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linzthebookworm's review
3.0
It was a captivating romance. My kindle version however had a lot of typing errors, and often switched between characters with out warning.
dotreadsbooks's review
3.0
Good but not great. The back and forth, ups and downs of this relationship almost drove me crazy. But, learning about the health effects of makeup during the Elizabethan era was fascinating!!
algae429's review
2.0
Eh...I'm not a huge fan of noble couples in love that have to hide their feelings. The misunderstandings and whining that go with that just annoy me.
lurossreads's review
2.0
Mitchell doesn't romanticize Queen Elizabeth's reign or her court. The reader sees how Marget sacrifices her own identity to blend in, literally. This is the first historical romance book that shows the negative side effects of using lead to paint faces, dyeing hair to match the Queen, and the courtier's role to "court" Elizabeth all the time.
hilary_b's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse
rachel93's review
3.0
Just couldn’t get into it. Gave it three stars though since I’m gonna try reading it again at some point.
mxemma's review
1.0
I don't know if I've ever given a 1-star rating before, but I couldn't bring myself to score this any higher. I don't think I've ever hated a book more.
Giving this book and the review a set of CWs for sexual assault, racism/slurs, miscarriage, and genocide. Also a spoiler warning because I will be ranting.
.
.
.
I will start out by saying, I'm not one to k1nk shame, especially when it comes to the romance genre. Have your fun. But this book consistently excuses outright abuse, with no apparent awareness that it is such. There is not about shaming, but concern about unexamined harmful behavior.
I must also say that this book suffers greatly from not knowing what genre it is. If it was written as a gritty historical thriller, it could have worked so much better. If the author hadn't tried to excuse horrifying actions, shame abuse victims, or give everyone a happy ending, it could have been a fascinating read. She clearly wanted to talk about the difficult aspects of historical life, like the health impacts of beauty standards, marital rape, child loss, and political corruption. But it's being told in the language and narrative structure of a fluffy Christian romance. The couple has to end up together, there has to be a happy ending. Whether that was the result of the author's choices or pressure from the publisher, I don't know, but we ended up with the content of a gothic novel and the tone of a Beverly Lewis story and the tonal dissonance is painful.
Starting out easy, there are three consistently sympathetic characters. One is a girl who appears for 1.5 pages and is only present to drive jealousy between the main characters. One is the earl's right-hand-man, who he consistently mistreats and seems to be trying his best to limit Marget's suffering. The last appears for a total of maybe 4 pages, is unnamed, and is a generally grumpy but decent man.
Someone told the author about the language of flowers/plants and she went absolutely FERAL. There is a two (2) page scene of the main characters eating salad one leaf and veggie at a time to have a whole conversation. For the rest of my life I am cursed to know that radishes mean I'm sorry. It might be my favorite part of the book.
Some other gems: married men are not allowed to have female friends, because it might lead to jealousy. Women shouldn't wear makeup or dye their hair because it's an insult to God. The author frequently makes mistakes in basic historical info, like the number of Henry VIII's wives or the cleanliness of the River Thames.
Now the bigger stuff:
The male lead (the earl) rapes the female lead (Marget) in Ch. 3 and the reader is expected to just...move on? All the other characters do, and Marget is consistently shamed by her family and friends for not getting over it. The earl, a man who has raped his wife, later pats himself on the back for not being the kind of horrible man who would rape his wife. There is no recognition of the hypocrisy in this. Marget is told to submit so she can have a baby, and the earl won't be tempted to cheat. Even when they have supposedly consensual sex, the language is heavily coded and deeply disturbing. A direct quote "...the earl in pursuit of a goal was a valiant warrior. When I put up a wall, he scaled it. When I set up some obstruction, he demolished it. He made quick work of all of my defenses...he prevailed upon me to yield. And when I did, it was not so much sacrifice as surrender."
The earl is frequently emotionally and physically abusive, and this is excused because his ex-wife cheated on him. It is eventually revealed that she was herself manipulated and only cheated because she thought she was protecting him somehow, and that she is suffering extensive physical and mental illness because of lead poisoning. This is never addressed further, the ex-wife is knowingly left to rot in a sunless garrett.
Marget, a white woman, is consistently called a slur because she's too naturally pretty and takes too long to start wearing makeup. The queen then continues to call her this slur, while Marget becomes severely ill and loses multiple pregnancies because of her makeup's high lead content.
The earl is briefly mentioned to be a whole war criminal, who participated in the murder of Irish civilian women while fighting alongside Sir Walter Raleigh. This warrants all of two sentences and no character growth or tension. Two paragraphs later we are encouraged to coo over how cute it is that he doesn't know how to talk to girls.
I wish I could say I was sympathetic to Marget, and she does go through some horrific trials in this book. Quite simply she's too stupid to be very likable. The main villain of the book suggests that Marget poison the earl to scare him, sexually shames her, bullies her into changing her appearance, consistently supports Marget's other abusers, reveals that she broke up the earl's first marriage and led to the first wife rotting in the garret, and Marget STILL listens to her advice. She also tramples a peasant child with her horse (by accident) and moves on with no further mention, guilt, or consequences.
I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone. It may have put me off Christian romance forever.
Giving this book and the review a set of CWs for sexual assault, racism/slurs, miscarriage, and genocide. Also a spoiler warning because I will be ranting.
.
.
.
I will start out by saying, I'm not one to k1nk shame, especially when it comes to the romance genre. Have your fun. But this book consistently excuses outright abuse, with no apparent awareness that it is such. There is not about shaming, but concern about unexamined harmful behavior.
I must also say that this book suffers greatly from not knowing what genre it is. If it was written as a gritty historical thriller, it could have worked so much better. If the author hadn't tried to excuse horrifying actions, shame abuse victims, or give everyone a happy ending, it could have been a fascinating read. She clearly wanted to talk about the difficult aspects of historical life, like the health impacts of beauty standards, marital rape, child loss, and political corruption. But it's being told in the language and narrative structure of a fluffy Christian romance. The couple has to end up together, there has to be a happy ending. Whether that was the result of the author's choices or pressure from the publisher, I don't know, but we ended up with the content of a gothic novel and the tone of a Beverly Lewis story and the tonal dissonance is painful.
Starting out easy, there are three consistently sympathetic characters. One is a girl who appears for 1.5 pages and is only present to drive jealousy between the main characters. One is the earl's right-hand-man, who he consistently mistreats and seems to be trying his best to limit Marget's suffering. The last appears for a total of maybe 4 pages, is unnamed, and is a generally grumpy but decent man.
Someone told the author about the language of flowers/plants and she went absolutely FERAL. There is a two (2) page scene of the main characters eating salad one leaf and veggie at a time to have a whole conversation. For the rest of my life I am cursed to know that radishes mean I'm sorry. It might be my favorite part of the book.
Some other gems: married men are not allowed to have female friends, because it might lead to jealousy. Women shouldn't wear makeup or dye their hair because it's an insult to God. The author frequently makes mistakes in basic historical info, like the number of Henry VIII's wives or the cleanliness of the River Thames.
Now the bigger stuff:
The male lead (the earl) rapes the female lead (Marget) in Ch. 3 and the reader is expected to just...move on? All the other characters do, and Marget is consistently shamed by her family and friends for not getting over it. The earl, a man who has raped his wife, later pats himself on the back for not being the kind of horrible man who would rape his wife. There is no recognition of the hypocrisy in this. Marget is told to submit so she can have a baby, and the earl won't be tempted to cheat. Even when they have supposedly consensual sex, the language is heavily coded and deeply disturbing. A direct quote "...the earl in pursuit of a goal was a valiant warrior. When I put up a wall, he scaled it. When I set up some obstruction, he demolished it. He made quick work of all of my defenses...he prevailed upon me to yield. And when I did, it was not so much sacrifice as surrender."
The earl is frequently emotionally and physically abusive, and this is excused because his ex-wife cheated on him. It is eventually revealed that she was herself manipulated and only cheated because she thought she was protecting him somehow, and that she is suffering extensive physical and mental illness because of lead poisoning. This is never addressed further, the ex-wife is knowingly left to rot in a sunless garrett.
Marget, a white woman, is consistently called a slur because she's too naturally pretty and takes too long to start wearing makeup. The queen then continues to call her this slur, while Marget becomes severely ill and loses multiple pregnancies because of her makeup's high lead content.
The earl is briefly mentioned to be a whole war criminal, who participated in the murder of Irish civilian women while fighting alongside Sir Walter Raleigh. This warrants all of two sentences and no character growth or tension. Two paragraphs later we are encouraged to coo over how cute it is that he doesn't know how to talk to girls.
I wish I could say I was sympathetic to Marget, and she does go through some horrific trials in this book. Quite simply she's too stupid to be very likable. The main villain of the book suggests that Marget poison the earl to scare him, sexually shames her, bullies her into changing her appearance, consistently supports Marget's other abusers, reveals that she broke up the earl's first marriage and led to the first wife rotting in the garret, and Marget STILL listens to her advice. She also tramples a peasant child with her horse (by accident) and moves on with no further mention, guilt, or consequences.
I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone. It may have put me off Christian romance forever.
imjohannagrace's review
3.0
Siri Mitchell continues to be one of my favorite historical fiction authors. This one is no exception to her long line of wonderful books. It's interesting, it's terribly sad and gripping and fascinating for a history fan.
alambert91's review
5.0
Favorite new author!
This is one of the best historical romance books that I've read in quite awhile!! I highly recommend it to anyone. Once you start reading it, you will not want to put it down at all!!
This is one of the best historical romance books that I've read in quite awhile!! I highly recommend it to anyone. Once you start reading it, you will not want to put it down at all!!