by Jane Aiken Hodge

How I loved this author's work when I was in high school!  Watch the Wall, My Darling, was one of my favorite romances, as well as letting me learn something of the wars between England and France.    Catarina is in the same vein, although the setting is Portugal.  There is a complicated war with strained relationships and potential love and treason.  The ending wraps up a bit too neatly, if satisfactorily.  It made for  exhausting  reading since I know so little about the history, what with Brazil and Portugal and two brothers fighting for dominion.  Interesting, however, and very clever.    This was almost totally clean, but not to be approached with a tired mind. On evenings when wit and romance are the thing, try a lighter author.  Hodge is perhaps more a historical novelist, rather than writer of "historical romance."