REVIEW: The Moon in the Water by Pamela Belle
B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Reads17th-century / England / English-Civil-War / family relationships / First-Person / Historical / saga / Stuart-England15 Comments
WARNING: Spousal rape (not committed by the hero) occurs. The death of a child occurs during a siege.
A new life awaits…
The year is 1635
When her close family are carried off by the smallpox, the small, ferociously independent Thomazine Heron finds herself an orphan at the age of ten. Not only an orphan, but a considerable heiress. Thomazine is sent to live with her Heron family cousins in the beautiful rose-coloured sprawling home of Goldhayes in Suffolk. She finds herself torn from all that she knows and thrown into a completely different world. However, she soon falls in love with the romantic house and the Heron family who live in it.
There is serious, prudish Simon, loyal Edward, clever Francis, the impetuous young Jamie and their romantic sister, Lucy. When Thomazine finds herself and her fortune betrothed to her cousin Dominic Drakelon while still only a child, she knows there is something she doesn’t quite trust about the sly, handsome boy. And when she realises she is deeply in love with one of the Heron brothers and he with her, can she find a way of releasing herself from the engagement?
But just when she’s starting to settle into her new life the clouds of civil war loom on the horizon, and Thomazine’s whole world – not to mention the whole of England – threatens to change forever. The bloody battles could tear the Heron family, and many others, apart for good.
The Moon in The Water is a page-turning, epic, historical romance from a skilful writer of the period.
Dear Ms. Belle,
Many years ago before ebooks, another of your English Civil War books was recommended to me. I devoured it, managed to find a few of your other out-of-print books but had not read them. “Eventually meaning to pick them up again” turned into years and then, lo and behold, I saw that this book (which I never found in hardback) is now available in digital. Happy days.
This one isn’t just like the meaty historicals of old – it is a meaty historical of old having first been released in the early 1980s and now being reissued by Endeavour Press. Readers need to get comfortable, settle down and prepare for an immersive trip back to the 17th century when roads were muddy bogs – making a trip from Oxfordshire to Suffolk an eight day slog, winter cold required one to wear a fur lined cloak while inside, diseases could almost wipe out a family within days, stolid Suffolk peasants viewed the wilds of Yorkshire as someplace “forrin,” and the clash between King and Parliament was about to rip the country apart.
It is established from early on that Thomazine is unusual for her gender and age in this era in that her father encouraged her to learn, take charge in childhood games, to be independent – in other words, to be the son he didn’t have at the time. She knows this is unusual too. Her life is upended though when both her younger brother and father die within days of each other from smallpox, leaving the motherless girl an heiress orphan whose wardship is taken over by the King and then sold off – a common practice then.
So she leaves her beloved, ramshackle home and journeys to live with cousins. The Heron family is described by an outsider as stubborn, willful and proud. Thomazine as well as her five cousins amply display all three traits many times over the course of the book. And yet they would probably have been thought good landlords and kind to their tenants by the standards of the times. Their servants, and I loved reading the Suffolk dialect, and the estate steward family certainly are loyal – at times unto death.
Almost half the book is about young Thomazine from age ten to seventeen – the years leading up to the beginning of war. But these are important as we see Thomazine’s education – and I was secretly delighted that she excels at sewing as well as the Latin and Greek she agitates to be allowed to study with her male cousins. She also astounds one cousin in particular with her ability to turn cartwheels and climb trees. These are lazy days of happiness while Thomazine comes to feel that the estate and the people there are more her family than her long lost ones were. It’s also when she – unbeknown even to herself – falls in love.
Francis has a mind like quicksilver – inquiring, restless and unable to be satisfied with “same old” or to not question authority, including most disastrously his eldest brother, stolid Simon who can admit no fault. Francis chafes at the restrictions laid on him by father, then Simon and the religious bent of the times. His temperament is too rebellious to allow compromise. In a tiny way he reminds me a bit of Lymond. Francis shows his true love via two Shakespearean sonnets he chooses to recite to his “owd gal” – something that will prove decisive to her later on.
Hints of the conflict to come are voiced in the words of the Irish wife of the steward’s soldier son who saw war in the Lowlands of Europe and who wrongly thought her children would grow up without those fears and horrors in peaceful England. When rumors of the political stalemate between King and Parliament reach Suffolk, the family is almost comically stunned. No, surely this could never proceed to war. Not here. Not in England.
When war finally comes, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the old BBC series “By the Sword Divided.” The action moves closer to Oxford given the Heron support for their King and all do what they can – the men to battle and the women to the defense of Thomazine’s “castle.” Soon the butcher’s bill begins to be paid while family members are left to grieve and mourn. This is also when the wild melodrama really starts and then later kicks up a few notches more. Battles are interspersed with sieges, family loyalty clashes with deadly family rivalry and the three descriptive traits mentioned early flare even higher.
