I'm in a 976 page magnum opus about Amber St. Clare set in London just as Charles II returns to the throne in 1660....still in the Restoration period and featuring most of the same historical figures.
Charles II had been exiled and wandering around in France, Spain, and Italy for the past 10 years while Oliver Cromwell ruled. There was religious division between Catholics, Protestants, and Puritans. People were moving to America. Novels became popular.
Charles II married Catherine of Braganza (Portugal) [she is credited with introducing the custom of drinking tea] and they had no children together (she had at least 2 miscarriages). Charles did have his mistresses tho---Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Castlemaine, Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth, Moll Davis, a singer and actress, Lucy Walter, a Welchwoman who was the motherof his first child, and Nell Gwynn who really had the "rags-to-riches" story. Nell started out as a common orange seller and eventually became an actress which led to her becoming the King's favorite mistress! Charles II had 14-17 children with 15+ mistresses!!
After I finish this book, I'm going to read Speaks the Nightbird and Queen of Bedlam, both by Robert McCammon, set in America from 1699-1703 ....then I'm on to some Gilded Age mysteries and putting the Restoration Period to "rest" (pun intended! lol).
