A wonderful story full of detail that brings alive the fifteenth century when Henry VII defeats the King and takes the throne. The lady at the centre is Joan Vaux whose mother served Henry's mother and now it is joan's duty to serve Elizabeth of York and she is privy to a lot of secrets that take her to meetings at the Tower where she discovers the ravens and literally falls in love with their quaint ways and believes that the Tudors will reign only when the ravens stay at the Tower. Full of vivid detail and at the centre you understand the risks that women underwent in childbirth. Joan has a marriage arranged with Richard Guildford but is also approached by another who she turns down. She becomes a stepmother to six and her difficulty coping with the brood is beautifully explained. This novel pulls aside the curtain of life at court and is a great read!

This was a really engaging Historical novel. Nicely paced with enough detail of the Reign of Henry VII to keep the War of the Roses fab in me happy. All the key players in the New Tudor dynasty appear.

A lovely domestic tale and gentle love story also made for a thoroughly satisfying whole.

Highly recommended

Joan Vaux is a young woman in the court of King Henry VII, her mother is one of the ladies in waiting to Henry’s young queen Elizabeth. Joan herself is fascinated by the ravens which reside at the Tower of London, and builds a relationship with them, feeding them and encouraging their presence – she finds herself much derided, particularly by Sir Henry Wyatt, a senior member of the king’s team.

As the girls around her marry, Joan is terrified of the prospect, and above all terrified of the prospect of childbirth. It seems marriage is not something she can avoid and she is soon forced to choose between Sir Henry Wyatt, and the recently widowed Sir Richard Guildford, neither proposer being someone she wants to accept.

The story continues exploring Joan’s marriage, her new role as stepmother, and her promotions up through the rank of the queen’s ladies.

Joan is a fascinating character, and I found the story compelling. I’ve not read any of Joanna Hickson’s work before, but have dipped into Philippa Gregory, and this is the best comparison – definitely on a par.

Joan Vaux, who was brought up in the household of Margaret Beaufort. Upon Henry Tudor becoming King, Joan finds herself installed as a lady in waiting to Elizabeth of York.

As a young girl Joan made her first visit to the Tower of London to visit her mother and found herself fascinated by the inhabitant ravens. Joan had been told the tale that it was believed the ravens kept the Tower safe and if they ever left then the kingdom would fall.

Joan finds herself married to a courtier with a number of talents and who lives at the Tower of London, providing Joan with access to the ravens. Enlisting the help of a young boy who grows up to love the ravens as much as she does, Joan manages to ensure the ravens flourish at the Tower.

One man is not happy and aims to rid the Tower of the ravens. We all know the ravens are still at the Tower so thankfully they've managed to stay even obtaining royal permission.

What can I say? I absolutely loved this. It was a great story based around the legend of the ravens at the Tower of London but includes some very real characters.

I visited the Tower of London myself last year and have to say the ravens are fascinating! They're not afraid of humans and make lots of wonderful sounds.

There's also recently been a TV programme called Inside the Tower which has segments of the lives of the ravens and the ravenmaster.

I'd recommend the book, tv show and certainly the Tower itself to anyone with an interest in the time of Henry VII and the Tudors.


I have also planned a post to be published on my blog just before publication and will post to Amazon.

I absolutely fell in love with Joan and her ravens. This book is well written, well researched and utterly captivating, transporting you back in time with ease. A must read for historical fiction fans.

I really enjoyed the history and the writing in this story. The rise of Joan amongst the newly established Tudor court is packed with historical references and insight. I appreciate this period in history was complicated but there were times I lost the plot of who was who and what the historical relevance was, there were nods to her previous book about Jasper Tudor but I did find that book geld more action and story than this one. Having said that I still enjoyed the journey throuh Joan's life and especially the ravens.

I love historical fiction set in Tudor times and this time I was not disappointed at all. I loved the storyline and the characters, The story tells us about the women that history usually forgets. Highly recommended!

New life was breathed in to the old favourites, the Tudors, with this telling of life under Henry VII. I enjoyed this more than I expected and although I am sure that not all the historical details were accurate, I was swept along with the characters and telling of life in the Royal Household. I liked the parts about the ravens as they interest me now, there still being a Raven Master at the Tower of London. Perhaps we will learn of the development of this role in a subsequent book. Altogether it was an informative read and a very enjoyable one.

This book came at just the right time for me – I had recently finished reading Thomas Penn’s excellent (non-fiction) The Brothers York which finished with the death of Richard III and ascension to the throne of Henry VII. The Lady of the Ravens picks up the story right at that point and is told from the perspective of a friend and gentlewoman of Elizabeth of York, soon to be queen and eventually mother of Henry VIII.
Like all good historical fiction, it pins the story around known facts and takes its liberties in the grey and unknown areas. The portrayal of the real historical characters rings true with other accounts but is not too caricatured. I particularly liked the spiky sister of the queen, Anne of York (who married Thomas Howard, later Duke of Norfolk). As usual, I couldn’t help breaking off from reading to look up the people involved and their relationships to one another, with an eye on the dramatis personae of the later Henrician saga.
This is marked as Book 1 of the Queens of the Tower series. I look forward to reading the subsequent stories.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a compelling read, with well-drawn characters, and a real sense of the period. Once I had immersed myself in it, I found it very difficult to put down.

Historical fiction isn't my usual read, however this caught my interest!
I did have to persevere a bit and I'm glad I finished it.
Overall it was a good compelling read.
Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a good Historical Novel and I have read Hickson before, hence why I requested this novel, took me a little while to read it, due to personal restirctions, but it was worth the while, as this did not disappoint.

I really liked her First of the Tudors books and was excited to read this, as mentioned previously.

