" Chadwick's historical novels are good because they stick to the reality of what happened and try to explain within the context of the time decisions that seem alien to us. This volume is the lifetime of the parents of William Marshall, John FitzGilbert and Sibylla of Salisbury, who try to navigate the dangerous shoals of the civil war between Maude and Stephen for the English throne. Chadwick does well with the annulment of FitzGilbert's first marriage, the truce with Salisbury and the famous episode in which a young William Marshall was a hostage to Stephen and pretty much treated it like a Plantagenet Ransom of Red Chief. I usually respect her research that yields such good details and interpretations, but this one's notes include her thanks to a psychic she consults to read dead historical peoples' imprint on the universe, a fact in which I am just eye-rollingly disappointed. "
— Margaret, 7/24/2013