The Cubs Roar – The final book in the Plantagenet series
Eleanor of Aquitaine has disappeared. After launching a great rebellion to destroy her husband Henry II’s reign, it seems she has abandoned her sons in the struggle against their formidable father. As treachery radiates from Scotland to the Pyrenees, tension between the kings of France and England erupts into war.
Richard, the mightiest of the English princes, is determined to find his mother and avenge her. But Henry is more cunning than Richard or any of the other rebels anticipated, and the fates of Eleanor, her sons, and France itself, are in jeopardy.
The final book in the sumptuous Birth of the Plantagenets series, The Cubs Roar, illuminates the tumultuous end of Henry II. A tragic history of love, power and betrayal, The Cubs Roar reveals the destruction of an empire at the hands of a broken family.
Duffy’s thoughts on The Cubs Roar
I LOVED the previous book, The Lioness Wakes, the fourth in The Birth Of The Plantagenets series and got right into it, even though I hadn’t read the whole series. That’s the thing with history, you can pick it up from any point in time and then be carried along the years, the wars, the conspiracies and the shifts in power.
The Cubs Roar is no exception. Queen Eleanor’s plans were rumbled by King Henry II and she has gone from ruler and Queen to prisoner. Eleanor may be down, but she is far from out and navigates her way through the years, carefully influencing her sons and hopefully not losing her nerve or her head.
The story of Eleanor is one I knew little about until reading the Plantagenet series by Blanche d’Alpuget. She was a Wiley woman with strength, cunning and a rare knack of keeping a seat at the table of ruling men in a time where women were mere objects, dutiful wives or troublesome mistresses.
Blanche d’Alpuget has written a rich historical fiction which had me hooked from the first page to the last. If you loved Wolf Hall, or wanted a less graphic Game of Thrones, this series could well be for you.
