The Wise Woman ~ Philippa Gregory

This is a haunting story of a woman's desire in a time of turbulence. Alys joins the nunnery to escape hardship and poverty but finds herself thrown back into the outside world when Henry VIII's wreckers destroy her sanctuary.

With nothing to support her but her looks, her magic and her own instinctive cunning, Alys has to tread a perilous path between the faith of her childhood and her own female power. When she falls in love with Hugo, the feudal lord and another woman's husband, she dips into witchcraft to defeat her rival and to win her lover, but finds - as her cynical old foster-mother had advised - that magic makes a poor servant but a dominant master.

Since heresy against the new church means the stake, and witchcraft the rope, Alys's danger is mortal. A woman's powers are no longer safe to use!

You can read the First Chapter here if you think this might be a book you would be interested in.

I did enjoy this book, it was my first Philippa Gregory. It does have lots of naughty words in it so some might not like it!!

A new start next on 'Barbara Erskine, Midnight is a Lonely Place'
Karen kindly sent me this when she had finished reading it (thanks Karen, hope it doesn't give me nightmares!)