Tales From a Lady’s Bower: A Collection is a beautiful anthology of romantic fantasy adventures by Isabella Berdyna Zysk, Ronda Eileen Henry, and Aleksandra Layland. A scribe named Spring is hired to conduct an inventory of the late Lady Emmaline’s estate at Greenholme Keep. While cataloging books in the lady’s bower, she becomes fascinated by journals written by Lady Emmaline. Spring feels a surprising connection to the characters as she reads each adventure. Denisa and Karsten: The Castellan’s Daughter is a touching tale that encourages one never to give up hope and to keep promises. Other stories include Edmund and Ellinor, Lindy and Kenric, Prince Ercanbald and the Chieftain of Darad, and The Tale of Brother Kapa’a.

I was captivated by Tales from a Lady’s Bower. It’s a magnificent, absorbing, well-crafted collection of stories by three strong and talented writers who take readers on numerous historical adventures involving knights, wars, and courting damsels. Fearless, brave, witty, ambitious, sad, and romantic are just a few words to describe the well-defined, spunky characters that fight for honor, love, and freedom. Every dramatic tale is unique, and so are the settings that depict what medieval times were like. I also liked the subtle, amusing ways the couples were flirtatious, even while defending their land against invaders. This selection by Isabella Berdyna Zysk, Ronda Eileen Henry, and Aleksandra Layland is an engaging read.

Three medieval fantasy authors, Isabella Berdyna Zysk, Ronnda Eileen Henry, and Aleksandra Layland, put some of their work together to form a collection of novellas and short stories in Tales From a Lady's Bower. The compilation has a unique format in that it is presented as the work of Lady Emmaline, who left them after her passing and was later come across by Spring, who had initially gone to 'The House on the Hill' on a less demiurgic task. What emerges is a series of stories with an overriding story, beginning and ending with Spring; Lady Emmaline and the three authors incorporate offshoot tales from their independent fantasy worlds, forming what Spring finds in the bower as one.

There can be no question that Isabella Berdyna Zysk, Ronnda Eileen Henry, and Aleksandra Layland know how to spin a story. It's always a treat when writers collaborate and to have three in the same genre share pieces of their worlds for bite-sized immersions is wonderful. The stories themselves put us, as readers, in a wide range of settings, dancing between pirates, nobility, and storytellers themselves in scenes that are frequently almost cinematic in describing where we are. The wit in the dialogue gave me more than a few smiles with one of my favorites being: “I must say, Princess,” Gareth got out between bites of bread, “that your companion knows her way around a sack of flour.” Each novella is preceded by the author’s vision of what the characters look like, something I tend to have mixed feelings about but given that these are compact stories, it does allow for quicker immersion. Overall, Tales From a Lady's Bower is a wonderful read and I easily recommend it.