This is the final book in the series. The story is told from dual point of view. This book is brilliantly written. A great end to the series

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I felt at a bit of a disadvantage since I had not read any of the other books but I was still interested as I love anything history-related. This book was well researched and well written!

This is the third book on the She-Wolves trilogy. I have been enthralled with previous books on little known queens. Because Queen Isabella is more famous than the other two, I did not find this as compelling. I liked how it focused on Queen Isabella’s stonemason, Agnes. She was a strong woman in a male dominated profession. As for Queen Isabella’s story, there really was not much depth to her story. The other characters, especially Roger Mortimer were bland. Thus, this was the weakest novel in the She-Wolves. Nevertheless, The Stone does illuminate the story of a forgotten woman lost in the traces of time.

Have been unable to review due to illness. Review coming soon! This novel looks fantastic and Ican't wait to read this one!

The Stone Rose is the final book in the “She Wolf” trilogy and starts by introducing us to Agnes, the daughter of a stone mason. Agnes is unusual because she is also a stone mason in her own right and when, in 1350 she receives a very special request from Queen Isabella, she sets off to meet the dowager queen accompanied by Gregory who has been sent to escort her.
We then move to Isabella’s story which starts several decades earlier. Isabella, a princess of France is also Queen of England, married to Edward II. Theirs’s is not a conventional marriage because not only does Edward love her, he also enjoys a special relationship with some of his advisors which leads him to making bad decisions which endanger the country.
After many years of watching what goes on at the English court, Isabella takes matters into her own hands and plots to overthrow her husband, saying that he is not a fit king and with the help of those that agree with her, Edward II is deposed and replaced by his eldest son Ned who becomes Edward III.
I have to admit that prior to reading this book I knew next to nothing about either Edward II or III and didn’t know that Isabella existed so the experience felt like a history lesson. The characters almost pop off the page, full of life and emotion. The writing is informative while still being engaging and you can’t help to feel a connection with the characters.
Both timelines are treated the same with neither outshining the other but Isabella’s story is longer. In fairness though, that is the primary one being told.
For me, a special treat came when reading the authors notes. I discovered that Agnes really existed. Sometimes with fiction based on history, a character is made up to add colour and definition to a story but the fact that Agnes was an actual person made me happy. Sometimes it’s the little things.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series and would recommend this and the other books to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an ARC in exchange fir an honest review.

This is the third in the Rose Trilogy and I can only wish for more. The story of Isabella, wife of Edward II, interwoven with Agnes the stone mason's journey through the English countryside to meet Isabella in her old age. Excellent historical research mixed into a fictional novel. I have visited Berkeley many times and was definitely taught at school, that Edward was murdered there with a red hot poker up his backside! I had completely forgotten that there were also rumours that he had escaped abroad. Thanks to Netgalley.

The Stone Rose is the third (and final) book in the She-Wolves trilogy. Based on the life of Queen Isabella, married to Edward the II (the one who was notorious for his male favorites and constant conflicts with his barons), it starts with Isabella's marriage to Edwards and follows her attempts (some successful, some not) to influence her husband and the course of the country. Edward is not the best of husbands or rulers, and Isabella is far more strategic in her outlook.

I would have liked to have seen more of Agnes the stone cutter. Maybe I have just read too many books on Isabella that some of the book was rehashing what I already knew. I love historical fiction because its an exciting, interesting way to learn about history and the amazing woman who have had an impact (with the caveats that there is some Fiction in historical fiction!) and I would have appreciated more from someone else's point of view who wasn't royalty. As with all of Carol McGrath's books, The Stone Rose is well written and well researched and a fitting conclusion for the trilogy. It's a wonderful book for someone who's interested in the time period (which is anything but boring) and a panoply or characters (mostly real, some imagined) that are frustrating, annoying, endearing and anything but boring.

I usually adored historical fiction but this novel for me was too chunky to slow paced nothing sparked my interest , perhaps it would have helped if I’d have read the other two books first within the series . However a brilliant achievement by the author of a much unknown subject and time frame for women

1350 and the country is slowly recovering from the Death. Agnes is trying to keep her stonemason's yard going after the death of her father. She receives a summons from Dowager Queen Isabella who wants her tomb carved. Isabella is living in semi-seclusion and has done since the King reached majority but her reputation is of a fierce and proud woman. Isabella's story needs to be told properly and the only opportunity may be after death.
McGrath is a solid writer of romanticised historical fiction but her 'She-Wolves' trilogy has shown a bit more bite, none more so than here. Isabella was the wife of Edward II but seemed to play second fiddle to series of male favourites. Most of these are depicted as extravagant and superficial but not really threatening to the marriage or to the Queen. Hugh Despenser is different and McGrath pulls no punches in her portrait of a grasping and manipulative man. The facts are the facts but the story woven around them is both believable and enjoyable.

The Stone Rose by Carol McGrath is the third book in the She-Wolf trilogy. A historical fiction trilogy that has been meticously researched and written so well that I found utterly so hard to tell where the fiction started and the facts ended.

