Pride of Lions — Morgan Llywelyn

Lion of Ireland was the breathtaking chronicle of Brian Boru, the Great King who led the bickering chiefs of Ireland to unity under his reign. He overthrew traditions, reformed society, and became the Irish Charlemagne. The Ireland of 1014 was a dream Brian Boru had dreamed and brought into being.

Now, with all the fire and brilliance for which her writing is known, Morgan Llywelyn takes us there, to the battlefield where Brian died. His fifteen-year-old son, Donough, is determined to make the High Kingship of Ireland his own, but he must contend with his own mother, Gormlaith, a voluptuous and treacherous woman whose lust for life and for power remains undiminished by age.

"I know he's too young, but he's all we have left," says the cunning diplomat Fergal, and thus the boy takes his first command, on the bloody ground of Clontarf. From there he must move to establish his right to rule in Kincora and to make the kings of Ireland accept him as their High King.

Yet Donough is torn --- torn by his hatred for his mother and by his all-consuming passion for the beautiful pagan girl Cera, who remains beyond his reach, for the High King must have a Christian consort.

Pride of Lions is a novel of dreams and bloodshed, passion and treachery, that makes eleventh-century Ireland and its lusty people utterly real.