As Princess Margaret’s wedding sparks fragile peace, fire-eater Davina and former pretender Lambert Simnel navigate a city on the brink of rebellion and deadly secrets. Tensions flare as Princess Margaret weds James IV of Scotland, forming a fragile alliance between nations. As fire dancers light the night and ancient feuds simmer, the Archbishop of York and Henry Percy clash in a deadly game of power and pride.
My Kick-Ass Back Cover Description:
As England prepares for a royal wedding, old rivalries ignite in the heart of York.
The northern counties still echo with the scars of past rebellions, and tensions simmer beneath the surface as Princess Margaret Tudor travels north for a grand celebration… her marriage to King James IV of Scotland, sealing the alliance brokered by her father-in-law, Henry VII, to secure peace between the rival kingdoms.
But peace is fragile.
In the ancient city of York, where loyalty to the old Plantagenet cause dies hard, Davina, a gifted fire-eater with a knack for landing in trouble, arrives on the eve of the festivities. She finds the city bristling with unrest. Armed men loyal to the feuding powers of the North (the Archbishop of York and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland) fill the streets alongside peasants gathered to honor the Tudor princess.
As old grudges resurface, violence threatens to engulf the city. Lambert Simnel, the king’s falconer and former Pretender to the throne, gets caught up in the chaos and becomes Davina’s unlikely companion as the city teeters on the edge of open conflict. But Davina didn’t come to York by chance. As flames of rebellion and revenge rise, so does the interest of Sir Thomas Lovell, Henry VII’s ruthless enforcer, who sees through facades… and hides secrets of his own.
Secrets, spies, and simmering rebellion weave together in this gripping tale of danger, loyalty, and survival at the twilight of the 15th century, perfect for fans of Tudor-era historical fiction, courtly intrigue, and fearless heroines with something to hide.
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The Story Behind the Story
Buried in The Winter King, a biography about Henry VII, is a couple of lines about the warring factions of Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and the Archbishop of York. Their men hated each other so much, their feud erupted into violence, and Henry VII came down on them hard. I loved it so much, I looked for a way to include it in a novel, and The Last Fire-Eater gave me that opportunity.
It also introduced me to Davina, one of my favorite fictional heroines… a fire-eater with a secret. A local corrupt magistrate stripped her father of his land and titles and inheritance, and with his death, she returns to claim them again. She is feisty, a risk-taker who falls in love with Lambert Simnel, a precious cinnamon roll who must be protected at all costs. And together, they travel north to escort Princess Margaret to her new home in Scotland as the future queen.
I remember the first chapter being a battle to write, because it took me five drafts to figure out where to “begin” the story. But once I finally found my way forward, the rest of the plot came together quickly. This is the novel where a lot of my former plot points come together and weave into foreshadowing for the last book. It is a fundamental shift for Sir Thomas Lovell, who has undergone a journey of personal transformation throughout the series. He started out callous, but we see that chip away as he softens with age and experience (not so much that you should ever cross him, mind! He will gut you without a second thought and with no regrets!).
It is a story of loss of a different kind, of sending your daughter to a foreign court and hoping they will care for her well. Both Henry and Lovell have to learn to let her go, but for Lovell, it’s a struggle. He has protected her all her life, and now he has to trust others to do it. And trust does not come easily to him. Only his wife truly sees into his heart, and her strident moral guidance may finally dig into his hardened heart. I also loved writing his protectiveness toward Lambert, as the two of them became comfortable with each other.
History can be more shocking than we give it credit for, and a lot of the dramatic events in this book really happened. I consider it one of my best.