I found myself totally immersed in Queen Isabella's reign and her life too. The daughter of the king of France married to Edward II, she knows her role as Queen Consort well. We are shown how this regal woman lived and the times she lived in so vividly that I was in her world throughout.

I have always been a history nerd and this is a series that has spun its magic for me. Carol McGrath has the skill of being an exceptional storyteller while weaving the historical details deftly throughout the story. Her character building breathes life into historical figures from so long ago so they become vivid and so relatable.

This is not just a story of Queen Isabella, but also of a female stonemason, Agnes who is inspired by a real historical figure of that time. She is contacted by Isabella and tasked with an immense job for a woman of that time.

Carole McGrath has done a great job of humanising these characters. Isabella is a Queen from hundreds of years ago but she feels like a living and breathing woman as I turned the pages to find out more. A brilliant ending to the She-Wolves Trilogy .


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I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved the writing style and how the characters were brought to life.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

Loved loved loved this !
Very much my genre

The Stone Rose is the final book in Carol McGrath’s She-Wolves Trilogy, but don’t worry if you haven’t read the first two – each one stands alone and tells the story (in fictional form) of a different medieval queen of England. In The Silken Rose we met Eleanor of Provence and in The Damask Rose Eleanor of Castile; now, in this latest novel, it’s the turn of Isabella of France. Isabella was the daughter of Philip IV of France and the wife of Edward II of England, but also a powerful and influential woman in her own right. The Stone Rose explores Isabella’s story both from her own perspective and through the eyes of Agnes, a female stonemason who designs Isabella’s tomb.

Isabella is only fifteen years old when the novel opens in 1311, and much as she tries to love her husband – at least at first – she is already becoming aware that Edward is perhaps not the best person to be ruling the country. He is too easily led by his favourites, particularly the handsome young Piers Gaveston, ignoring the advice of older, more experienced noblemen, and spends his time thatching roofs and digging ditches like a peasant rather than taking part in more courtly pursuits. Worse, he seems determined to send England into a series of battles with the Scots that nobody really has the heart for.

As the years go by, the pleasant and relatively harmless Piers is replaced by a new favourite, the scheming, ambitious Hugh Despenser the Younger, and Isabella begins to fear for her own position, especially when she starts to suspect that Edward loves Despenser more than he loves her. As tensions grow at court and across England, Isabella returns to France to visit her family – and here she meets Roger Mortimer, an English baron who has recently escaped from imprisonment in the Tower of London and shares her hatred of Hugh Despenser.

I won’t say much more about the plot, as if you’re familiar with the history you’ll already know what Isabella does next – and if you’re not, you’ll probably prefer to find out for yourself when you read the book. As far as I could tell, Carol McGrath sticks quite closely to the known facts, except where it’s necessary to use her imagination to help bring the characters to life and fill in gaps in the story or where there is some historical controversy, for example regarding the eventual fate of Edward II.

Despite Isabella’s “she-wolf” nickname (one which has also been applied to several other unpopular queens) I found her a sympathetic character here. It was sad to see her marriage gradually disintegrate as Edward spends more and more time with his favourites, falling completely under their power and refusing to listen to other points of view. I also found it interesting to read about Isabella’s interactions with the other women at court, particularly the three de Clare sisters, one of whom – Eleanor – is the wife of Hugh Despenser. Because of Isabella’s conflict with Eleanor’s husband, the two women can never be friends, but they are forced to spend long periods of time together over the years and their relationship, as you can imagine, is a very uncomfortable one.

The previous two books in this trilogy have each included a second protagonist, whose story unfolds alongside the queen’s and is given almost equal attention. In this third novel, that role falls to Agnes, the stonemason – a real historical figure who really did work on Isabella’s tomb. I was slightly disappointed that we don’t see very much of Agnes; there are only a few sections written from her point of view, with the focus very much on Isabella’s story. I understand, though, that Agnes only entered Isabella’s life in the 1350s and played no part in what came before, so maybe it would have been difficult to weave the two narratives together more closely. Still, The Stone Rose is a fascinating read and I enjoyed adding to my knowledge of Isabella, Edward II and Roger Mortimer. Now that the trilogy has come to an end I will have to try Carol McGrath’s earlier novels, while I’m waiting to see what she writes next!

