I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

This is good historical fiction about an underrepresented era. It was a fun story well rooted in historical facts. I really enjoyed this.

Saxon Heroines tells the stories of three different Saxon Women, as much as I wanted to love it and in parts, I did but on the other hand I am still unsure as to whether I loved it or not. I thought there was a lot going on and at times I felt that the story with the number of characters being thrown about was a little confusing and I did have to put it down for long stretches of time and come back to it at a later date.

I was intrigued by the book the moment I saw it, it's set in an era that fascinates me and is about the relatively unknown women from that time I was straight in there to have a read. The overall story is a decent historical fiction come non-fiction, the author has obviously done an incredible amount of research into the lives of the women and the era in which they lived and that aspect of the book really engaged me, I love lots of historical detail and that is what we have here.

I do think that it was a little full-on at times, but the parts I enjoyed flowed pretty well and I was compelled to get to know these women. Despite my mixed feelings, I enjoyed it, as I said earlier I can't say I loved it but I would recommend it for those who love this era.

I thoroughly enjoyed Saxon Heroines: A Northumbrian Novel. I look forward to more by Sandra Wagner-Wright. Five stars.

this was a great historical novel, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the time period. The story was interesting and I had a fun time.

I have to warn you this novel does not read as a novel but more as a historybook seen from the perspective of those four women. But I am interested in history.

As I do not know a lot about this era of English history I thought it an interesting book to read. Us continental Europeans were converted to Christianity by those Irish and English monks. But we have no knowledge of the fact that the Celtic church as followers of apostle John had different ways of practising.

This is the time after the Romans abandoned their province Britannia and before the warhammer of the Vikings descended on it. It is surprising how much history of this era survived.

I was drawn to this book because of its focus on early history and particularly on the women who were often unsung heroines of their day.

The roles they were often forced into, due to their family connections and despite their positions and wealth, were to form bonds with other kingdoms of course and true power resided with the male Saxon leaders. However the women are able to use their strengths to influence the directions taken by the male rulers. 

The novel shows vividly the hierarchies that existed in these small Saxon kingdoms and really establishes that it was by success in battle that the Kings retained power with their followers and position for themselves, their wives and children.  Failure often meant death or the loss of everything. A strand that I found fascinating was to see the inroads Christianity was making at this time across all corners of the world and how clever, politically aware churchmen used these realities together with the fears and desires of the kings to persuade them to transfer their allegiances and trust in Saxon deities, such as Woden, to the Christian God.

Something I did find confusing however was the move between heroines, often related and most of who seemed to have very similar names. But that is probably an age thing (my age)! I didn't particularly warm to or identify with the characters but I did very much enjoy this rare glimpse into life in our early history.

Author Sandra Wagner-Wright writes about a period of time that I previously believed was a landmine of guesswork. Imagine my surprise to learn that there is detailed knowledge of the leaders and events during the 7th century. This also included the women.

My knowledge of most queens were that they were not much more than someone who was either successful or a failure, based upon whether they supplied their spouses with sons rather than daughters. Once the king died (or if the queen did something egregious) she would be sent away to live the rest of her life in an abbey. What this book taught me was that the lives they lived as queens gave them leadership skills that could be transferred into their new homes.

Ms. Wagner-Wright has chosen an excellent time to tell the tales of some remarkable women. One was instrumental in convincing her husband to change to the religion of Rome, which had a profound impact on Northern Britain. Another was forced into an abbey (as opposed to being forced into a marriage), eventually forming her own abbey and was later deemed to be a saint. The author diligently follows the facts, filling in the book with conversations that match with the historical records. The stories are told by different characters (mainly women) and Ms. Wagner-Wright informs us every time there is a new narrator.

I found this to be a quick read and an excellent source for those who like to read history and historical fiction. Included in the book are three glossaries, covering names, terms, and places. There are a lot of similar names, and somewhere near the middle of the book I jumped to the timeline and read it before resuming the story, which helped immensely in straightening out (in my mind) all the different characters. The book also has two charts detailing the family history of those involved. I was very satisfied and happy to have found a book not only covering an era I knew nothing about but also covering a niche (female heroines) that you don’t normally see. Five stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

This is an interesting book about strong women who helped shape Britain.
While I love history, and the history in this book, it was not exactly what I hoped it would be. There were too many points of view alternating too much. And while the title says it is a novel, the way it is written is not that novel-like, and more like reading a history book. Still very interesting, but I missed the emotions.

I received a free copy through Netgalley. My opinions are my own.

Living in North Northumberland I found this book really interesting. I love Anglo Saxon history but most books are gory tales about fighting with the vikings. This is written from the perspective of women in the royal family and shows their quiet influence although they seemed to be married off or sent to monasteries without any thought for their feelings. I enjoyed this book but would have liked a more in depth study of the characters. Enjoyable read if the reader enjoys this period of history.

Interesting enough read, I guess. Wasn't as much history as I had hoped, lots of info on the time period, but some how it just didn't come together as a fiction story either.. I like reading about women in other time periods and had hoped there would have been more on the women in this book. Sadly, little is really known of them and most here is conjecture. Sorry, not for me.

Three Northumbrian princesses tell us this tale of their life and times.While,I wasn't overly impressed with the writing I did enjoy each story in it's own way.With sources being extremely sparse by the author's own admission I think she did a commendable job bringing these unknown women to the light.Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Women were often left out of the historical records and when present usually there wasn’t much data about them but bare facts of the positions they held. Historical fiction is where many of the blanks can be filled in. Wagner-Wright gave personalities to these women. I wished she had shown more how these women actually influenced these events as said in the blurb, particularly once the women became abbesses.

It was a dramatic time filled with military, political and religious conflict. The presentation of all these events in a manner that the reader could follow showed the amount of research the writer had done. Sometimes it was hard to keep straight all the names and relationships but that was not the fault of the author that the names were similar and unfamiliar to today’s readers. A diagram of the families was provided to help keep clear the relationships.

This book gave life to a distant time that I did not know much about. There could have been some more examples of the women having agency in their lives and their importance as well as an explanation between the differences of the Columban and Roman churches. The historical details was impressive. Grab a copy and learn something you probably knew nothing about.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

A lightly factionalized account of 7th C. Anglo-Saxon royal & church politics, mainly focusing on the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, & Kent.

[What I liked:]

•It was interesting to read about 7th C. life from the perspectives of several prominent women.

•I enjoyed the depiction of daily life, customs, wars, etc. The settings & cultures were well described.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•There’s not much of a coherent plot. It’s mainly a chronologically recited series of political events, alliances, & deaths of prominent people described in brief. There is plenty of content, but I didn’t feel much hope or fear for how things would turn out.

•The character development felt lacking to me. There were few characters I became attached to or particularly liked, possibly because the book covers so many events, people, & places.


[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]