Book Review: The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick

Synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca

What kind of woman becomes the wife of two kings, and the mother of two more?

Saxon England, 1002. Not only is Æthelred a failure as King, but his young bride, Emma of Normandy, soon discovers he is even worse as a husband. When the Danish Vikings, led by Swein Forkbeard and his son, Cnut, cause a maelstrom of chaos, Emma, as Queen, must take control if the Kingdom-and her crown-are to be salvaged. Smarter than history remembers, and stronger than the foreign invaders who threaten England's shores, Emma risks everything on a gamble that could either fulfill her ambitions and dreams or destroy her completely.

Emma, the Queen of Saxon England, comes to life through the exquisite writing of Helen Hollick, who shows in this epic tale how one of the most compelling and vivid heroines in English history stood tall through a turbulent fifty-year reign of proud determination, tragic despair, and triumph over treachery.

My Review

4 Stars

In The Forever Queen, novelist Helen Hollick brings to life a period in history not often explored by  novelists -- pre-Conquest England.   Starting in the early 11th century, this novel spans approximately forty years and covers the reign of four English kings - Ethelred (the Unready), Edmund Ironside, Cnut and Harthacnut - and one queen - Emma, whose reign lasts almost the entirety of the book and gives it its title.

Although I have rated this novel four out of five stars, I did so with some misgivings.   One of the strengths of the novel was Hollick's ability to create a strong sense of time and place.   She accomplished this through use of descriptive prose, prose that leaves the reader feeling as if they are experiencing the story first hand rather than through the pages of a book.  Nevertheless, on several occasions I felt the descriptions were overdone, detracting from the story and bogging the book down. I also thought the flow of the novel, especially in the early chapters, was jarring at times and, as a result, I occasionally needed to revisit sentences or even entire paragraphs to ensure I was following the story accurately.    Lastly, while I'm a fan of big, epic works of historical fiction, at over 600 pages I thought The Forever Queen was too long, as there were many scenes which provided little or no value to the progression of the story.    

You may ask why, when I seem to have several issues with this novel,  did I rate it so highly?  Simple really.   Whatever my issues with the writing style, the history conveyed in this novel was absolutely fascinating and kept me reading.   This was the first historical novel I'd read set in England on the eve of the Conquest and it is evident that Hollick did her historical homework.  This novel taught me a lot about a period in history I previously knew little about and managed to do so in an entertaining manner.     In the case of my overall rating of The Forever Queen, the historical detail of this novel was simply so vivid that it overshadowed my issues with writing style and length. 

The story started in The Forever Queen continues in its sequel, I Am the Chosen King.

Recommended for anyone interesting in learning about English history right before the Norman Conquest. 

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is a weekly travelling meme that is being hosted for the Month of May by Mari at Mari Reads.

I received two books this week, both of which were my own purchases: 

Ghost Light by Susan Fletcher - previously published as Corrag (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):


The Massacre of Glencoe happened at 5am on 13th February 1692 when thirty-eight members of the Macdonald clan were killed by government troops who had enjoyed the clan's hospitality for the previous ten days. Many more died from exposure in the mountains.

Fifty miles to the south Corrag is condemned for her involvement in the Massacre. She is imprisoned, accused of witchcraft and murder, and awaits her death. The era of witch-hunts is coming to an end - but Charles Leslie, an Irish propagandist and Jacobite, hears of the Massacre and, keen to publicise it, comes to the tollbooth to question her on the events of that night, and the weeks preceding it. Leslie seeks any information that will condemn the Protestant King William, rumoured to be involved in the massacre, and reinstate the Catholic James.

Corrag agrees to talk to him so that the truth may be known about her involvement, and so that she may be less alone, in her final days. As she tells her story, Leslie questions his own beliefs and purpose - and a friendship develops between them that alters both their lives.

In WITCH LIGHT, Susan Fletcher tells us the story of an epic historic event, of the difference a single heart can make - and how deep and lasting relationships that can come from the most unlikely places.


