The King's Daughter

This is the second book in the Thornleigh series, and every bit as good as the first (maybe even better). Isabel Thornleigh gets herself involved in the rebel uprising against catholic Queen Mary. At the same time she is trying to locate and rescue her father from prison where he has been placed for killing the man who shot his wife (Isabel's mother). Of course she has a handsome bad boy to help her with this mission in the form of Carlos Valverde, but is he helping or is he just using Isabel? There is heaps of action and the book never gets boring. I really enjoyed it and am giving it 4 stars. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series [The Queen's Captive].

After being only lukewarm toward the previous novel in the series, The Queen's Lady, it's a surprise that I even bothered to pick up this book in the first place. Basically, I just saw it on the clearance rack at Half Price Books during their 20 percent off everything sale and figured why not? I could do with a cheap historical fiction novel about the Tudor era. After being constantly pestered by Amazon about the upcoming novel in the series, I thought it was time to decide once and for all if this was a series that I was interested in.

The King's Daughter follows the adventures of Honor Thornleigh's daughter, Isabel during the reign of Mary Tudor. As Mary prepares to marry the incredibly devout Prince Philip of Spain, Isabel prepares to show more marry herself, but unwittingly finds herself caught up in a scheme to dethrone the Catholic Mary and replace her with the Protestant Elizabeth. The stakes raise even higher when Mary puts Isabel's father in prison, and her only hope lies in a mysterious and roguish Spaniard.

I guess I'm not entirely sure what to expect in the next volume of the Thornleigh series. Maybe something more engaging and unexpected, but that's not what I got here. It was really just more of the same from The Queen's Lady, only surrounding a different protagonist and a different monarch. I still had issues here with Kyle's somewhat weak writing, flat characters and an overall not-that-great story. I was at least able to finish it, but I wouldn't recommend this book, or its predecessor, as anything more than a library read. show less

I am only 12 chapters in but feel the need to speak my mind now and come back later with my full review. Lots of people commented on the sordid scene that happens which makes you almost put down the book, I thought it couldn't be as bad as people led on but it was. I find no point in it really being in the book, Barbara Kyle could have done something else. I do like that the book focuses on Richard more because the first book was all about Honor. This book was just as good as the first one was.

The King's Daughter focuses on the time right after Queen Mary comes to power and is trying to finalize her marriage to Prince Phillip of Spain. The heroine of this book is actually Honor's daughter Isabel. Isabel betrothed is helping the rebels lead by Wyatt against the Queen to bring Princess Elizabeth to power. Isabel is able to convince Wyatt that she can be a messenger from the French Ambassador to him. Her family's history with neighbors - the Greenvilles - ends up causing her mother to get critical injured and her father to be put in jail. While trying to rescue her father from jail, Isabel is forced to "pay" for his freedom by being violated by the head jailer. Of course this "payment" backfires and her father is transferred to show more another jail. While in jail Isabel meets Carlos - a Spanish mercenary - who she ends up freeing & hiring to help her find where her father was taken. Isabel is torn between helping the rebels and searching for her father with Carlos. As a fellow heretic that worked along side of her parents in the past threatens to expose her family's dark secrets, Isabel must find a way to get her parents to safety and still support her own beliefs. show less

Great book! It had mystery, excitement, romance, knights in armour ... what else do you need? Loved it.

The title does not really reflect the story. It's about a woman who is a minor member of the court.

can't rate or review, need to think if i want to read it or not.