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Venita Louise

Venita Louise

About

Venita lives in Southern California with her husband. She currently has three books available at Amazon and in most book stores, Mixed Nuts, a light-hearted comedy set in the 1960's and Dead on the Money, a mystery set in the 1940's which is the sequel to Initials For Murder, published as an e-book in 2004. She sings lead vocals in a cover band with her husband and they write music together under the name, White Smoke.

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

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

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<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

What if you experienced something that challenged everything you believe? Could you handle it? How about your friends?http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/in-mysterious-ways-by-venita-louise.html

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Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews

🔗 http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/in-mysterious-ways-by-venita-louise.html

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Reviews

<p>Michelle Sutton, top reviewer for Amazon says,</p> <p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">This is one of the oddest books I've read in a long time, but I found it compulsively readable. I kept wanting to know what would happen next. I really liked the fact that a good portion of the story was set in Arizona and every scene mentioned a place that I'd been to including Metro Center, so that was cool. I won the book on the internet and because of the cover I thought it was an inspirational title (plus the publisher is Vinspire and that publisher does carry inspirational titles) but found out it was not Christian fairly early on. At the same time I told myself it was fiction, and hey, it was interesting, so I kept reading.</span><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;" /><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;" /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">The story did inspire me in some ways. I liked the mysterious changes that happened to them after they went to the crop circle so it was a great way to show tension in a relationship resulting from those changes. There was a lot of stuff about AA in there as well as crystals and it had a general Sedona-type weirdness when it came to spirituality. But I still enjoyed the story. At first I wasn't sure I'd like the ending, and my heart really ached for Lang. I felt like I understood him. The ending turned out to be one of the best parts of the book, so if you read this story, hang in there.</span><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;" /><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;" /><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">The author delves deep into the characters' emotions and she addresses issues of trust, friendship, and the cost of true love. If you like a deep read and don't mind a little weirdness when it comes to crystals and unexplained healings, you'll enjoy this one.</span></p>