The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):

Brandon Sanderson, widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga,  begins a grand cycle of his own, with The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

So that is what was in my mailbox this week. 

Suddenly Sunday

 

Suddenly Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Svea at The Muse in the Fog, and the purpose of this meme is to share all the events that have occurred on your blog throughout the week.

Hard to believe it is Sunday yet again, and that May is just about over!  Where does the time go?  I was a little more active than usual on my blog this week, although I posted no reviews - I'll save those for next week.   In addition to my regular Mailbox Monday post, I also posted about Victoria Day (a Canadian national holiday) and some Queen Victoria/Victorian era-related books I'd like to read.    Finally, I participated, for the first time, in the weekly Book Blog Hop.   Don't know that I'll be a regular participant, but I like the idea of using the meme as a way to introduce myself to book blogs I otherwise wouldn't be aware of. 


I finished a couple of books this past week, The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick and Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar, and will post reviews for both next week.  

I hope everyone has a great week!

Book Blogger Hop 5/27 - 5/30

 

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event hosted over at Crazy-For-Books.   This will be my first time participating!


This week's question is: What book to movie adaptation have you most liked?   Which have you most disliked? 

The book to movie adaptation I have most enjoyed would have to be Pride & Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.   I think this adaptation best captured the spirit of the novel and the characters.   I also really enjoyed Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.   The movies were simply fabulous. 

The book to movie adaptation I most disliked is probably The Other Boleyn Girl.  While I thought the costuming was incredible,  I thought the movie itself was pretty boring in comparison to the novel.  I also have to add The Bourne Identity to my dislike list.   While I thought the movie was fantastic, just about the only thing it shared in common with the book was the title.   For this reason I think it was a poor adaptation.

Can One Have Too Many Books?

As I've alluded to a few times on this blog, I have a mild book buying addiction.  Okay, it is a serious addiction.   I'm constantly ordering new books online, and I can't walk out of a bookstore without purchasing at least one (and usually more) book.   Buying books makes me happy, almost as happy as reading them, and they do look so good on my shelves *grins*.  I have feed this addiction regularly for the past few years....alright, I've feed it for just about as long as I can remember...but I've run into a small problem -- although I read a lot, my book buying habit has resulted in my to be read pile becoming the size of a small mountain.   Even without buying another,  I own enough unread books to keep me happily reading for years.    Furthermore, in spite of having a home library I'm dangerously close to running out of shelf space.   

While sitting in my library recently, I was struck by the sheer volume of books yet to be read.   I've always lived by the motto that 'one can never have too many books,' however, for the first time in my life, I've begun to reconsider the wisdom of this motto in the face of my daunting unread pile.     Horrible thought, I know.

So what do my fellow book lovers think?  Is it actually possible to have too many books? Or do I just need a bigger home library? 

In Celebration of Victoria Day

Happy Victoria Day! 

For those of you outside of Canada, Victoria Day is an annual national holiday, celebrated on or around the 24th of May, in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday, as well as the birthday of the current reigning monarch (Queen Elizabeth II).   It is also marks the unofficial kick-off of summer here in Canada! 

I recently watched the movie The Young Victoria and loved it!  I've always had a fascination with the Victorian Age but, despite being a big reader of historical fiction, I've not read much historical fiction set during Victoria era other than historical mysteries.   So, in honour of Victoria Day, I thought I'd list some of the books on my to be read pile featuring Queen Victoria or set during Victorian Age:

Fiction

The Captive of Kensington Palace by Jean Plaidy (synopsis from fantasticfiction.co.uk):

