Book Review: The Virgin Widow by Anne O'Brien

Pages: 409
Publisher: NAL
Released: November 2, 2010
Received: Own
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

I've been trying to read through more of the books I own, and I've owned The Virgin Widow for about four years. For such a large book (hey, for me 400 pages is large!), it was a pretty quick read.

It was also a pretty surface-level read. Which, isn't a bad thing, but it is a little disappointing. Anne O'Brien mostly focuses on events and throws in a few one-note emotions for flavor. Basically, Anne loves Richard. Anne doesn't like admitting that to Richard (this causes misunderstandings). Anne likes her mom. Anne pretty much dislikes everyone else. Her emotions are shared in a very surface-level way without much explanation or depth, but Anne O'Brien makes sure the reader gets it through a lot of repetition. This effectively sorts the characters into the "good guys" and the "bad guys" without much nuance or character development.

The closest O'Brien gets to the type of exploration I'd prefer is with Anne's changing relationship with her father. This was also pretty thinly explored, but at least it was explored and is one of the only instances of Anne actually growing or changing as a person.

I also hated the invented incestuous relationship between Margaret of Anjou and her son. And, really, their entire characterizations. They were clearly the Baddies and Anne O'Brien seemed to relish in making up evil actions for them to engage in. I'm surprised our heroine didn't walk in on the pair cackling evilly over a cauldron. This was embarrassingly awful, but once I accepted it, it was actually kind of fun in an absurd way.

I'm not sure whether to put this in as a good thing or a bad thing, but I couldn't help but picture all the characters as they appeared in the miniseries version of Philippa Gregory's The White Queen. The events follow so closely and the characters are more or less written the same (though, TWQ miniseries had a lot more character depth and development, and that's not saying much). Despite its flaws, I enjoyed the miniseries and was able to get on board with most of the casting, so the association actually enhanced my enjoyment of The Virgin Widow.

I also appreciated how lockstep the characterizations were between this book and the miniseries. I don't think we can actually know for certain how all of these people acted, thought, and felt, but consensus among authors gives the illusion of truth (or plagiarism. Or lack of originality. I'd rather just pretend it's evidence of truth).

As for events, the broad strokes are all pretty much true. There are some tweaks in timing, and don't look too closely at the details, but if you unfocus your eyes and look at the blurry structure of events, it's pretty spot on. You have all the major players and events represented, just with a little mixing, tweaking, and smushing going on. Yes, I realize how absurd that sounds.

Despite its numerous flaws, I couldn't help but enjoy The Virgin Widow. Anne is likable enough and I didn't mind the overly fluffy romance between her and Richard. The story ends before Edward IV dies, so everything is happiness and love for Anne and Richard when we leave them. It was nice.

Bottom line

If the story felt a little false, it was a nice, fluffy kind of false. Look at this more as a romantic novel with a dash of history rather than the reverse. I think I would have been bothered more by The Virgin Widow if I didn't already know enough about the Wars of the Roses to be able to spot the inaccuracies. As it was, I wasn't fooled into "learning" something about history that's wrong (the biggest reason I hate inaccurate historical fiction), and I could just enjoy the romantic spin on what is, to me, an undeniably exciting slice of history.

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Book Review: The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry

Pages: 373
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Released: June 8, 2010
Received: Own
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

I don't know why I should feel such a deep sense of satisfaction for finally reading a book that has been sitting on my shelves unread for over 3 years and my TBR for almost 7 years, but I do. I don't even know if it helps or matters that I enjoyed the book, but I did enjoy it.

It's also funny how reading another book can enhance the current reading experience. That also happened here. My previous experience with Thomas B. Costain's hilarious, insightful, and well-plotted non-fiction account of Henry II and Richard the Lionheart's adventures helped deepen my enjoyment of The Queen's Daughter by providing a richer backstory and context with which to place Joan's experiences here.