This book will not stand on its own and I do hope that Endeavour Press will quickly reissue the next in the series, “The Chains of Fate.” Also be warned that Thomazine makes some choices that might be as hard for readers to accept as they are for her to make. Will she find her true love? Will she discover “Love is not love which alters it when alteration finds …”? Or will she rue the life altering decision she makes? I’m on tenterhooks to find out. B+
~Jayne
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Francis was based on Lymond. Pamela has said so in the past on the email list, marzipan and kisses.
@Flora: Aha, I thought so. He’s a nice homage without going overboard about it.
I really enjoy English Civil War settings but they are very hard to find nowadays. I loved “By The Sword Divided” but I greatly preferred the first series derived from the Molly Hardwicke book to the second series where John Hawkesworth (who had adapted the book for the first series) took over the writing. Using that as a comparison gave me a great idea of what you were conveying in your review.
I’m not sure I can commit to a series without the other books being re-released or having some idea of how long it’s going to go on but I assume as it was released in the 80’s there is a conclusion? (Unlike the Gabaldon or GRRM situations I am in the middle of, lol).
This sounds exactly like the type of book I used to read many years ago back in the 1980’s that seemed to fall out of favor. It reminds me also of the Philippa Carr (Aka Jean Plaidy, aka Victoria Holt) series I was reading back then as well where we meet the heroine as a young girl and follow her journey for decades of her life.
My one complaint: that cover. If you had not explicitly mentioned the setting, there is no way on earth I ever would have guessed it to be the early to mid 17th century. That outfit on the cover looks like some weird Steampunk variation of a gown from 1870 maybe? Not to mention the hat. If I were looking for an English Civil War story I would never pick that book up. I can’t imagine a look that is less like 1635.
I also her Wintercombe series, although 1 and 2 are my favourite. If you never read a page past bk 2, you will be fine in the series. Glad to hear these bks are being reissued. I’m going to devour them again.
I meant recommend Wintercombe! Sorry.
@Christine:
The cover struck me as odd also. I reread the review to be sure I hadn’t missed something about time travel.
Oh, I read this when it first came out (and also watched “By the Sword Divided”). Loved it then and re-read it a few years later. Alas, my paper copy has vanished. “The Chains of Fate” will really put you through the wringer before you reach a very, very satisfactory ending. There is a third book “Alathea”, which features Thomasine’s daughter, which is also wonderful.
@Christine. Re: English Civil War stories. I assume you have read all of Stella Riley’s series as well as Gillian Bradshaw’s 2 book series (first of which is London in Chains). If you haven’t, I can highly recommend both authors’ efforts.
@LeeF: Make that three of us who think the cover is odd. @Allison: That’s kind of the impression that I get of her series: Bks 1 & 2 are close sequels while the rest of the books are of the next generations.
@barbinMaryland Glad to see some love for Gillian Bradshaw’s bks. Lots of history, less focus on romance, but still page turners if you enjoy that period. I have also read all the Riley books! Such good detail.
@Christine:
I agree, that cover is weirdly misleading. Plus, it hints at a wallpaper historical, not something of substance which Jayne’s review leads me to believe this is.
@mb: It’s definitely more a Grinling Gibbons wood carving historical instead of wallpaper.
I loved this book when it came out – delighted it is now available again. Pamela is a brilliant writer who deserves a really wide public.
“a page-turning, epic, historical romance from a skilful writer of the period” rather makes it sound like Pamela Belle is from the seventeenth century! I am pleased to see a good civil war story. You don’t see them often, but there’s so much depth to be plumbed in that period.
Hello, everyone! Thank you for your kind comments, including from some I know – Hi, Zeba! To answer some of your queries – Endeavour are releasing all my ‘backlist’, The Moon in the Water and Wintercombe are now out and hopefully the rest will follow very quickly – I’m not quite sure when.
As for the covers – well, I take your comments on board, but I had no say in the designs, unfortunately. I’ll pass your concerns on to my agent, perhaps she can say something to the publisher. Meanwhile, feel free to recommend the books to friends. And if you fancy checking out my more recent work, try this: http://thecasketbypamelabelle.blogspot.co.uk/ It’s set mostly in modern times, but with seventeenth century interludes. Hope you enjoy it!
@Pam Thomas: Thanks for letting us know that the other books will be reissued. In truth I did feel a little reluctant to tout the book without knowing if and when the sequel would be released. Good to know I can keep waving its banner.