Interesting insights into Freemasonry, in a fantasy setting.
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Katherine Kurtz does a credible job with the historical setting. Her ploy of using Freemasonry as a recruiting ground and cover for a deeper esoteric group, which shares considerable common interests with the Jacobite movement is compelling. The author's only flaw is during the initiation of the lady, when she exempts her from one requirement, but maintains another. This displays modern sensiblities, not those of an age where a proper lady would feel no compunction nursing an infant in public, but when no woman could expose her legs to view without scandal. The lady, her husband and the gentleman preparing her for the ritual, should have found it no more uncomfortable, and perhaps eaisier, to bare the left breast than to bare the left leg from the knee down. Knowing how modesty was practiced in that day, it was for me a jarring note.
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Should have been better
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This is not at all what I expect from KK. I waited a while before reading this book and a week later I can't even remember character names. The rituals that are usually so wonderful and full of meaning fell short. The historical setting didn't add to this story as it did in _Lammas Night_, a book at least 10X better than this one. My advice is save your money and get TCfA out of the library if you feel you must read it.
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This book took me places - literally
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I consider a book great if, after I finish it, I can't stop thinking about it. After I read Katharine Kurtz's Two Crowns for America, I became so interested in colonial history that I visited George Washington's birthplace in Westmoreland County, VA and other Washington historical sites in Fredericksburg, VA. As a fan of historical fiction, my favorites are the ones that make well known figures more real and human; they do more than describe the heros and heroines as GREAT FIGURES IN HISTORY. The story is a wonderful blend of history and fantasy, making me wish it really happened this way. I would recommend this book to anyone hated history class in high school. They will find history is much more entertaining when Katherine Kurtz tells it.
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United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada