• Author
  • Book
  • Story behind the book
  • Media Links
  • Reviews
Patricia Bruening

Patricia Bruening

About

 

A survivor of domestic, Ms. Bruening lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she attends Brown Mackie College seeking a degree in Criminal Justice. An avid reader of everything, her favorite authors include Christine Feehan, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Clive Cussler, and any Star Trek or Star Wars novel. She enjoys camping, hiking, reading, writing, martial arts, and watching football, especially when she wins the mini pool between her and her boyfriend. She watches a lot of the History Channel and Discovery and enjoys working on cars with her boyfriend.

She is a member of Writing.com, an on-line group of writers and readers who help each other become better writers—and have fun doing it! She also completed the Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Workshop.

Other titles by Ms. Bruening, available at Amazon.com, include Embraced by Darkness, Always a Warrior, Still a Warrior, Affairs of the Gods, Graphic Intentions, Dangerous Connections, and Zoe's Return.

The Sons of Godwine: Part Two of The Last Great Saxon Earls

The Sons of Godwine: Part Two of The Last Great Saxon Earls

0.0
0 ratings

Description

<p>Emerging from the long shadow cast by his formidable father, Harold Godwineson showed himself to be a worthy successor to the Earldom of Wessex. In the following twelve years, he became the King's most trusted advisor, practically taking the reins of government into his own hands. And on Edward the Confessor's death, Harold Godwineson mounted the throne—the first king of England not of royal blood. Yet Harold was only a man, and his rise in fortune was not blameless. Like any person aspiring to power, he made choices he wasn't particularly proud of. Unfortunately, those closest to him sometimes paid the price of his fame.<br /><br />This is a story of Godwine's family as told from the viewpoint of Harold and his younger brothers. Queen Editha, known for her Vita Ædwardi Regis, originally commissioned a work to memorialize the deeds of her family, but after the Conquest historians tell us she abandoned this project and concentrated on her husband, the less dangerous subject. In THE SONS OF GODWINE and FATAL RIVALRY, I am telling the story as it might have survived had she collected and passed on the memoirs of her tragic brothers.<br /><br />This book is part two of The Last Great Saxon Earls series. Book one, GODWINE KINGMAKER, depicted the rise and fall of the first Earl of Wessex who came to power under Canute and rose to preeminence at the beginning of Edward the Confessor's reign. Unfortunately, Godwine's misguided efforts to champion his eldest son Swegn recoiled on the whole family, contributing to their outlawry and Queen Editha's disgrace. Their exile only lasted one year and they returned victorious to London, though it was obvious that Harold's career was just beginning as his father's journey was coming to an end.<br /><br />Harold's siblings were all overshadowed by their famous brother; in their memoirs we see remarks tinged sometimes with admiration, sometimes with skepticism, and in Tostig's case, with jealousy. We see a Harold who is ambitious, self-assured, sometimes egocentric, imperfect, yet heroic. His own story is all about Harold, but his brothers see things a little differently. Throughout, their observations are purely subjective, and witnessing events through their eyes gives us an insider’s perspective.<br /><br />Harold was his mother's favorite, confident enough to rise above petty sibling rivalry but Tostig, next in line, was not so lucky. Harold would have been surprised by Tostig's vindictiveness, if he had ever given his brother a second thought. And that was the problem. Tostig's love/hate relationship with Harold would eventually destroy everything they worked for, leaving the country open to foreign conquest. This subplot comes to a crisis in book three of the series, FATAL RIVALRY.</p>

Story Behind The Book

This book is the first of a trilogy, the whole story coming to me in one night. Since it didn't let me sleep, I spent the next few days writing the first rough draft! It nagged at me until I wrote the last word! The second story will be out soon and I am working on the third.

Media Links

Reviews

  <p style="border-bottom:medium none;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;margin-right:.39in;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;" align="left"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">(http://sirenbookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/patricia-oshier-bruening-embraced-by.html</font></font></font></p> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><br /></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">Embraced by Darkness by Patricia Oshier Bruening is an engaging story...&quot;</font></font></font></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><br /></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">&quot;The story’s characters were well developed and likable. Each character has a different and unique personality that was well developed.&quot;</font></font></font></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><br /></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">&quot;The romantic scenes between Ben and Naomi are definitely hot. Ms. Bruening manages the idea of two psychics feeding one another’s desires quite well. I enjoyed the mystery of who-done-it, and what would happen next immensely.&quot;</font></font></font></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><br /></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">&quot;I found Embraced by Darkness to be quite a captivating story.</font></font></font></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">Posted by Kayden McLeod at 11:25 AM </font></font></font></blockquote> <blockquote style="border-bottom:medium none;text-align:left;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">Labels: 4 Siren Stones!<br /><br /><br /><br />  </font></font></font><p style="margin-bottom:.2in;" align="justify">The rush of your breath and the pounding of your pulse will let you know just how unnerving this novel truly is. Naomi’s and Ben’s characters are not your average couple; in fact there are times when you dislike or are disgusted with both of them, but that is exactly what makes them so vivid and alive. They both have demons within that they struggle to overcome, and that fight really draws the reader in. I sincerely hope that this story continues on, because there is so much more to learn and love about the victims of Psychorp. </p> <p style="border-bottom:medium none;border-left:#000000 1pt solid;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:.05in;padding-right:0in;margin-bottom:.2in;margin-left:.45in;border-top:medium none;margin-right:.39in;border-right:medium none;padding-top:0in;" align="justify"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial"><font size="2">Lototy<br />Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance &amp; More</font></font></font></p></blockquote>