As hard as it may be to believe, considering all of the wonderful reviews of this book, I found it a very unappealing book. I'm not really completely sure why this is. Yes, the heroine is appealing; yes,the historical details are well researched and portrayed; yes, there are many other quite interesting characters involved in the plot.
In fact, I think it must the be amount of interesting characters she puts into the book. There are so many potential books which could come out of a variety of these personalities that I, personally, felt cheated, teased and tricked every time we shifted point of view. In parcticular, the story of Julian the anchoress, is exremely frustrating. Here we have the character of an unusual woman, about whom we have plenty of original source research material, and she is shunted into playing a secondary role. It is almost as if Vantrease came upon her while doing research for this novel and just could not resist giving her a cameo appearance. Editing her out of the storyline would not harm the plot one bit, and the reader would be able to focus on the true story(ies) which are the focus(i) of the book.
Another subplot I found very distracting was the romance between two minor characters. MINOR SPOILER HERE: First off, Magda is given a paranormal ability which plays no part in the plot. So why is it there? Just to make her more interesting? It's TOO interesting - it makes the reader wait to see what role it will take in the book only to discover that there is NO reason it is there at all. She would have been interesting enough as she was and there are plenty of other reasons she could have been erroneously considered a dimwit.
And what it is with dwarves in historical novels these days? Okay, so Isabella D'este had a thing for keeping them around as comic enetertainment and there WAS a famous Scottish dwarf who eventually wrote the story of his life about being abducted by pirates and sold to the Emperor of Morocco. But I can name 5 or 6 historical novels off the top of my head which feature dwarves. Really, I think that at this point, if I were a dwarf, I'd be a bit insulted. Need a bit of color in your historical novel? Just pop in a dwarf and problem solved!
So basically I think we get way too many people in the book and not nearly enough detail/background material about those which are portrayed. Not to mention the poor "ghosts" in the book: Katherine' first husband, Finn's first wife - even John Wycliffe (although not deceased during the time of the book) is a bit of a ghost because he is mentioned and very important to the world of the book but never seen.
Enough ranting. I hope you do enjoy the book. And I hope this review doesn't change your mind about the book. But there must be some people who are considering ordering this book for whom this review will be very helpful. Because, as I wrote earlier, I felt as if I should be enjoying the book. Instead, reading it became a chore.
In fact, I think it must the be amount of interesting characters she puts into the book. There are so many potential books which could come out of a variety of these personalities that I, personally, felt cheated, teased and tricked every time we shifted point of view. In parcticular, the story of Julian the anchoress, is exremely frustrating. Here we have the character of an unusual woman, about whom we have plenty of original source research material, and she is shunted into playing a secondary role. It is almost as if Vantrease came upon her while doing research for this novel and just could not resist giving her a cameo appearance. Editing her out of the storyline would not harm the plot one bit, and the reader would be able to focus on the true story(ies) which are the focus(i) of the book.
Another subplot I found very distracting was the romance between two minor characters. MINOR SPOILER HERE: First off, Magda is given a paranormal ability which plays no part in the plot. So why is it there? Just to make her more interesting? It's TOO interesting - it makes the reader wait to see what role it will take in the book only to discover that there is NO reason it is there at all. She would have been interesting enough as she was and there are plenty of other reasons she could have been erroneously considered a dimwit.
And what it is with dwarves in historical novels these days? Okay, so Isabella D'este had a thing for keeping them around as comic enetertainment and there WAS a famous Scottish dwarf who eventually wrote the story of his life about being abducted by pirates and sold to the Emperor of Morocco. But I can name 5 or 6 historical novels off the top of my head which feature dwarves. Really, I think that at this point, if I were a dwarf, I'd be a bit insulted. Need a bit of color in your historical novel? Just pop in a dwarf and problem solved!
So basically I think we get way too many people in the book and not nearly enough detail/background material about those which are portrayed. Not to mention the poor "ghosts" in the book: Katherine' first husband, Finn's first wife - even John Wycliffe (although not deceased during the time of the book) is a bit of a ghost because he is mentioned and very important to the world of the book but never seen.
Enough ranting. I hope you do enjoy the book. And I hope this review doesn't change your mind about the book. But there must be some people who are considering ordering this book for whom this review will be very helpful. Because, as I wrote earlier, I felt as if I should be enjoying the book. Instead, reading it became a chore.
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
