Book Review of The Bohemian Gospel by Dana Chamblee Carpenter

I chanced onto Dana Chamblee Carpenter’s Bohemian Gospel, part of her Bohemian Trilogy while searching for other novels online, and I’m glad I did. I’ve read the first two books and I’m onto the third, a rare thing for me, as I usually lose interest after the beginning of the second book. It is a dark, historical fantasy that moves back and forth through time, and begins in Thirteenth Century Bohemia. It provides lots of info about old religions, churches and bibles of various types, which might also be a deal-breaker for me, as I am not religious in the typical church-y way. Except it is so interesting!

The trilogy is quite the page-turner. Part of the appeal is Carpenter’s great, quirky characters, and the intensely wrought romance.

A girl simply called Mouse knows no other home than a monastery in Bohemia. And though the priest who cares for her calls her Little Angel, she learns that her father is the Devil himself.

Indeed, she has special powers: of hearing, memory and of healing—both of herself and others. When the young King Ottakar comes to the church badly wounded, she provides healing and intelligent counsel, their bond grows… and grows, to the point of a fierce love. But she has secrets, and he is bound by the parameters of protocol. Even if it includes marrying for tradition, not love.

I highly recommend this series if you like thrills, historical details, deeply wrought characters and intense romantic bonding. I am a third way into the last in the series and it is as good as the first two books.