The Steel Beneath the Silk

A Novel (Emma of Normandy, Book 3)

By: Patricia Bracewell

Narrated by: Rachel Atkins

The breathtaking conclusion to Bracewell’s Emma of Normandy Trilogy (Shadow on the Crown, The Price of Blood, The Steel Beneath the Silk), brimming with treachery, heartache, tenderness, and passion as the English queen confronts ambitious and traitorous councilors, invading armies, and the Danish king’s power-hungry concubine.

In the year 1012 England’s Norman-born Queen Emma has been 10 years wed to an aging, ruthless, haunted King Æthelred. The marriage is a bitterly unhappy one, between a queen who seeks to create her own sphere of influence within the court and a suspicious king who eyes her efforts with hostility and resentment. But royal discord shifts to grudging alliance when Cnut of Denmark, with the secret collusion of his English concubine Elgiva, invades England at the head of a massive viking army. Amid the chaos of war, Emma must outwit a fierce enemy whose goal is conquest and outmaneuver the cunning Elgiva, who threatens all those whom Emma loves.

©2021 Patricia Bracewell (P)2021 Patricia Bracewell

Fabulous

Wish it had book 4. The story was intriguing. My only critique, would the narrator of this third book, had a voice that sounded too old. But the story itself was one that I wish it could have kept going.

Great series

Best of the series. Couldn’t stop listening. It was weaved brilliantly. Too bad there isn’t a next book!

Emma of Normandy

I thought that the author did a marvelous job of explaining the sources of her research. She was very good in combining fiction and very differing historical perspectives.

I wish there was a fourth and fifth book

Great story, great characters. Didn’t want it to end. Narrator did a good job, also, giving the story even more dimension.

best narrator I've ever heard!

I absolutely adored this entire series. This last book was definitely the best of the three, and the narrator was without a doubt the best of any I've ever heard before, and I am constantly listening to audiobooks. I felt like I was sitting around a hearth fire in the 10th century, listening to an old woman spin tales. Stunning performance, and to be honest it will be hard to pick up a new book after this.