Judith Koll Healey

Good read. Centres on Princess Alaïs trying to find her captured son to tell him his parentage, using the run up to the cathar crusade as th backdrop. A few other mysteries tangled up in it, who stole the chalice, where is it, who is feeding king John information about the movements of the french and how do it all tie together. Characters were compelling enough. Really got the feel for what an awful man abbot Amaury was. Liked that it centred on women solving most of their own problems. Got a little repetitive at the end when explaining how it all unraveled.… (mehr)

A mystery about Princess Alais, daughter of king Louis VII and his second wife, quest for the truth about the son she had with King Henry II that she believed died in infancy. There were historical rumours about the relationship and possible child. The princess is written as very feisty and has a love/hate relationship with Eleanor of Aquitaine who sends her on a quest with a promise to tell her abut her child if she suceeds. All the characters are well written and feel like real people, William of Caen a little less so. I would have like a better understanding of him and why he really fell in love with the princess, not just he'd had feelings for her since they were children. Lots of memories of her as a child and growing up with her bethrothed, Richard (the lionhearted to be) his brothers, her sister and William. Which I enjoyed , as not many historical novels deal with childhood. The love relationship alais has in the story seems to come up out of nothing. Although I'm having a hard time buying into most love stories in book these days, so maybe just me. But a well written mystery. And on to read the sequel.… (mehr)

Where to start? This was a very, very, very long read for me. I would start reading it and stop, then repeat the exercise for the next month and a half.

For me, reading this historical fiction which, mind you, was very well written and full of many, many historical events, was pure torture.

It might be (but I doubt it) because I hadn’t read the book before it, THE CANTERBURY PAPERS. Or it might be too much of history and not enough of fiction; but whatever it was, I wasn’t able to connect to it. That doesn’t mean that you’ll fail to connect as well. Your tastes might lead you to love it.

I’ll blame my personal taste, and not the style of writing or the prose, that caused me to disconnect with the protagonists and the story itself.

In all honesty, I can’t recommend it to romance lovers; BUT I can to all you history buffs, and for that reason alone I’m giving this novel Four Roses. I’ll be glad to pass it along to someone that would appreciate it more than I did.

Melanie for RRAH
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