The Queen's Daughter is divided up into three sections and follows Joan's life from early childhood, through her time with her first husband in Italy, on crusade with Richard, and then back home again. There's a lot of stuff happening, and most of it is either true or makes sense given what we know about history. There's one bit that has no historical basis though and felt unnecessarily sensational. But, it's not a deal-breaker for me.

I'm usually a little eye-rolly about the whole The Somebody's Somebody trend in naming historical fiction books. A quick glance at my shelves show a whole lot of queen's something or king's somebody and it all seems very uninspired. In this case though, I think it actually works well. Joan is a whole lot less known than her dynamic mother (Eleanor of Aquitaine) and much of her life was impacted by her mother's influence, both directly in the sense of "marry this person, partake in this political scheme, suffer the fallout of Eleanor's political scheme" and internally in the sense that you don't have a mom like Eleanor without it affecting your psychological development.

The latter part especially added an extra layer to the book that I appreciated, and also wish had been developed even further. I wonder if this lack of development is because of the YA format, which, side note, this book also made me again question the line between YA and adult when it comes to historical fiction (all the "adult" situations and the way age doesn't line up with modern YA/adult milestones). The romantic ending also feels like it fits better in adult fiction and reminded me a lot of Anne O'Brien's style. This could have easily been classified as an adult book, and I think it might have been a better fit there and would have reached more readers.

Back to Joan, it felt like Susan Coventry had more to say and explore with Joan's thoughts and emotions, but held back, again, possibly because of the YA format. I would have loved a hundred or so more pages to really dig deeper into Joan's thoughts and relationships with the dynamic people in her life (her father Henry II, Richard, and the other men in her life). As it is, it felt toe-dippy, and just as things are getting good, we pull back and jump to the next event. Still, I appreciate what I did get.

Joan is, basically, mentally scarred by her mother's messed up way of dealing with people and much of this book follows Joan as she comes to terms with this and develops into her own person. Eleanor taught Joan not to trust people, not to fall in love, and to use people to get what you want. While this is all totally conjecture (and the author states that in her historical notes), I can buy it given what we do know about Eleanor, the people in Joan's life, and the historical mark (or lack of mark) Joan made herself.

Bottom line

I didn't realize I had so much to say about The Queen's Daughter. Clearly, it made an impact on me. Joan was an interesting, sympathetic person to follow and her perspective provided further depth to the more forceful players of the time (Henry II, Eleanor, Richard). I wish Susan Coventry would write more, as I'd definitely read another historical offering from her. Recommended for fans of Anne O'Brien.

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Series Review: October Daye by Seanan McGuire

I mini-reviewed the first four books in the series during my 2016 recap, so I thought I'd continue in that vein. I've tried to avoid spoilers in every mini-review, so you can read through all of them to get an impression of my feelings on the series without spoiling events. 

One Salt Sea (# 5) by Seanan McGuire

I picked this one up in December, got about halfway through, but then put it on hold during most of winter break. I don't know, I was still enjoying the series, but something about the plot of this one didn't really do it for me. More missing kids? It felt a little ho-hum. What should have felt thrilling (impending war!) just...didn't. I picked it up again after winter break and polished the second half off in about two days ending on a solid Good note. The ending could be considered game changing, but it just didn't impact me like I think it was supposed to.


Ashes of Honor (# 6) by Seanan McGuire

Ok, this one was more episodic. The stakes aren't so high and, yeah, there's another missing teen Toby needs to track down. But, for some reason, this one worked for me. Everything felt engaging and fun, and even if it didn't seem new, it felt familiar like old friends. I also liked getting to see different realms of Faerie. I could definitely see myself picking this one up again for a reread when I want to revisit October's world.



Chimes at Midnight (# 7) by Seanan McGuire

Yes! Chimes combined the fun of Ashes but also brought in some bigger events. I'm definitely, solidly, into this series again. The librarian in me loved the time we got to spend in the traveling library and the romantic in me was so happy that things are finally going how I want them to go. October's powers are growing, and while she skirts the line of "too powerful," I'm still on board and having fun learning what she can now do. There's also a scene at the end of this one that brought back some of the emotional depth I had been missing lately.




