A review by tessisreading2
The Queen's Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile by C.W. Gortner

3.0

Pretty much everything I know about Isabella of Spain I learned from watching a Spanish tv show entitled Isabel, which charges blithely through the entirety of her life. Reading this book is like watching that TV show, but with less gore and more attempts at justifying her treatment of the Jews. It is a little frustrating to discover afterwards that, despite the just-the-facts-ma'am treatment of the narrative, the author rearranged a fair number of events. Additionally, Isabel never really felt realistic - the historic Isabel was intensely religious and undoubtedly a canny politician and ruthless strategist, whereas this Isabella is a wide-eyed naif who basically seizes control of Castile because she feels she has no choice. But she's nice, really. She doesn't want to dispossess her niece, or begin the Reconquista, or fund the Inquisition, or persecute the conversos. It just kind of happens that way. Come on. It would have been a lot more fun, and a lot more interesting, to see her as a more realistic ruler.