Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Queen's Pawn by Christy English

The Queen's Pawn tells the story of Princess Alais of France, sent to England to marry Prince Richard, and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who takes young Alais under her wing.

As Alais meets Richard for the first time, the attraction is instant and Alais looks forward to her future marriage. However, once at Windsor, Alais falls into the web of Richard's father, King Henry II and goes against two of the people she loves the most: Richard and Eleanor

The book is told from the point of view of both Alais and Eleanor, written in the first person. This took sometime to get used to, but I eventually got the hang of it.

As the story unfolds, we see from the view of both Alais, the fight for both Henry and the crown. Jealousy is mixed with revenge, but there is still also love. Eleanor thinks of Alais as her daughter and Alais thinks of Eleanor of the mother she had never known. While each woman is steadfast on winning, their hearts are also breaking.

A solid historical fiction novel and a great debut for Christy English. I'd like to thank Christy for sending me a copy her book. I enjoyed it!

3 comments:

Mystica said...

Thanks for this post!

Melissa said...

Looks interesting. I like how you tell about the book without giving away the plot.

Marg said...

I struggled with the first person alternating perspectives a more than you did I think.