The Winter Long (# 8) by Seanan McGuire

FINALLY more secrets revealed! And, oh boy, there were a lot of secrets revealed. So much backstory was revealed and every answer was satisfying in its own way. We got to see shady characters from the past and learn a whole lot more about their motives, history, and ties to October. Of course, this also brought up just as many questions, and I'm still very interested in learning the answers to those questions now.






A Red-Rose Chain (# 9) by Seanan McGuire

Ugh, but I won't be finding them here. This book was awful. October became a super-human parody of herself, Tybalt became a love-sick sop randomly spouting Shakespearian tripe, all of the once-charming side characters became hollow props, and the author went off on a poorly inserted political rant. What a hot mess.




Once Broken Faith (# 10) by Seanan McGuire

I was ready to give up on the entire series after the abomination that is A Red-Rose Chain, but I figured with just one book left (published, there are still several more planned) that I might as well give it a shot. I'm glad I did. While Once Broken Faith isn't as good as the other books in the series, it's far from awful.

October is still too super-human and shallow, Tybalt is still too hollow (which, sidebar, it's such a shame to see his once-vibrant character turned into a cardboard cutout who only lives as a romantic caricature), and I didn't really get any answers to the overarching mysteries.

But, it also felt like everything was shifted a little closer to the good side of things. So it was comforting and my positive memories of the other books could carry the framework of this one well enough. I'm glad I read it, and now I will pick up the next book when it's released.

A note on the short stories:

There are a ton of short stories that can be read as companion pieces between the various novels. For the most part, I didn't like them. The ones I (tried to) read felt like fan-fiction in both writing and how much they diverged from cannon. Many are written from the POV of other characters and their voices just felt strange.

I don't think anything is missed by not reading these stories, and I wish I hadn't looked into them myself. The only one I did enjoy is Dreams and Slumbers, which comes right after Once Broken Faith. This one is also included in the published copy of that book, so I wonder if my enjoyment of it has something to do with the fact that it went through the publisher process (as opposed to all the other ones I read that were freebies).

Bottom line

Though the series is starting to wear a little thin, I'm still really glad I picked it up. I've had so much fun in October's world and am glad to have spent time with the characters I've met along this journey. I'm looking forward to reading more and I'm sad that I have to wait to continue on with October and this world. Despite the few rocky points, I'd still recommend this series. I just hope Seanan McGuire can recapture the magic in the final books. Now I need to find another paranormal series to fill the void.

 
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Book Review: Mariana by Susana Kearsley

Pages: 382
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Released: 1994
Received: Library, now own
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

I picked this one up on a total impulse. Melissa from Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf was reading this and I saw one of her updates on Goodreads. Something about the book grabbed my attention, and I downloaded it right then and there from the library. Thank you, Overdrive!

I started reading and I was immediately sucked into the story. Something about Susanna Kearsley's writing felt familiar, comfortable, and almost Daphne du Maurier-ish.

Much like a du Maurier book, Mariana moseys through the plot. Nothing is rushed, but at the same time nothing feels slow or dragging. It's all just a relaxing meander through old ruins, large historical houses, laid back visits to the local pub, and languid trips back through time. I enjoyed all of the characters, and while none really stood out, they all felt like familiar old friends. 

This is one of those heroine gets mentally sucked into the past type books where we slowly learn about a past history. I tend to like those kinds of stories, and Mariana can now be counted among my favorites. There's a little explanation given as to how all the time-slipping works and it's good enough for me to accept.

There's a twist at the end that I wish had been foreshadowed better. As it was, I accept it, and actually like it, but it was a little too about-face for my taste. Or maybe I'm just a very blind reader!

This was a great book to escape into and let the real world drift away. It's my first by Susanna Kearsley, but I'm now looking forward to making my way through her other works. The only challenge will be deciding where to begin!

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