DNF Explanation: The Vatican Princess by C. W. Gortner

Pages: 400
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Released: February 9, 2016
Received: ARC via NetGalley
Rating: DNF at page 259 (64%)
Goodreads

I keep starting and erasing this review. I'm struggling because on one hand, I really, really wanted to love this book. I've been a big C. W. Gortner fan and I'd been looking forward to his take on Lucrezia for years. On the other hand, I did DNF it.

I think it all boils down to C. W. Gortner's portrayal of Lucrezia. She's too innocent, young, and dumb. Her attempts at scheming are childish and uninteresting. I wanted her to be calculating. I wanted her to be stronger. I wanted her to be someone I could root for, but instead I ended up feeling mild dislike.

And, now that I think about it, the other characters suffered similarly. For such a passionate, polarizing family, these characters came across as thin caricatures, not capable of evoking strong feelings in me or leaving any kind of lasting impression. Borgia himself was a weak, easily fooled old man. Ceasare was a stereotypical, boring Byronic hero, with none of the allure or intrigue I was hoping to get. Juan was just one-note evil.

Lucrezia kept hovering on the outside of the Borgia family schemes, but I never got to dive into them and it was hard to imagine the characters I was shown would be capable of any kind of interesting plotting. This made for a boring, frustrating read.

I kept waiting for something interesting to happen or for Lucrezia to take some control of her story, but that never happened. I get that she was a political pawn for her family and didn't have a whole lot of control, but she didn't even have any agency in her thoughts. Events just happened to her and she stumbled blindly through her life with this stupefying wide-eyed innocence, which makes little sense considering her family.

Maybe this is because Lucrezia is younger during the parts I read and she will grow to be a stronger person? I keep trying to make excuses because I so want to like this book, but I feel like I'm grasping for excuses.

Lucrezia also stumbled into a large number of graphically sexual situations. I guess that's fine in a Borgia book, but it felt like this book couldn't decide what it wanted to be: a revisionist redemption novel for pure innocent Lucrezia, a salacious sexfest, or a serious historical novel. I don't think it really succeeded in any of those areas and the combination didn't really work. The graphic parts also seemed almost boring and repetitive because they were used to show how evil the villainous characters were, and it was all very cackling and one-dimensional.

This may be a case of high hopes dashed. I fell in love with C. W. Gortner's The Queen's Vow and The Last Queen, about Isabella and Juana, two tempestuous queens with drama-filled lives. Neither woman is easy to like, but C. W. Gortner really showed the nuances of their characters. There was so much depth and historical detail packed into those books.

But this one just seemed to lack both the depth of characterization and the depth of historical substance that those other two books had. I didn't feel transported to that historical time period. Really, it could have been any "olden" time or place. I didn't feel like I learned anything, and I am far from a Borgia scholar. The few details included felt very surface-level and minimally researched. I didn't feel compelled to race to Google and start digging deeper into the history of these people and their time. I didn't feel much of anything and the whole thing had a very "phoned-in" vibe to it.

Bottom line

I guess this one is a miss for me, but I'm not giving up on Gortner just yet. I have a copy of his Catherine de Medici book, and I still have high hopes for it. But for this one, I'm very disappointed.

Tweet

Book Review: The Queen's Vow by C. W. Gortner

The Queen's Vow by C. W. Gortner
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Publisher: Random House 
Pages: 400
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley and finished review copy from publisher
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Summary

From Goodreads:

No one believed I was destined for greatness.
 
So begins Isabella’s story, in this evocative, vividly imagined novel about one of history’s most famous and controversial queens—the warrior who united a fractured country, the champion of the faith whose reign gave rise to the Inquisition, and the visionary who sent Columbus to discover a New World. Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner envisages the turbulent early years of a woman whose mythic rise to power would go on to transform a monarchy, a nation, and the world.

...From the glorious palaces of Segovia to the battlefields of Granada and the intrigue-laden gardens of Seville, The Queen’s Vow sweeps us into the tumultuous forging of a nation and the complex, fascinating heart of the woman who overcame all odds to become Isabella of Castile.

Review

The best kind of historical fiction!

I love history, but I'm such a slacker. I don't really have the patience for a lot of non-fiction books, so I usually turn to historical fiction to learn through entertainment. And, of course, this is usually a tricky approach because it is historical fiction after all, and authors have license to stretch the truth or not even really focus on the real historical figures much.

But The Queen's Vow is the absolute PERFECT type of historical fiction! And this is why...

