Women of Ashdon — Valerie Anand

Like many young women in fifteenth- century England, Susannah Whit- mead is sent away from home to be educated. Born of yeomen, Susannah's mother wants her only daughter to be raised a lady. But Susannah, who finds life at Hurleigh House to be horribly regulated, longs for home. One of her few comforts is a keepsake, a small badge with a curious design consisting of curved lines arching over wavy ones like a stylized bridge across a river. She is not sure of the badge's origins, but keeps it close to her as a link to her family. Susannah is married off to Sir James Weston of Ashdon manor. Although she doesn't love him, he is kind, and she falls in love instead with his house-a house she will fight to keep through the war, death, and treachery that surround her. Valerie Anand continues the intri­cate weave of history, politics, and passion in Women of Ashdon, the third novel in the acclaimed Bridges Over Time series. Valerie Anand has been building a remarkable body of work, a series of historical novels that have recreated England's history both accurately and vividly.-The Anniston Star