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historical

reviews August 9, 2013

The King’s Agent by Donna Russo Morin

As the cloistered ward of the Marquess of Mantua, Lady Aurelia is a woman with a profound duty, and a longing for adventure. In search of a relic intended for the King of France, Battista and Aurelia cross the breathtaking landscape of Renaissance Italy. Clues hide in great works of art, political forces collide, secret societies and enemies abound, and danger lurks in every challenge, those that mirror the passages of Dante’s Divine Comedy. It is an adventurous quest with undercurrents of the supernatural, powers that could change the balance of supremacy throughout Europe. (Goodreads)

Battista della Palla is an art collector, or a thief, for the king of France. His job is to collect valuable paintings and sculptures for the king. He is in a mission to find a mysterious sculpture which is believed to have special powers when he meets mysterious woman named Aurelia. Aurelia has been living as a ward of Marquess of Mantua and her life has been very sheltered but she is a woman with secrets.

Before I started this book I thought this would be straight-forward historical fiction and not so much a mystery book with the quest of finding the sculpture. I haven’t read much about Italy and I enjoyed learning more about the country. The book is a take of Dante’s Inferno and video game The Legend of Zelda and I’m not familiar with either of them and I felt like I was missing way too much stuff. Battista and Aurelia travels through “Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Heaven” finding clues within paintings and from Dante’s work. The stuff with Hell, Purgatory and Heaven went little too much religious side that I lost interest and I’m not good with this mystery thing anyway.

I loved seeing the relationship growing between Battista and Aurelia. Aurelia had been living very sheltered life and hadn’t know freedom and she grows so much with Battista’s crew and seeing the world. I also liked Battista’s crew and their friendship between them.

While the book was bit hard to get into at first, I still enjoyed it. I just wish I was more familiar with Dante so I could have understood more. But this made me even more curious about the author’s previous book To Serve a King which I’ve wanted to read.

3/5
Published: Kensington (2012)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 411
Source: author

reviews August 8, 2013

The Captive Queen by Alison Weir

It is the year 1152, and a beautiful woman rides through France, fleeing her crown, her two young daughters and a shattered marriage.

Her husband, Louis of France has been more monk than monarch, and certainly not a lover. Now Eleanor of Aquitaine has one sole purpose: to return to her duchy and marry the man she loves, Henry Plantagenet, destined for greatness as King of England. It will be a union founded on lust, renowned as one of the most vicious marriages in history, and it will go on to forge a great empire and a devilish brood.

This is a story of the making of nations, and of passionate conflicts: between Henry II and Thomas Becket; between Eleanor and Henry’s formidable mother Matilda; between father and sons, as Henry’s children take up arms against him – and finally between Henry and Eleanor herself. (Goodreads)

Eleanor of Aquitaine was first married to King Louis of France, but he was more interested spending his time in prayers than with his wife. She’s not happy and extremely bored and when it’s suggested that Louis finds a new wife to get much needed male heir she’s not resisting.
Then she meets young Henry FitzEmpress and it’s insta-lust from the start. After Eleanor gets her divorce from Louis she and Henry marries without permission.

I’m still wondering why I ever started this book and how I managed to finish it. I haven’t been huge fan of her fiction books but this sure was something.

The sex scenes weren’t so bad than I thought and not as graphic but I don’t need sex scenes from the start. At page 2 she’s remembering her hot night with her future husband’s father and it’s downhill from there. But then she sees Henry for the first time and forgets Geoffrey just like that and after just few hours after their first meeting Eleanor and Henry are having sex. She’s supposed to have had an affair with this troubadour guy too, and of course with her uncle. Because if there’s some ugly rumour ever spoken of Eleanor you can trust to find it in here. As I said the sex wasn’t that graphic but it also wasn’t good and got very repetitive very soon. And I’m wondering how she managed to do all this without her servants knowing? To be successful, these kinds of products demand not just marketing, but camouflage marketing. Sex is a huge part of any married relationship and just like the relationship itself, sex goes through many different phases. I’m only going to focus on two main phases in this article; the “just got married” phase and the “just had kids” phase. Why? because I’m going through the just had kids phase so I’m finding it very relevant right now. In fact, we can probably summarize the just got married phase and then skip right to the problem, sex after kids. You can check special deals from the Magic Men site here. When you are newly married, sex is a huge part of your relationship, but probably for different reasons than when the relationship matures. Things are still relatively new and you are both still exploring each other and building intimate bonds. This is great stuff especially since you still have the time to actually enjoy each other. You have the time to make sure both of your “needs” are met and even throw in a little cuddle time if you want to. I actually mean cuddling, not “cuddle” as defined by the housemates of Jersey Shore. So you’re growing with each other, learning and loving and life is pretty good. Then one day you decide it’s time to grow your family. Visit Air by Bellesa for more information.

At page 22 we get this wonderful peace of information

Henry was surprised to find his father’s muscles iron-hard – not bad for an old man of thirty-eight, he thought. He had glimpsed too Geoffrey’s impressive manhood, and wondered seriously for the first time if his father had indeed been speaking the truth about knowing Eleanor carnally, and if he had, whether he had satisfied her as well as he, Henry, had done.

Like any normal father-son day, right?

Somehow Weir manages to turn this strong and intelligent woman into weak, childish, sex-addicted woman. And her portrayal of Henry isn’t that better. Where is this powerful man who’s spectacular rages made men fear? Instead we get someone who spends most of his time drinking, swiving random women at closets and other random places and stamping his foot when everything won’t go as he planned. There’s some fighting between Eleanor and Henry but unfortunately it sounds like a 3 year old is having a tantrum.

