A review by kbuchanan
The Queen's Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile by C.W. Gortner

3.0

I appreciate the perceptive author's note at the end of the novel, though admitting to so many shiftings of the times of actual events is always risky! This was an interesting treatment of a truly challenging and perplexing historical figure who contributed both to the acceptance of female scholarship and even professorship in Spain, but also to the beginnings of the Inquisition and the aftermath of Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas. Lots to grapple with here, and though Gortner clearly takes a more sympathetic stance on Isabella, he acknowledges the problems she does present. Entertaining.