Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Due to a number of things going on in life and with the holidays, I managed to get severely behind in my reviews the last couple of months of 2011.  Eleven of them to be exact – yikes!  In order to try and get back on track, this is my "quick and dirty" solution.  I resolve to do better in 2012.  Really.  I do.

Sunrise of Avalon* by Anna Elliott

The final book in Elliott’s Trystan and Isolde trilogy.  Beautifully written and often haunting and sad as the pair try to save Britain from her enemies and find a way to be together despite the many obstacles in their way.  The pair’s continued romantic tension and failure to communicate effectively gets a little tiring and the plot again drags a bit in the middle, but there is a nice twist to the well know tale.  4 stars

 

The Confession of Katherine Howard* by Suzannah Dunn 

This version of Katherine Howard’s story is told by one of her close friends, Catherine Tilney.  The first person narration makes the title of the book rather misleading since that actually makes it not the confession of Katherine Howard and Henry’s fifth wife actually ends up more of a background character.    The result is a somewhat chatty, middle-school narration which somehow seems a little too modern and “gossip girl-ish”.  3 stars

 

The Women of the Cousins War* by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin and Michael Jones.  Non-fiction.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the pieces on Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort, each written by the subject’s major biographer.  Philippa Gregory’s contribution is on Jacquetta Woodville (Elizabeth’s mother and the subject of her book, The Lady of the Rivers) as well as a lengthy introduction on women in history and history in historical fiction.  Since there is very little that’s really known about her subject, Gregory is forced into lots of “maybes”, “perhaps” and “could haves”.  I liked her introduction much more and even though I don’t agree with a lot of her theories, it was interesting to hear her point of view on the topic and how she approaches writing her novels.  4 stars (based on the contributions of Baldwin and Jones)

Theodora* by Stella Duffy 

Sixth century Byzantium is not a time period I normally read about and I had never heard of Theodora before, but her story sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try.  I’m glad I did!  I enjoyed Theodora’s story – a performer-turned-whore-turned-high-class-courtesan-becomes- empress rags to riches story.  The middle of the story plods along though as Theodora’s journey involves a sort of religious exile of sorts in northern Africa and some of the religious discussions and debates didn’t hold my interest.  4 stars

The Second Duchess* by Elizabeth Loupas

One of the best books I read in 2011!  The story of Alfonso d’Este’s second wife Barbara (his first being the young Lucrezia de Medici, the subject of Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess”) is well written and full of Renaissance Italy detail.  Loupas presents Barbara as a smart, likeable heroine who is determined to find out exactly what happened to her predecessor but she never come across as too modern in her behavior or her beliefs.  As the story and the intrigue develop, so does Barbara’s relationship with her husband and they becomes unlikely allies in their quest for the truth.  A nice touch is the enigmatic Lucrezia telling her side and giving clues to the reader.  5 stars

Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes 

This take on Anne Boleyn’s story was written in the 1940’s and reissued a few years ago.  Although somewhat dated in research and writing style, I did like the focus on Anne’s early life with her family, which is about a third or so of the book.  But honestly I can't really remember much about it.  3.5 stars

Curse Not the King by Evelyn Anthony

The second book in Anthony’s Romanov Trilogy (also published as Royal Intrigue) covering the reign of Catherine the Great and her son Paul.  Published in the 1950’s and out of print, I really liked this one and thought it was well written even if somewhat melodramatic at times.  4 stars

 

Catherine the Great* by Robert Massie.  Non-fiction. 

 I really enjoyed a couple of Massie’s other books and this one was no different.  At 700 pages, it is for the most part, easy to read but it gets a little bogged down in the details at times, especially the last third or so.  Fascinating reading and excerpts from Catherine’s memoirs and letters are a nice addition.  4 stars

 

Dawn of the White Rose by Mary Pershall. 

At a very low point in my life a few months ago I decided I needed to read some totally mindless fluff that would allow me to forget my problems while at the same time giving me some hope for a happily ever after in the midst of a relationship full of seemingly insurmountable problems.  Having read one of Pershall’s previous books, I decided this one might fit the bill.  It did.  The subject of the book is my historical hunk, William Marshall.  But Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Greatest Knight this is not  - as it falls more into the bad-bodice-ripper variety – but that’s OK.  With a brooding, moody William, an irritating Isabel and a series of misunderstandings that made more sense to the characters then they did to me, this was a mess.  But admittedly, a mess I couldn’t stop reading!  Maybe it was my mood.  But it did what it was supposed to do at the time and so that counts for something.  2.5 stars

Fortune Made His Sword by Martha Rofheart

Written in the early 1970’s, Rofheart makes use of multiple first person narrations to relate the events of Henry V’s life (a technique she also uses in her book about Richard I, Lionheart).  A couple of her choices for narrators and the accompanying story they tell seemed to have little relevance to Henry, although the narration of one of the knights from Agincourt was rather interesting.  2.5 stars

There. I feel better now.