Before Romeo and Juliet, there was Montagu and Isobel...

A sweeping historical novel set against the backdrop of England's Wars of the Roses that chronicles the real-life love story of Isobel Ingoldesthorpe, a Lancastiran ward of Queen Marguerite, and the Yorkist, John Neville, Lord Montagu, medieval ancestors of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill.

During her short time as a ward in Queen Marguerite's Lancastrian court, fifteen-year-old Isobel has had many suitors ask for her hand, but the spirited beauty is blind to all but Yorkist Sir John Neville. It is nothing short of a miracle when the Queen allows Isobel's marriage to the enemy, albeit at a hefty price.

All around Isobel and John rages a lawless war. It is only their passion that can see them through the violent madness of Queen Marguerite and the devolution of Isobel's meek uncle into the Butcher of England. For theirs is an everlasting love that fears not the scratch of thorns, from either the Red Rose or the White.