The Lady of the Rivers / Phililppa Gregory / 443 pages / R. T. Reviewer's Choice Award

This historical novel is filled with witchcraft, passion, adventure, and the inner workings of the English court circa 1400.  Young Jaquetta is married off to the elderly Duke of Bedford, the English Regent of France, who desires her for her beauty and her relationship to Melusina, the river goddess.  He wants to use her sight in his alchemy experiments.  He does not come to her bed to beget an heir.  Upon his death, Jaquetta weds his chief squire, Richard Woodville.  She becomes close friends with the wife of King Henry VI and advises the French queen to act with wisdom.  The story begins with Jaquetta's  friendship with Joan of Arc, gives excellent insight into the hazards of the nobility, court gossip and intrigues, and is , perhaps most of all, a love story.