The Cousins’ War series begins with The White Queen which sees the throne of England at stake as the Wars of the Roses begin. Elizabeth Woodville is a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who secretly marries the newly crowned king of England. She ends up rising to the demands of her family as she fights of the success of her family. Now, her sons have become the central figures in an unsolved mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the lost princes in the Tower of London. Along with Richard and Julia, the Lacey clan are a demented bunch. Beatrice is like a virus that infects them all. And before long, they are lying, cheating, committing murder and engaging in incest all for the sake of a dream to secure Wideacre that Beatrice birthed. And that's where my problem lies with this book. It's a trashy book with murders and incest and it's not trashy enough! For crying out loud, there's The Monk written by a young adult man long ago and it's more fun and ridiculous than anything Philippa Gregory is doing here. There's victorian erotica on project gutenberg that's more crazy than this. Since Richard is Beatrice's child, he would be the obvious choice. However, Richard isn't just a bully to Julia, the villagers hate that guy AND the animals hate him, which if you watch horror movies is a bad, bad sign, and he loves the land, but in a possessive way and yearns to be its sole squire. ALSO, his crimes get more and more outrageous as he matures and the book progresses. I’d love to have written a novel that gave the world a new gothic concept or meme. Jekyll and Hyde, triffids, Stepford wives – something like that.

If you are just looking for an easy period romance, I think you can have that here. My stepmother enjoyed this series, and she has no use for themes and discussion of those themes. Give her pretty dresses, pretty gardens to stroll in, grand balls, handsome men and fine marriages. She's a happy camper.I think that all three women in these books have qualities that can be admirable, yet they all have demons. I think it makes them more real. I like stories of women with the holy trinity; the good, the bad, and the ugly. But even those harshest critics of the author’s dark-hearted characters commend Philippa Gregory for her incredible writing style.

In The Favoured Child (1989), John and Celia reunite and raise young Richard and Julia, but Richard inherits his mother's destructive desire to claim Wideacre. Meridon (1990) follows young Sarah Lacey, renamed Meridon and raised by gypsies, as she discovers her past as the daughter of Richard and Julia. This is an 18th century saga about the Lacey family, living on Wideacre, a country estate surrounded by woods and a village that were once bountiful havens, where the wealthy took care of their people, or a least until the obsessive, narcissistic, abusive, perverse and incestuous Beatrice Lacey grew up to literally ruin everything and everyone on the land. Beatrice Lacey is willful and beautiful, and she has a keen mind. Unfortunately, society in the 18th Century expects her to wed, birth children and then care for her family. But Beatrice refuses to conform to society’s expectations. The Wideacre series is not necessarily Beatrice’s story. In fact, her presence is primarily restricted to the first novel. However, the character has such a powerful effect on the Wideacre estate and every life she touches that her presence continues to hover all the novels in this series.

Harry is not only unintelligent but also ever absent. He also doesn’t care about Wideacre and is only positioned to inherit the estate because he’s a man and Beatrice is a woman. The injustice of it all drives Beatrice up the wall and she makes it her mission in life to bring Wideacre under her direct control.

Hee-hee. Loved it. It's really well-written, although maybe not as well as Wideacre, the first in the trilogy (Meridon is next). The story of the Lacey squires of Wideacre continues, and it's just as dark and compelling as it ever was. I really wonder what Philippa Gregory was going for in this novel, because she certainly didn't give us a likable heroine in the slightest. Beatrice Lacey is one of the most horrible, nasty protagonists I've read...and honestly I enjoyed her scandalous behavior. I went into this novel knowing that she was a universally disliked character, and I think that really helped my overall enjoyment of this. Philippa Gregory is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction.

Like most Gregory books, she explores the restrictive world of the female sex. These women live in a world where the only skills and talents that are valued are 1) the ability to marry well, and 2) the ability to produce healthy male heirs. Nothing else really matters. Your family's fortune can increase or decrease with every marriage and birth. You feel the pressure. Meridon begins 16 years later. Meridon's gypsy mother died years ago. Meridon lives with her step-father, his new wife and baby, and with Dandy, whom she believes is her twin sister. The family is poor, traveling in a gypsy caravan, and Da is a drunk and a cheat. He works his daughters very hard and often mistreats them. But Meridon and Dandy are sustained by their deep love for each other. And Meridon has odd, recurring dreams about an estate called Wide, and about women who look like her who have lived there. She is convinced that she belongs at Wide, not in her gypsy life. People seem to either love this book or hate it with a passion. Is it ok that I'm just meh/bored with it? A Little Romance?:Richard and Julia fall in love as children (but they don't realize they are brother and sister). She later falls in love with James, but Richard the psychopath doesn't like this one bit, so he effectively puts and end to it. Then when Julia was taken to Bath to rid her mind of the Sight (I was not happy with John or Celia for that), she slowly fell in love with James. I eventually wanted her and James to be together and not her with her brother. Unfortunately, Wikipedia spoiled it for me when I just wanted a plot summary after finishing "Wideacre" to make sure I understood that Ralph killed Beatrice and told me that Julia and Richard had a daughter together . I was wondering how that then was going to work when Julia was set to marry James? Well, Richard rapes Julia, breaks her wrist, and unfortunately for her but fortunately for Richard, he impregnates her. The Lacey's are a surprisingly fertile bunch. She asks him to marry her, and he agrees to gain complete control and ownership of Wideacre. So I guess Beatrice's idea of the joint heirs of Wideacre wasn't a good idea after all...I wonder if Beatrice would have approved of Richard's actions because like her, he did whatever possible to have full control of Wideacre.