Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

Jacquetta, daughter of the Count of Luxembourg and kinswoman to half the royalty of Europe, was married to the great Englishman John, Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI. Widowed at the age of nineteen she took the extraordinary risk of marrying a gentleman of her house-hold for love, and then carved out a life for herself as Queen Margaret of Anjou's close friend and a Lancaster supporter - until the day that her daughter Elizabeth Woodville fell in love and married the rival king Edward IV. Of all the little-known but important women of the period, her dramatic story is the most neglected. With her links to Melusina, and to the founder of the house of Luxembourg, together with her reputation for making magic, she is the most haunting of heroines.


Philippa Gregory's book The Other Boyeln Girl was the book that started my love for Historical Fiction, I just loved that book along with 2 others in that series.  I looked forward to her new series The War of the Rose also known as the Cousins War with high hopes.
  
This is book 3 in the  series.  The Red Queen was about Elizabeth Woodville, so we did see her mother in this one.  The White Queen was about Margaret Beaufort.  


So now we turn to Jacquetta, mother of Elizabeth Woodville.  The book started off so nicely, there was Joan of Arc, her ties to Melusina and what I thought was a great beginning.  Everything flowed together so nicely, I looked forward to reading more.   There was her marriage to John, Duke of Bedford, widowhood and then falling in love with Richard Woodville.  About half way through I felt it started to slow down somewhat.  The friendship between the Queen and Jacquetta didn't seem genuine to me, I actually found the Queen to be somewhat spoiled, but that is my opinion, and she very well might have been.  There was baby after baby (seriously I lost count as to how many there were and I found myself wondering what her body looked like after all those pregnancies).


It was still an interesting story, not as good as The Other Boleyn Girl and I am glad to have read it.