The Royal Game: A gripping Medieval historical romance from the Sunday Times bestselling author, perfect for autumn 2023 reading!

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The next five all take place during the same time scale, in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II with some characters appearing in more than one novel: England, 1444. King Henry VI’s grip on the crown hangs by a thread as the Wars of the Roses starts to tear England apart. This novel follows the ambitions of the Paston family, told through the voices (and letters) of three women: Margaret Mautby Paston (married to the Paston heir, John), Elizabeth 'Eliza' Paston (John's sister), and Anne Haute (cousin of Elizabeth Woodeville, hoping to marry into the Paston family).

In the end, there are many lose ends which it seems will be dealt with in another volume. Slightly unsatisfactory. In this novel we follow the Pastons. Just as Anne’s last book is mainly focussed on the strong female character of Cecily Neville this one has a strong main focus on Margaret Mautby Paston who has married into the Paston family following the usual arrangement by the two families which will benefit both sides. She becomes such a strong lady, having to deal with battles, wars, births and deaths, illness and the constant fight to hold on to the family property and assets for her place in society and her children’s inheritance.Margaret is a wonderfully independently minded woman, and yet constrained by her position in life, and her sex so she can only do so much when trouble strikes, but she will do it to her upmost. It wasn’t until the end of the novel that I discovered this was to become a series. While I’m not a huge fan of reading a series, I do like an historical one such as this, and I wasn’t quite ready to be done with this family yet, so I look forward to the next release, hopefully coming later this year. Recommended for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, this is high quality historical fiction. Anne O’Brien is a favourite of mine within this genre and topic. The Royal Game is a captivating saga that made me feel as though I had stepped right into another world for the duration. I knew nothing about the Paston family before reading Miss. O’Brien’s book. Now, thankfully, I know an awful lot more - thankfully.

I have always enjoyed the appeal of History.I taught the subject with enthusiasm but it became my ambition to write historical romances. My first novel, The Runaway Heiress, was published by Mills and Boon in 2004. With a title like The Royal Game, you might expect this novel to be about a king or a queen; in fact, it’s the story of the Pastons, who rose from humble origins to become members of the aristocracy and one of Norfolk’s most influential families during the 15th century. Their collection of personal letters, known as the Paston Letters, is the largest archive of private correspondence surviving from the period and tells us a lot about life in England at that time. The Pastons’ story is retold by Anne O’Brien in fictional form, using the letters as a guide. She has chosen to focus on three characters in particular: Margaret Mautby Paston, wife of John Paston, who becomes head of the family after the death of his father; John’s sister Elizabeth (known as Eliza); and Anne Haute, a cousin of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville. There are chapters written from the perspectives of each of these women, mainly Margaret and Eliza at first, with Anne only introduced halfway through and becoming more prominent towards the end of the book. This story follows the Paston family who were a real family in the 1400’s. Landowners in Norfolk, many of their letters have survived to give us a wonderfully intimate portrait of their life and goings on at this time. I loved the focus on the women, not only the observation of events from their perspective, but the way in which the decisions made about their lives by others impacted upon them. My heart ached for Elizabeth Paston, who was treated abominably by her mother and ignored by her brothers. Fatherless, she had to rely on her brothers to find her a husband, but they were too occupied with their own affairs and any suitor that came along was rejected by her mother for insubstantial reasons. The poor woman was trapped and abused, with no ability to escape at all and no capacity to make decisions, for without a husband she was the property of her mother. I adored Margaret Paston, the wife of John, eldest son, and head of the family. She was clever, a woman who knew what was required to be a successful wife of a noble family, yet still retained a decency and kindness that was to be admired. Her empathy for her sister-in-law Elizabeth’s situation was perhaps the only reason it ever changed.Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. Anne Haute, first cousin to the Queen, is embroiled in a longstanding betrothal to Sir John Paston, the eldest son and heir to the Paston seat. But despite his promises, Anne can’t help but doubt that he will ever keep his word and make her his wife… The last ‘main’ character is Anne Haute who is also hoping for a suitable marriage and sets her hopes on marrying into the Paston family.