Blood Rose Angel: A medieval midwife's spellbinding battle as Black Death comes to France.

Midwife Héloïse, her Aunt Isa and daughter Morgane had been two years without Raoul Stonemason, Héloïse’s husband. She’d continued her work caring for the sick and birthing the new babies; when Raoul arrived home, they were delighted to see him. He brought with him one of his young apprentices and the trader who had given them the lift – did he bring the pestilence to the village of Lucie-sur-Vionne as well?When the first death was followed by many more, Héloïse did her best to provide relief to the sick, tried to help them. But it was too quick; people were terrified. When Raoul forbade Héloïse to care for the sick, she didn’t know what to do. To disobey one’s husband meant a flogging – to go against all she believed; the oath she vowed to her mother, Ava’s spirit, went against everything she knew was right. And as all but a few close friends turned against Héloïse, blaming her for their troubles, her despair and sadness knew no bounds. The bone angel talisman which had been handed down from her mother, and through generations of her family’s women, had the non-believers saying she was evil, a witch. How could Héloïse prove she was none of the things they said? Would she ever know true happiness again? Would their small village be free of the pestilence, or would everyone be wiped out?Set in 1348 France, Blood Rose Angel is the 3rd in The Bone Angel Trilogy by Aussie author Liza Perrat and I loved it! Héloïse is a strong woman, courageous, kind and caring. Isa and Morgane along with other side characters combined to make this book an excellent read. Raoul – well, he was a male back in the time when they believed a woman was trouble; when she wasn’t important, and although he loved Héloïse, he made some bad mistakes. I found the Author's Note at the end very interesting as well. Easily read as a standalone, I have no hesitation in recommending Blood Rose Angel to fans of historical fiction.

Let me begin by simply stating I did not want to stop reading Blood Rose Angel. The story of midwife Héloise and her true love, Raoul, in the 14thC French village of Lucie-sur-Vionne during the time of a deadly plague, will resonate with me for a very long time. It was fascinating to return to the same village I grew to know at different historical times in the first two novels of the trilogy.Themes of family, friendship, love, politics and fear are explored in compelling fashion. At the same time, we have a fascinating opportunity to gain an understanding of some of the roots of modern medicine. As much as I was offered a rich and satisfying reading experience, I also learned a great deal.When I write a review, I prefer to explain why I enjoyed a book, rather than recount the story.Liza Perrat is truly an artist. She weaves magical threads through her stories combining historical and scientific fact with human emotions and behaviours. She paints vivid landscapes, villages and personalities with broad brush strokes and follows with such attention to detail that the reader clearly grasps the images and eagerly enters the narrative.Each book in the Bone Angel trilogy, can be read as a stand-alone and each is equally mesmerizing, horrifying, and enthralling. Perrat is simply brilliant here at exposing life for what it was in the Middle Ages: harsh, challenging, and yet still filled with moments of joy and simple pleasure. Through her words, we see, smell, taste, and viscerally feel what is described on each page. The cast of characters she creates breathes life into a time we know from movies and history books. We live it in her stories.As did Wolfsangel and The Spirit of Lost Angels, Blood Rose Angel gripped me from the beginning and held my attention to the last word. I have found all of these novels to be immensely satisfying reads. Historical fiction is my favourite genre and I have great respect for the tremendous amount of research that is required to produce the kind of high quality literature that Liza Perrat offers us.I highly recommend the entire trilogy and eagerly await news of her next publication.

Blood Rose Angel is the third in The Bone Angel Series and Liza Perrat does not disappoint. It is a story filled with a variety of emotions that also gives the reader a glimpse into history. Liza’s style of writing and her way of describing every aspect of her story lets the reader know how in love Héloise and Raoul are and how much Héloise loves her profession as a midwife even though it puts her in grave danger. The fear and ignorance experienced by the villagers as the dreaded pestilence takes over their village is evident by Liza’s ability to make it realistic to the point where I found myself so sad for these characters, some that honestly didn’t deserve compassion for the way they treated the main character. As someone who studied history, I am aware that there are many individuals who do not know about this time that threatened not only civilization, but made many believe that the end of time was near (as Liza lets the reader know). It is refreshing to not only have a story that tells us about this important time that may be unknown to everyone, but to provide a lesson in love, compassion and humanity that we could use today in such turbulent times. Blood Rose Angel is a must read !!! It is an emotional roller coaster, but a good one. Liza brings us to a point where we fear for Héloise (do not want to give anything away), making this reader feel anger towards those that put her in that position towards a dramatic turn of events that left this reader not only satisfied but not so mad at those that caused her pain. This is a must read !! Liza Perrat never disappoints, she gets better with each book. I look forward to her next book that I am sure will not disappoint either .... Thumbs up .. way up !!

Having loved the first two books in Liza Perrat’s bone angel series, I’ve been very much looking forward to the third in the trilogy, Blood Rose Angel. I did wonder if it could possibly match the first two, but I’m thrilled to discover it’s every bit as good. For those who don’t know, the books follow the journey through history of a bone-sculpted talisman that is passed down from mother to daughter through generations of the same midwifing family, who live in the village of Lucie-sur-Vionne. The first bone angel book was set in the time of the French Revolution, the second in WWII: the latest book takes the reader back to the fourteenth century during the years that Europe was in the grip of the Plague. The main character in this story is Héloïse and the novel follows her battle to continue to care for the people of her village both as midwife and healer as the Plague decimates the region. Her struggle is made worse by the fact that her husband, Raoul, forbids her to go near Plague victims, for fear she will succumb to the disease herself, as well as possibly infecting their daughter, and so to continue to perform her medical duty she is forced to deceive and defy him. In an age when women were generally nothing more than chattels she takes an enormous risk to do this. I loved seeing the town of Lucie-sur-Vionne as it would have been in the fourteenth century: as always Liza Perrat’s writing takes the reader there so vividly that you see, hear and smell life as it would have been in all its beauty and horror, noise and stink. Her descriptions of the Plague are equally vivid and not for the faint-hearted, but far worse is the terrible human cruelty of the age. When the town is plundered by a group of horsemen, their savagery to the local people is harrowing enough, but later in the story when the local leper community is scapegoated, the reader needs a very strong stomach to bear the scene that ensues. Later in the novel, the memory of fate of the lepers returns to haunt Héloïse when she finds herself imprisoned and fears what her own sentence will be. To avoid any spoilers, I won’t reveal any more about the story, but I can tell you it is full of delicious twists and turns. One of the joys of the book for me was learning so many everyday details of medieval life and in particular, about the herbs used by the healer-midwives of that era. I also loved returning to the same beautiful French landscape, which I’ve ‘seen’ now in the eighteenth century and the mid-twentieth century in the first two novels, and this time, as it would have been centuries earlier. Watching the farm-workers and the merchants and tradespeople go about their everyday lives as Liza Perrat describes them is an almost cinematic experience. The images and the story will stay with me. Essential reading for lovers of historical fiction.

Enjoyed this right up until the end! Seemed to Peter out. May be there is going to be another one.