Review: A Queen from the North

A Queen from the North by Erin McRae
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first heard about this in Dear Author's Daily Deals and I was intrigued by the idea.

Imagine an alternate reality where the United Kingdom took a different turn in history and the House of Lancaster still rules. Where Ireland is a separate Kingdom and the Yorkists still resent the Lancastrians. Where the North is kept poor and subject to the South. But pretty much everything else is the same.

Lady Amelia Brockett is a member of one of the rebellious York families, a York Princess if you will. Her Christmas has been ruined when her boyfriend dumps her and she fails to get accepted into MIT, just as the icing on the cake her mother announces all the bad news in front of forty of their closest friends and family.

Her brother Charlie invites her to accompany him to the Kempton Races as his wife Jo is allergic to horses, as the childhood friend of Prince Arthur they are seated in the Royal Box where Amelia strikes up an awkward conversation with the prince.

Prince Arthur is seventeen years older than Amelia and a widower. His slightly odd niece George advises him that he must remarry to get an heir and save the Kingdom. When he meets his best friend's little sister at Kempton he is amused and intrigued by a young woman who treats him more as a person than as a royal or as a prize in some kind of matrimonial game. Sedate meetings take place at garden parties and charitable events as Arthur and his parents mark out Amelia for attention.

This is pretty unique. A contemporary marriage of convenience that feels historical, very Wars of the Roses with a York princess marrying into the House of Lancaster to unify the country. There is also a distinctly magical feel to the book with superstition around the Ravens and the Tower of London and George's uncanny premonitions. There is also the May to December romance. the royal duties and media pressure.

It's intriguing and confusing and clever and sad and enlightening all at once. I loved it and I am intrigued to read more books by this author.

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