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A review by nytxia
The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick
4.0
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book.
I liked the way Eleanor (Alienor, as according to the author, it's as her name appears in the Anglo-Norman texts) is portrayed and how the story, even if a bit too factual at times, was interesting to read. Bonus points for the steamy scenes (right quantity and right amount of detail: not too little, not too much) and for including that bit of speculation on her vassal (not going to include spoilers here).
Considering we know already how the 'story' ends as this is well-known history, then what makes the most interesting element to explore in historical fiction, in my opinion, is each character's thoughts, reactions and feelings along with the speculative gaps. While the author did a good job, I have the certain reservations:
- The 'Akashic records' as she mentions in her author's note, I am not too sure what to think of this;
- The constant focus on specific emotions to describe a character's tone or reaction such as 'anger' or 'happiness'. Basically didn't follow the "show, don't tell" principle, which is a shame, considering the character's development and general descriptions were very good.
Apart from that, I thought there was a good use of the third person omniscient POV - I am impressed myself because I am usually not a fan of this type of narration, but I thought the story flowed quite well, considering we had access to many different character's thoughts and emotions within the same chapter.
The next book in this series has been offered to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I am certainly looking forward to reading it.
I liked the way Eleanor (Alienor, as according to the author, it's as her name appears in the Anglo-Norman texts) is portrayed and how the story, even if a bit too factual at times, was interesting to read. Bonus points for the steamy scenes (right quantity and right amount of detail: not too little, not too much) and for including that bit of speculation on her vassal (not going to include spoilers here).
Considering we know already how the 'story' ends as this is well-known history, then what makes the most interesting element to explore in historical fiction, in my opinion, is each character's thoughts, reactions and feelings along with the speculative gaps. While the author did a good job, I have the certain reservations:
- The 'Akashic records' as she mentions in her author's note, I am not too sure what to think of this;
- The constant focus on specific emotions to describe a character's tone or reaction such as 'anger' or 'happiness'. Basically didn't follow the "show, don't tell" principle, which is a shame, considering the character's development and general descriptions were very good.
Apart from that, I thought there was a good use of the third person omniscient POV - I am impressed myself because I am usually not a fan of this type of narration, but I thought the story flowed quite well, considering we had access to many different character's thoughts and emotions within the same chapter.
The next book in this series has been offered to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I am certainly looking forward to reading it.