Rating: 4 Stars
Published: September 11, 2014
Pages: 483
Genre: Historical Fiction
This is the second book in the ‘Eleanor of Aquitaine’ series, and I was excited to get into it because of how much I enjoyed the first book.
The story begins with Eleanor and her new husband Henry being crowned as king and queen of England. Eleanor is pregnant with their second child and is suddenly thrust into a new life, in a new country where she has no friends or allies as such. The story details how Eleanor survives the English court while being married to a king who swiftly changes into someone she would barely recognize as the years roll by. In this time, Eleanor bears 5 more children and spends most of her time taking care of her children while also keeping her eye on the affairs of the country and her lands in faraway Aquitaine as her husband Henry travels off from one campaign to another. Twenty years later, with sons and daughters who are raised to follow in their footsteps and keep the English crown in the family, Aleanor realizes that her life has taken a paradigm shift, and it may be the death of her.
This second installment of the story albeit well written and detailed to the point where it felt so real, left me with the feeling that I wasn’t reading about the same Eleanor I had come to know and admire in the first book. It seems to me that she became a less practical and smart character in this story especially in her relations with her husband Henry. I understand the fact that women in those times had little or no power but Eleanor as queen of France wielded more strength and power at a much younger age than when she became queen of England. Considering the fact that she was more experienced, had gone to war with her former husband and had requested for a divorce from the Pope, I didn’t expect her to be as oppressed as she was by Henry. There was also the staggering fact that she didn’t have her own spies who would have given her information on every move that Henry made in and out of court. It just didn’t quite add up to me. However, it is still an intriguing story with an end that makes you want more. It’s probably just me wishing for my heroine to be more feisty and bolder than the author portrayed her. Afterall, she is known to be the most powerful woman in 17th century Europe.
I would still recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction but advise that you would enjoy it more if you read the first book before this one. Now on to the last book in the series and watch out for my review.
Available on:
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Enjoy listening….
The Author:
Best selling historical novelist Elizabeth Chadwick won a Betty Trask Award for her first novel The Wild Hunt. She has been shortlisted for the UK’s mainstream Best Romantic Novel of the Year Award 4 times and longlisted twice. Her novel The Scarlet Lion about the great William Marshal and his wife Isabelle de Clare, has been selected by Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society as one of the landmark historical novels of the last ten years.
When not at her desk, she can be found taking long walks with the dog, baking cakes, reading books (of course!) exploring ruins, listening to various brands of rock and metal music, and occasionally slaving over a steaming cauldron with re-enactment society Regia Anglorum.
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