Victoria is virtually a prisoner in Kensington Palace. Her mother and her mother's chamberlain, Sir John Conroy, are her guards. They will not allow her to associate with anyone that has not been thoroughly and critically checked to make sure Victoria is not made harmed by their very presence.Even her governesses are under scrutiny. She is not even allowed to be alone! Someone must always be with her. Her only hope is in contemplating her coming of age, whereupon she may be free and able to take her "Uncle King's" crown without her dreaded captures taking regency. Her best friends are her "dear" sister Feodora, married and living in Germany; her Uncle Leopold, her cousin-in-law and uncle as well as King of the Belgians; Lehzen, her faithful governess; the King and Queen, whom she is rarely allowed to see; and her cousins that she is also rarely allowed to see. She has scheming uncles trying to usurp her right to the throne, and family fighting over her. Every day she comes closer to her dream of adulthood, and her guards' despair at loss of power.

The World from Rough Stones by Malcolm Macdonald (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):

The unforgettable first novel in the classic Stevenson Family Saga from epic master Malcolm Macdonald.

John Stevenson is a just a foreman when a near-fatal accident bring young Nora Telling into his life. Her nimbleness of mind and his power of command enable them to take over the working mill and rescue it from catastrophe.  Together with their friends the Thorntons-who are troubled by a marriage mismatched in passion-they are willing to risk any dare, commit themselves to any act of cunning on their climb from rags to riches.

The first novel in the classic Stevenson Family Saga, The World from Rough Stones is the epic story of two ambitious but poor young people who, at the very start of the Victorian Era, combine their considerable talents to found a dynasty and go on to fame and fortune.

Non-Fiction: 

The Victorians by A.N. Wilson (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):

People, not abstract ideas, make history, and nowhere is this more revealed than in this superb portrait of the Victorians in which hundreds of different lives have been pieced together to tell a story. In an entertaining and often dramatic narrative, A.N. Wilson shows us remarkable people in the very act of creating the Victorian age.

The industrial-capitalist world came into being because of actual businessmen, journalists and politicians. We meet them in the pages of this fascinating book. Their ideas were challenged by the ideas of other people, such as Karl Marx, William Morris and George Bernard Shaw. Here are the lofty and the famous -- Prince Albert, Lord Palmerston, Charles Dickens, Gladstone and Disraeli -- and here too are the poor and the obscure -- doctors ministering to cholera victims in the big cities, young women working as models for the famous painters, the man who got the British hooked on cigarettes, the butchers and victims of conflict in Ireland, India and Africa. In this authoritative, accessible and insightful book, A.N. Wilson tells a great story -- one that is still unfinished in our own day.

We Two: Victoria and Albert - Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):

It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century-and one of history's most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family based on support, trust, and fidelity, qualities neither had seen much of as children. The love affair that emerges is far more captivating, complex, and relevant than that depicted in any previous account.


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Has anyone read any of these?  If so, what did you think?  Do you have any other recommendations for historical fiction set in the Victorian Age?

Mailbox Monday

It's Mailbox Monday time again.    This weekly meme is being hosted for the month of May by Mari over at Mari Reads. 

I'm excited to share my mailbox this week, as I received some wonderful books. 
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Won courtesy of Jenny Q at Let Them Read Books (Thank you!):

The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas (synopsis courtesy of Chapters.indigo.ca):

A rich, compelling historical novel-and a mystery of royal intrigue.
In a city-state known for magnificence, where love affairs and conspiracies play out amidst brilliant painters, poets and musicians, the powerful and ambitious Alfonso d'Este, duke of Ferrara, takes a new bride. Half of Europe is certain he murdered his first wife, Lucrezia, the luminous child of the Medici. But no one dares accuse him, and no one has proof-least of all his second duchess, the far less beautiful but delightfully clever Barbara of Austria.
 
