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

3.0

I'd give this 3 & 1/2 stars, if there were half stars. It's fun to fill in some details about a queen you have heard about since preschool, even if fictionalized. I liked how the author romanticized the power couple of Castile / Aragon. Parts of the plot were monotonous, but that wasn't the author's fault- all the major kingdoms spent their time (except winter) invading or fending off their neighbors & Isabella's kingdoms especially, as middle eastern armies were a constant threat. The rest of the time was spent trying to birth heirs & raising money for wars. The storylines around the strengthened Inquisition are eerily familiar: constant, splashy rumors & fear-mongering about horrific acts committed by people of Jewish heritage in order to spur the majority population into violent action. Seriously, if Christian children were actually found ritually killed back then, the mob would have murdered all the Jews in that city within the hour. It was always a rumor from somewhere else in the mouth of a priest raging that to disobey his wishes were to disobey God himself. There are still those voices today.