"The Yellow Poppy", D.K. Broster

This book is unusual in two ways: first of all, unlike most of Broster's historical romances the plot *does* actually revolve around a 'romance'. ( Wounded Name, Chantemerle, Mr Rowl )

in "The Yellow Poppy" questions of honour, war and loyalty are ultimately present as a background to the relationship between husband and wife rather than the reverse.

That, of course, is the other highly unusual element -- that the ardent affair in question (barely even a love-triangle, since it consists of two people who are passionately in love with one another and a third who basically has no chance from the start) is depicted as taking place between characters who, very unusually for the era and genre, are all well over forty years old. ( Read more... )

Not quite what one would expect in the average historical romance, where the heroine is not generally described as having 'faded' hair...

De Brencourt fell in love with her ten years earlier; she has been married to Gaston for twenty-three, and for the last seven, believing that he has lost her, he has finally fallen in love with his wife in return. Three-quarters of the book (it doesn't feel like that in retrospect, but in fact all the following events only occupy a hundred pages or so) is taken up by the plot developments that gradually bring them back together, as both discover that the other is still alive.( Read more... )