And if this all wasn’t enough she had to make Beckett to be in love with Henry. Like seriously?

I wasn’t fan of the writing itself which was the biggest reason why I hated this. But towards the end something happens and the writing get better and the characters started coming to life. We actually get one moving scene between Eleanor and Henry regarding Rosamund.
Speaking of writing, at some point after she has given birth she’s thinking about how queen’s can’t raise their kids and breastfeed them by themselves and then few pages after she puts the baby to her breast. Ouch!

I think this is time to stop reading her fiction books and not even try her next book!

1/5
Published: Arrow (2011)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 528
Source: my own

reviews August 8, 2013

Secrets of the Tudor Court:The Pleasure Palace by Kate Emerson

Secrets of the Tudor Court:The Pleasure Palace (Secrets of the Tudor Court 1) by Kate Emerson

Beautiful. Seductive. Innocent. Jane Popyncourt was brought to the court as a child to be ward of the king and a companion to his daughters — the princesses Margaret and Mary. With no money of her own, Jane could not hope for a powerful marriage, or perhaps even marriage at all. But as she grows into a lovely young woman, she still receives flattering attention from the virile young men flocking to serve the handsome new king, Henry VIII, who has recently married Catherine of Aragon. Then a dashing French prisoner of war, cousin to the king of France, is brought to London, and Jane finds she cannot help giving some of her heart — and more — to a man she can never marry. But the Tudor court is filled with dangers as well as seductions, and there are mysteries surrounding Jane’s birth that have made her deadly enemies. Can she cultivate her beauty and her amorous wiles to guide her along a perilous path and bring her at last to happiness? (Goodreads)

After the king of France dies, Jane’s mother flees to England where her twin brother lives in the court of King Henry VII. Jane is taken as a ward by Henry VII and to be raised with the royal children. She is just settling down to the new life when her uncle tells her the news of her mother’s death.

As an adult Jane serves princess Mary when her life takes a turn when French prisoner comes to court with his bastard half-brother who happens to be Jane’s childhood friend. Now that her friend is in England Jane sees opportunity to search answers about what happened to her mother.

When I think about this book the first word come to mind are meh and boring. Not necessarily a good thing…
Author has clearly done lot of research and it shows in the book but it fails to make it any more interesting. I didn’t much care for the heroine and couldn’t understand many of her decisions. I was starting to nodd off until about half way through it got somewhat interesting. I have to admit taking a peek and reading some scenes between Jane and Guy and it’s the only thing that got me through the whole thing.

I didn’t understand the reason why Jane and her mother had to leave France or why would it be such a big deal. I mean that was kinda common thing at the time. And why would it make Margaret Beaufort hate her mother so much. Shouldn’t Elizabeth of York be more mad about it?

I just doesn’t seem to have much to say about this and in the end all I can say is that is was okay.

2,5/5
Published: Simon & Schuster (2009)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Source: my own

reviews August 8, 2013

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called “Le Cirque des Reves,” and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway–a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love–a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per-formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. (Goodreads)

Celia and Marco are bound to a duel from childhood by their mentors, to a duel from which only one of them will survive. The venue is a circus that arrives without notice and opens only after sun goes down. But what their mentors did not take into account was that they might fall in love.

I’m so happy I finally decided to read this because I loved it! Before I started it I wasn’t sure about the whole circus thing but it worked here.

This isn’t action packed but it still managed to be not boring. The time changes were little confusing at first but I got used to them,

I loved Marco’s and Celia’s relationship but it could have felt more closer if they would haven spent more time together. There were years when they had no contact with each other which meant many chapters with no contact. I loved seeing them growing closer and learning more about their magic and what they’re capable doing with it. It was interesting to see Celia building some kind of relationship with her father and what kind of person it made her.

I have to say I never really got the meaning of this duel. I mean there was never any real confrontation between the players and it seemed like they never really did anything besides creating a new tent. Yes those were some special and cool tents but still. And how does that kind of duel really end? What makes the winner a winner? But that would be my biggest complain that the world would have been better explained.

But I really loved the book and it was a great debut. Can’t wait to read more of her books!

5/5
Published: Doubleday (2011)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 387
Source: library

reviews August 8, 2013

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen”–a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century.

The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane’s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor.

Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy. (Goodreads)

Jane Grey’s parents desperately wanted a son and Jane was a disappointment from the start to her parents and her mother, Frances, was very strict to her. As Jane grows she goes to live with Queen Katherine Parr and finally finds some happiness in her life. But the queen’s death changes everything and once again Jane finds herself to be a pawn in her parents hands.

This was my second fiction book I’ve read from Weir and I remember liking the book about Elizabeth more. I found Jane to be extremely boring and too self-righteous. She spent lot of time just whining and judging other people.

One of the problems was that there was way too many POV’s. There was like 9 POV’s and the good thing was that it was clearly stated who’s chapter it was. I understand the need of shifting viewpoints but enough is enough. Some people like Jane Seymour had just one chapter and I didn’t see point of it.

Jane’s mother Frances was showed to be overly strict mother who punished Jane for even the smallest things. I’m sure there was other strict families so I don’t see the point of hammering this detail so thoroughly.

And who doesn’t love to learn new words like “zounds”. You know, the words you can use in everyday life? Especially when the book is written in so modern day style words like zounds just fits naturally there…

I’m thinking I should stick with her non-fiction books from now on. But I do have her book on Eleanor of Aquitaine in here somewhere…

2/5
Published: Hutchinson (2006)
Format: Hardback
Pages: 408
Source: my own

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