This piece of historical fiction takes place in England during King Henry VIII's break from Rome and the Catholic church. Under the influence of his crafty advisor Thomas Cromwell, the various Catholic religious houses were being seized, its riches stripped and transferred to enrich the King's coffers. Such was the fate of the Arden priory, set in the Yorkshire moor.

Margery was left on the priory doorstep as a baby, so this is the only home she has ever known. She's used to the spartan life they lead. There's a cow named Marigold that provides nutty tasting milk, chickens that lay eggs, and a modest garden of various herbs and vegetables. Their bellies are never quite full, but they survive.

Then one day a young woman named Grace comes to stay who obviously hails from an upper class family. She's ordered to trade in her quality clothing to "wear the veil" and help with chores around the priory. There is a mystery to unravel as to why this very pretty and affable young lady was cast off from her family for the staid life of the priory.

It was unthinkable that the Crown would plunder the nuns' paltry existence at Arden priory and drive them out...but that's exactly what happened. Provisions are made for some elderly nuns to either retire or be reassigned elsewhere, but the rest are simply cast out to survive by their own mettle.

Our heroine Margery is a young girl who remembers the quiet wisdom imparted by the nuns. It is a harrowing existence walking for miles on foot each day in threadbare clothing with an empty belly and exposure to the elements. Margery keeps remembering the priory at Arden as a comforting refuge that she wishes she could go back to. It was a place with a routine...quiet and simple living. Along her journey many other cast out religious people are encountered and they join together as a resistance against the King. A leader is revealed in one Robert Aske, who leads the Pilgrimage of Grace protest against King Henry III.

I enjoy reading books about people like Margery who suffer great challenges, but find an inner strength to make it through each hour. She is tired, cold, hungry and distraught...yet she will share her little food with others in need, and stop to tend another person's ailments. She just does what has to be done and doesn't give up. She was the heroine that carried this book, and it was a pleasure to read.

4 stars

The reign of terror was fearful to behold in the time of King Henry VIII. Even the poorest religious houses are harassed by the king’s men as is illustrated in this very good novel about the life and times of the nuns at Arden Abbey.

Margery is perhaps twelve and has lived at the abbey all her life. She is what is known as a lay sister. She is the central character in the story and it is told from her point of view. The sisters’ work is hard and unrelenting, but they seem relatively content – until the king’s men show up to persecute them.

With King Henry VIII’s split from the Roman Catholic Church (and setting himself up as the head of the Church of England), and his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn came the brutal repression of monasteries and abbeys in England. It did not matter how wealthy or poor the various institutions were the King’s Chancellor Thomas Cromwell was ruthless in suppressing them. They were stripped of their “valuables,” their crops destroyed and their livestock slaughtered or scattered. There were several political motivations for this, but this is not the proper arena for that discussion. This book is about Margery and her fellow sisters. And it tells a very good, down-to-earth tale of her strife and suffering.

There are some clauses that go nowhere and are out of place. I hope this is corrected before this book go for publishing. If one overlooks this glaring set of errors, the novel is well written and interspersed with both touching and terrifying action scenes. This is my first Judith Arnopp book and I will be looking into her other works as well.

I want to thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for forwarding to me a copy of this good, but short, book for me to read, enjoy and review.

This was an interesting read and one that I enjoyed more than I thought that I would when reading the description about it.