The Stone Rose is the third and last book in Carol McGrath’s She-Wolf trilogy. This series has been going from strength to strength, and this final instalment is the crown jewel.
The central character is Isabella, wife of Edward II. She is of royal blood, the daughter of the king of France and she is well aware of how she is meant to play the role of queen consort to Edward. Her marriage is not an easy or conventional one. Edward enjoys the company, and favours, of men as much as women. His intimate “friendship” with Piers has tragic consequences not only for Piers but also for the crown. Hostile barons, Warwick, Lancaster and a few others, flex their muscles and exert their powers in parliament. The threat of Barons Rebellion is never too far. At the same time the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce and his Scottish nobles are constantly raiding the borders, plundering and pillaging. The battle of Bannockburn ends in Edward’s humiliating defeat. Then there is the famine, and a whole sequence of challenges the king and his queen have to deal with.
McGrath’s sense of history, her research and her knowledge are second to none. She paints the wide canvas of the historical background with an assured hand. But being a great historian isn’t her only quality. She is also a fantastic story teller and character builder. She is able to create characters that are alive, vibrant, believable and relatable even though they are removed from our reality by several centuries. It is her attention to detail and her ability to get into her characters’ heads that allows her to convert history into an intimate and visceral work of fiction. She deploys a very successful tool to achieve that: a fictional character of a common woman to complement her historical royal heroine. In this book, it is the character of stonemason, Agnes, whom Isabella engages to help her tell her true story for the posterity.
As always with Carol McGrath’s books, this is a fascinating tale of a medieval queen brought to live for a modern reader. You will feel close-up and personal with Isabella – you will feel as if you know and understand her on an intimate level.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Headline Accent for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m going to have to be really honest - this one wasn’t for me. I really wanted to like it! I loved the opening and thought Agnes was a fantastic strong female character. The harrowing effect of the plague on the English people was clear to see from the very beginning.

However, so much of the story was from Isabella’s perspective and I just couldn’t get on with her as a character. She came across as naive, jealous and a bit whiny.

The author quite rightly assumes no prior knowledge of the period and explains all the history clearly throughout. However, I did feel like I was being ‘told’ a lot and this held up the narrative, meaning that the pace felt really slow to me.

This is a fascinating period of history though and it doesn’t surprise me that loads of people are loving this book!

What an amazing woman and Queen Isabella was. I have always been fascinated by her story and Carol McGrath really brings her to life. She captures all her elements -the good, bad, her strengths and weaknesses. There is also a parallel character, Agnes, but unlike the previous books, she was a real person who makes the story even more interesting. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Very good, though it’s hard to imagine a female stonemason, not just because of how male oriented the age was, but because without modern tools I wonder if a woman could have had the strength to use the tools and lift the stone for working.

THE STONE ROSE is book three in the SHE-WOLVES Trilogy by Carol McGrath (about Queens of England) and I admit upfront I have not read the previous two books:
1. THE SILKEN ROSE about English Queen Allenore of Provence, wife to King Henry III (which I admit I've already purchased)
2. THE DAMASK ROSE about Eleanor of Castile, wife to Edward I. (I'll probably read this one too.)
This third volume in the series is about Isabella of France, wife to Edward II. And judging by this one, it appears each book stands on its own.

Those of you familiar with British history may already know a bit about both Isabella and Edward. He is famous for the gruesome way in which he may have died. She for being the powerful shrew who supposedly coveted her husband's power. But author Carol McGrath's historical novel is much more sympathetic toward Isabella than many other accounts.

The novel has two storylines, taking place about 30 years apart. Most of the story is focused on Edward and Isabella. The other thread concerns Agnes, a young stone mason in the 1350s, who is asked to work on Isabella's tomb. She too is an historical figure.

Let's begin with Edward II, who strikes me as a prince to be pitied. He is one of 15 children. He also no doubt grew up in the shadow of his much-respected, warrior father, Edward I, aka Edward Longshanks and Hammer of the Scots. It also seems Edward II was either gay or bisexual, which, at a time, was a sin according to the teachings of the very influential church. So it's not so surprising that Edward II fell under the "spell" of a number of attractive, male favorites over the years. Piers Gaveston and Hugh Dispenser being the two most famous.

Now Isabella, as daughter of French King Philip IV and Joan I of Navarre, winds up married to Edward II at the age of 12. She has been raised with the expectations that she is to make this political alliance prosper. But while her husband has lots of interests in learning about the work of peasants, he does not show much interest in or inclination for the work of governing. Instead, he spends excessively on both his lifestyle and on disastrous battles with the Scots. He listens exclusively to the voices of his ambitious favorites, rewarding them with lands, manors, and power. Consequently, he alienates all the other nobles in the realm.

So, what is Isabella to do? Her friends are suffering and getting increasingly discontented. Is it her duty to remain steadfastly loyal to her husband? What about her rightful duty as Queen in her adopted country? And how about her responsibility to maintain peace between France and England?

Carol McGrath has clearly done extensive research and is skilled at adding rich detail so the reader feels immersed in the time period. If anything, I found that detail a bit excessive at times, making parts of the story slow-moving. THAT is a minor complaint however. It's always fascinating for me to read historical fiction focused on prominent women -- since they are so often given short shrift by traditional historians. I do recommend this book and I plan to read the other novels in the series.

Immersive, suspenseful and humane, this is a novel to savour. This book transported me to another world… A beautifully written page-turner ... When you've finished reading you'll be desperate to pass it on…..

The third book of the trilogy, and what an excellent read, just as the first two novels are! I was completely absorbed in Queen Isabella's reign and life over fifty years! What I Ioved about it, is that the author gave a realistic and convincing voice to the enigmatic Isabella, keeping close to details known about her life as well as her strengths and weaknesses. What a turbulent life she had with joy, ambition, determination but clouded by so much insecurity, ill -judgement (?) and disappointment as well. I loved it! Highly recommended read!
Thank you, NetGalley for letting me read this novel for free in exchange for an honest review.