At first determined to ignore the rumors about her new husband, Barbara embraces the pleasures of the Ferrarese court. Yet wherever she turns she hears whispers of the first duchess's wayward life and mysterious death. Barbara asks questions-a dangerous mistake for a duchess of Ferrara. Suddenly, to save her own life, Barbara has no choice but to risk the duke's terrifying displeasure and discover the truth of Lucrezia's death-or she will share her fate.
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Purchased using the gift cards I received for Mother's Day :-)

Outlaw by Angus Donald (synopsis courtesy of Chapters.indigo.ca):
 
In the tradition of Bernard Cornwell and Ben Kane, Outlaw is a rousing historical novel that mixes legend with fact to bring to life the time, the lives and the struggles of late 12th century England.  As the Henry II struggles with his rebellious children and the conflict between the Saxon nobility and the Norman conquerors continues on as bloody as ever, there is a figure that has remained firmly fixed in the imagination of generations - Robin Hood, an outlaw and a renegade nobility determined to bring down the men who took his land, his family, and his position.

When he's caught stealing, young Alan Dale is forced to leave his family and go to live with a notorious band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest. Their leader is the infamous Robin Hood. A tough, bloodthirsty warrior, Robin is more feared than any man in the county. And he becomes a mentor for Alan; with his fellow outlaws, Robin teaches Alan how to fight - and how to win. But Robin is a ruthless man - and although he is Alan's protector, if Alan displeases him, he could also just as easily become his murderer...From bloody battles to riotous feast days to marauding packs of wolves, Outlaw is a gripping, action-packed historical thriller that delves deep into the fascinating legend of Robin Hood.

Evangeline by Ben Farmer  (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):

As the British drove the French out of mid-eighteenth century Acadia (present day Nova Scotia), the beautiful seventeen-year-old Evangeline Bellefontaine is torn by British soldiers from her fiance, Gabriel Lajeunesse, on the eve of their wedding. Heartbroken but determined, Evangeline-along with illegal trapper Bernard Arseneau and priest Felician Abadie-sets out on a ten-year journey to the French-Spanish colony of Louisiana to seek her long-lost love. Evangeline's epic quest to find Gabriel brings her and her companions across North America's colonial wilderness, through the French and Indian War, and into New Orleans' rebellion against Spanish rule. The influence of Evangeline can still be found at every stop of her epic journey.

The Tudors by G.J. Meyer (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca): 

Acclaimed historian G. J. Meyer provides a fresh look at the fabled Tudor dynasty-and some of the most enigmatic figures ever to rule a country. In 1485, Henry Tudor, whose claim to the English throne was so weak as to be almost laughable, nevertheless sailed from France with a ragtag army to take the crown from the family that had ruled England for almost four centuries. Fifty years later, his son, Henry VIII, aimed to seize even greater powers-ultimately leaving behind a brutal legacy that would blight the lives of his children and the destiny of his country. Edward VI, a fervent believer in reforming the English church, died before realizing his dream. Mary I, the disgraced daughter of Catherine of Aragon, tried and failed to reestablish the Catholic Church and produce an heir, while Elizabeth I sacrificed all chance of personal happiness in order to survive.

The Tudors presents the sinners and saints, the tragedies and triumphs, the high dreams and dark crimes, of this enthralling era.


Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery and Folly From Royal Britain by Michael Farquhar (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca):

 Beleaguered by scandal, betrayed by faithless spouses, bedeviled by ambitious children, the kings and queens of Great Britain have been many things, but they have never been dull. Some sacrificed everything for love, while others met a cruel fate at the edge of an axeman's blade. From the truth behind the supposed madness of King George to Queen Victoria's surprisingly daring taste in sculpture, Behind the Palace Doors ventures beyond the rumors to tell the unvarnished history of Britain's monarchs, highlighting the unique mix of tragedy, comedy, romance, heroism, and incompetence that has made the British throne a seat of such unparalleled fascination.
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My regular purchases: 

Changeless by Gail Carriger (Book Two of the Parasol Protectorate) - synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca:


Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.
 
 She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it. 

Blameless by Gail Carriger (Book Three of the Parasol Protectorate) - synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca:

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.


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So that is what arrived in my mailbox.  What did you get in yours?