It's like reading a story, but with a smarty pants hat on

The Queen's Vow is Historical fiction with a capital H and you can totally use it as a cheat sheet for learning about Isabella of Castile (don't know her? Yes you do. Think things like Columbus and the Spanish Inquisition).

While there are a few tweaks made with the timeline of events and there's a made up character here and there, by and large the book is accurate enough to quote facts to your friends and family (just remember, there's a lot of controversy about what actually went down at the time, and C. W. Gortner explores a few of the very possible but more sensationalist theories).

And oh boy will you learn a TON of trivia! Schools mostly gloss over Isabella as that lady who sent Columbus to the new world, but my gosh, she was so much more. Isabella had her hands in SO many crazy things. Her life was one giant hopscotch game of war, more war, new wars, old wars, lots of mad dashes in the night, inquisitions, scheming, bribes, and a whole lot of praying.

Not to mention scandal. Do you like gossip? Then you're going to love the scenes with Isabella's odious sister in law.

The best part is that all of this moved along at a pretty quick pace. I was never bored or bogged down with tedious descriptions or long drawn out stuff that I don't care about. C. W. Gortner knows how to prioritize a story and keep things interesting so that I happily read along oblivious to the high page count. I would have even gladly read a few hundred more pages (I'll have to satisfy myself with Gortner's previous work The Last Queen about Isabella's daughter). 

The characters come alive

Ok, I have to get this off my chest first. Isabella is SO lame.

This is maybe a tiny bit spoilery: There's this one point where the evil queen is forcing her to marry this absolutely horrible old man and then right before he's scheduled to pick her up, he DIES! Beatriz, Isabella's incredibly awesome totally getting a sleepover invite maid is all, "Score! Lady, God is totally looking out for you!" and Isabella is all, "Oh no, I am but a mere speck of bland piousness and surely the lord does not even consider me. Plus, I would never wish ill upon another for my own sake." And Beatriz and I are standing there with our jaws to the floor sputtering, "Honey, ding dong the witch is dead! Can we please hold off on the Hail Marys for just a sec and do a happy dance??"

So yeah, Isabella = 0, Beatriz = 500000000000xinfinity. (And this is only a tiny fraction of the awesome points Beatriz earns throughout the book.)

But that was young Isabella. Give her a hundred pages or so and she grows up. She becomes a lot more ruthless and her piousness borders on the crazy dangerous side of things (she thinks she's so innocent, but watch out!). Which, as far as becoming best friends is concerned, Isabella gets a big HECK NO from me (I'm a little afraid of her), but as far as reading about a fascinating woman? Yup, Isabella definitely scores highly in that regard.

She may be irritatingly righteous, rash, and SO judgy, but she's also tenacious and determined to get her way, which is kinda admirable in its own way. And scary. And a heck of a lot of fun to read about. It was so easy to get swept up in the story and Isabella's cause that I was totally fist-pumping and cheering her on, even when I wasn't actually 100% on board with what she was doing. She seems like the type of queen who could inspire lemming-like sacrifices on the strength of her personal conviction alone.

The best part is C. W. Gortner's presentation of her. The whole book is narrated by Isabella, so automatically I was inclined to want to sympathize with her. But, C. W. Gortner doesn't make excuses for her either. Isabella is presented as a woman with hopes and fears and motivations that are left to the reader to decide whether or not she was on the right side of things.

It was almost like, hm, well, have you ever read one of those books that tells things from the villain's point of view and you find yourself coming around to their side of things and hoping the pretty princess eats the poisoned apple? That's what this book felt like to me. I'm not sure I objectively like Isabella (though I can respect a lot about her), and I think she definitely dons the crazy hat at times, but I feel for her.

Warning

The Queen's Vow is adult fiction, and while nothing is super graphic, it IS described and Isabella and her husband enjoy one another deeply. Think on the level of Lily of the Nile and Song of the Nile, which are billed as YA/Adult crossovers. Readers will have to decide for themselves whether that's too "adult" for them or not, but outside of that, YA historical fiction fans can find much to like in The Queen's Vow.

Bottom line

I've found myself a new historical fiction author to read! And lucky for me, he has already published three other books to keep me occupied until his next release. I have ordered a copy for my library, but mostly I'll be handing it around to adult readers and a few mature YA readers.

This is (regrettably) a standalone.

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about The Queen's Vow that I haven't addressed?
Feel free to ask in the comments!

Add it on Goodreads
Buy it on Amazon

Looking for another book like this?

You might like:

 Click on the pictures to go to my reviews.

Tweet