As with all her novels, she tells a great story and makes the charecters come alive , Joan was a great charecter to read, I have read so many novels that set themselves in the Court of Henry VIII and really felt it was about time that i read more about his father's court.

As you read, you get to know more about said court and of course of Joan, whom I became quite attached to whilst reading, Please can we have more!

I hope this comes out on audiobook as I would love to revisit it one day.

The story of how the Tower of London and the monarchy of England will fall if the Ravens leave, is the background to this fascinating story, of fifteenth century Tudor history. Shown from a feminist perspective, the trials of being a female in those days, must make us modern women, feel so thankful for advances in modern childbirth, marriage laws and a general enlightenment of the value of females today. Tudor women, especially those of Royal blood, were married early, usually to gain advantages of land, titles, very rarely was love considered. Child brides could be mothers at thirteen, and dead by sixteen. Such turbulent times, meant you could on the throne one day, and deposed and imprisoned the next. Breeding was done for children to rule the land and create powerful alliances, females were to bring advantageous marriages.
The narrator of this story, is Joan Vaux, who is in Royal service. I recognised the name when I requested this book,as I lived about 20 miles away from Harrowden Hall, when I lived in Northamptonshire, but I didn't know the full story of this lady. I found this book to be a very well researched story about the early Tudor court, and I learnt a lot about this family. The amount of detail was fascinating, and never dealt with in such detail, when I was studying this period at school. I do hope there will be others in this series, I strongly believe that the small and often neglected details of the time, especially the female views, show the greatest understanding of that historical period. The life of the females was often neglected, but is so rich in that so many diaries and notes, have been made and then forgotten, and I am delighted that this rich source of material is being discovered and used at long last. I will look forward to the next book in this series, a definite five star read.

The Lady Of The Ravens is historical fiction set during the Tudor age.

Joan is part of the Royal household of York, she is the Lady Of The Ravens. She cares for and protects the famous ravens.

This is a tale of royal politics, life at court, intrigue and the way of life at the time. Historical fiction at its best.

Thank you to the publishers, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this for free. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Having read the story of The Brothers York this book provides an interesting sequel. It is of a different style as it focuses on the life and career of a noble but lowly chamber maid to the Queen consult of King Henry at the start of the Tudor Dynasty. How she becomes interested in the Ravens of the Tower and succeeds in saving them when men wanted to kill them also provides an insight to the politics of the time. The Brothers York was a tragic story but in contrast this has a happy ending as she rises in the Queens service and finds unexpected true love along the way.. A most enjoyable read.

I had mixed feelings about this book. Although it's about a period I like and well enough written, I reached the end and thought "so what?". There were no new insights or ideas about the characters that are not covered already by Phillipa Gregory or Hilary Mantel during the next reign.
There were a few bits of lurid prose and some errors - surely cloth of gold is well, gold, not white or varied colours ?

A fabulous tale bringing Tudor history to life, this book has as much fact in it as it does fiction, with most of the characters being genuine historical figures. Set during the reign of Henry VI, we catch a fascinating glimpse of life in the royal household, both upstairs and downstairs, as well as find out about the ravens in the title. The storyline is based around Joan Vaux who really was a lady in waiting to Henry's wife, Queen Elizabeth of York, and moves along at a steady pace throughout, yet keeps you turning the pages simply by being so beautifully written. I was effortlessly transported back to the late 1400's and found myself wanting to learn more about the people in the book afterwards ( thanks to Wikipedia!) The ending is a little abrupt, but I hope that means there are more stories to come from The Tower of London. 4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

The Lady of the Ravens gives an insightful fictionalised account of the life and ‘obsession’ of Giovanni ‘Joan’ Vaux, later Lady Joan Guildford, lady-in-waiting to Henry VII’s wife Elizabeth of York. An avid believer of the superstitious belief that as long as the ravens are in residence at the Tower of London the kingdom will flourish, Joan sets about ensuring the ongoing breeding program of her beloved birds however polarised and deceptive the attitudes of the human residents. The book ends as Joan is feted by King `Henry for her achievements. A bit of a cheese read but nevertheless quite enjoyable in holding my attention.

Joan Vaux is brought to live in the shadow of the Tower of London when young and seeing her first raven is impressed and in awe of them .Years later she becomes their champion whilst serving as lady in waiting to Elizabeth of York ,wife of Henry VII .
This is a cracking slice of history told from the viewpoint of a minor historical figure not one of the royal family and as such we learn more about the lives of ordinary citizens. Joan ,fearful of the consequences of childbirth, vows not to marry. However,, as a member of court ,she is given no choice and ends up as stepmother to the children of the recently widowed Richard Guildford. This serves to remind us that marriage in those times was mainly seen as a political tool and women really had little power if any . Luckily for Joan her husband turns out to be a gentleman and her life is not so bad .
As a fan of historical fiction, particularly of this period , I loved the fact that the story was told from a different viewpoint and was obviously well researched . The ravens are fascinating creatures ,their symbolism and the folklore around them is interwoven well into the story of the crown and Henry’s bid to unite the warring factions at this period in history. I look forward to reading the next instalment of Joan Vaux’s life

An enjoyable Historical fiction set right at the beginning of the Tudor period. Joan Veaux is lady in waiting to Elizabeth of Yor, who is married to Henry VII. Despite being terrified in the beginning of childbirth, and therefore marriage, she ends up having to marry Richard Guildford. He has rooms in the Tower of London where she comes across the ravens, which according to legend are protectors of the Tower and when there are no ravens left, the kingdom will fall. She admires the ravens, an unpopular opinion at the time and encourages them.
I found it interesting to read about this period, there are plenty of books out there on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, but this is the first time I have come across a book set in the earlier period of the Tudor dynasty. I look forward to reading more if they become available.

*Many thanks to Netgalley and Harpercollins for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion*