Reviews

Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

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luliriisi's review against another edition

2.0

I'm not a fan of Alison Weir's fictional writing style. The omniscient narrator and constant flitting in and out of all of the characters' heads (even the minor ones!) was too jarring for me. I think if the narrative had been more focused on just one character and just staying in their head, then I would've been more captivated by the story. But because of the constant swapping, I didn't feel like I really got to know any of the characters on a personal level and so I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

I don't think I'll be reading any more of Weir's fictional books. I've read other fictional novels by her, which did a better job of captivating me than this one did, but in those too I thought there were just something about the style that I didn't like.

jojo_swaggins's review against another edition

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4.0

A tad slow to start, took a while for me to really get into it, but in the end it was a interesting story.

caitlinxmartin's review against another edition

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1.0

I love Eleanor of Aquitaine so I was excited for this book. She was an amazing historical figure, strong in ways that aren't typical for women of her time (or for any other). She had a famously passionate love for her Henry and they sired a devil's brood that continues to fascinate. From depictions of her in The Lion in Winter (one of my top 5 favorite movies) to Sharon Kay Penman's many looks at her and her children, she is always entertaining and continues to fascinate me. Until this book.

I got about midway through this - 225 pages or so - before I gave up. Honestly, I get that she was hot blooded and she and Henry had lots of sex, but that can't be all they had and I just couldn't read anything else about his penis and her clitoris. Just godawful - neither hardcore porn nor decent erotica - clinical, demeaning, boring. I'll guess I'll have to wait for the next Eleanor book to come out because this was just unreadable for me.

nielsabeth's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

mmz's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

arw1g10's review against another edition

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4.0

When I first started reading I was quite disappointed and a little concerned Alison Weir had jumped on the erotic fiction bandwagon that seems to have emerged in recent years. Saying that I don't think she ought to move to erotic fiction as the descriptions were fairy poor and not very realistic.

Thankfully however Weir did move on from this to portray more complex personalities and I did come to deeply care about the main character Eleanor. That said her mood seems unrealistically changeable and perhaps more smoothing of transitions in attitude would have been good.

At times this book was impossible to put down, mostly in the middle section, when waiting to see what the outcomes of Eleanor and Henry's latest seperation or quarrel would be. This did get old towards the end though Weir can hardly be blamed for the history of the time!

I would have liked to know more about Eleanor's children and what happened to them when they married. The book was fairly typically male focussed despite taking a female protagonist as the politics of the King and his sons was delved into far more than the lives of the daughters.

I would reccomend this book to people who enjoy historical fiction although I do not think it is as good as Weir's Innocent Traitor or The Lady Elizabeth both of which were astounding and emotional and deep in a way this seemed to be slightly lacking.