Review: Wolf Bride by Elizabeth Moss

Hilary Mantel meets Sylvia Day: the first installment in a deliciously erotic trilogy, set against the sumptuous backdrop of the scandal-ridden Tudor Court.

England, 1536
Bound to him against her will...
Lord Wolf, hardened soldier and expert lover, has come to King Henry VIII's court to claim his new bride: a girl who has intrigued him since he first saw her riding across the Yorkshire moors.

Eloise Tyrell, now lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn, has other ideas. She has no desire to submit to a man she barely knows and who - though she is loath to admit it - frightens her not a little.

Then comes that first kiss...
It awakens in both a fierce desire that bares them to the soul. But as the court erupts into scandal around the ill-fated Queen, Eloise sees first-hand what happens when powerful men tire of their wives.

Dare she surrender her body and her heart? (via Goodreads)

Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Moss about her critically acclaimed novel Wolf Bride, so I was excited to finally read it. For the most part I had a positive reading experience, though there were some aspects which I found more appealing than others.

The plot wastes no time in getting started, with the first scene in the book introducing the wanton Queen Anne Boleyn. I certainly appreciated this introduction, as when I'm reading erotica, I prefer not to wait too long for the action! This also set up the premise of the novel very well as the latter parts of it centre around the Queen's demise.

The novel also illustrates the time period well, whilst also incorporating a bit of a modern twist. I found it interesting to encounter all these historical places and people within a piece of fiction.

Unfortunately, though, I didn't feel a big connection to the characters. While I appreciated Eloise (a headstrong, determined young woman), and Lord Wolf (definitely the most interesting character of them all – he is enigmatic, loyal, and unpredictable), I don't feel that they're characters I'll remember in a few month's time. They just didn't leave all that big of an impression on me.

But despite the few issues I had with Wolf Bride, I'm still looking forward to reading the second book in the series. Overall this was an exciting, albeit imperfect, read.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Interview with Elizabeth Moss – author of Wolf Bride

It's delightful to welcome author Elizabeth Moss to the blog, who's here to talk about her newly
released historical erotic romance novel, Wolf Bride.

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Wolf Bride tells the steamy tale of Queen Anne Boleyn’s lady in waiting, Eloise Tyrell, and the man she is betrothed to, Lord Wolf. What attracted you towards setting such a story during this historical period?
The sheer drama of it. Everything was more life-and-death at the Tudor court than in most later periods of history, with the slightest error in judgement getting you carted off to the Tower of London. This raises the stakes in a romance to an alarming degree. With Henry VIII in the mix, it's not just 'Does the hero get the girl?' but 'Can they survive this and reach a happy ending?' And of course we know, as 21st century readers, that not everything is going to end well for Anne Boleyn at least.

What can you tell us about the two main characters? Are they based on any real historical figures?
Lord Wolf and Eloise Tyrell are not based on any specific historical figures, but they are representative members of the Henrician Court. Lord Wolf is a superb soldier and commander, tough-minded, incredibly loyal to the crown, driven by his loyalty in fact. But as a nobleman, he approaches picking a wife - to breed an heir - with the same lack of emotion as when buying a horse. So you can imagine how a feisty and rebellious young woman like Eloise throws him off balance. Yet he finds her passion invigorating and seems to take pleasure in nettling her whenever they are together. Eloise has been serving the Queen for several years, and is an independent spirit. She wants to marry for love, so being forced into an arranged marriage - Tudor women often had little choice in the matter - makes her desperate. What stuns Eloise about Wolf is how well he seems to understand a woman's body - he's an expert lover, of course! - while failing to understand her heart. But just when things begin to hot up for them, Anne Boleyn is arrested, with Eloise suspected of hiding dangerous secrets about her mistress ...

Wolf Bride has gained a positive response from several high-profile media outlets, and has been described as a cross between Hilary Mantel and Sylvia Day. What do you think critics and reviewers have found so appealing about the novel?
Cross-genre writing is a very exciting development in fiction right now. And this is really an account of Anne Boleyn's fall from grace, but we see it not through the eyes of key historical characters, but via Wolf and Eloise's love story. By constantly foregrounding the dangers inherent in a marriage where a husband has absolute power over his wife, even to the point in Henry's case where he can sign her death warrant, Wolf Bride achieves an unsettling note that makes the erotic content more ... well, erotic. It responds to something in the zeitgeist, in my opinion. This is the right book for the right time, perhaps.

Judging by the list of previous releases on your blog, you’re quite the productive writer. How do you stay motivated?
I have a large family to support; needing to pay the bills is usually motivation enough to go to my desk every morning. When that doesn't work, I remind myself how little I have achieved so far in comparison with my late mother, who wrote over 150 novels under the name Charlotte Lamb. Now that's productive!

Lastly, what’s next for you? Do you have any other projects currently in the works?
I have two more novels in the Lust in the Tudor Court series to come out in 2014, but would dearly love to write a contemporary erotic series too. I do write under other names, but mostly historicals, so a contemporary story would be marvellous.

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Blurb:
England, 1536

Bound to him against her will...
Lord Wolf, hardened soldier and expert lover, has come to King Henry VIII's court to claim his new bride: a girl who has intrigued him since he first saw her riding across the Yorkshire moors.
Eloise Tyrell, now lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn, has other ideas. She has no desire to submit to a man she barely knows and who - though she is loath to admit it - frightens her not a little.

Then comes that first kiss...
It awakens in both a fierce desire that bares them to the soul. But as the court erupts into scandal around the ill-fated Queen, Eloise sees first-hand what happens when powerful men tire of their wives.

Dare she surrender her body and her heart?

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