Customer Reviews

Beloved Enemy: The Passions of Eleanor of Aquitaine

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a British history buff! I read everything about the British Isles, history and fiction. I loved the Fatal Crown and after finishing it (nothing good lasts forever) I immediately began to read Beloved Enemy, which I also enjoyed to the max. I'm eagerly awaiting the third installment of the series and hoping there would be a fourth one (After all, the Plantagenets could fill many volumes). Please, Ellen Jones, WRITE, WRITE!!! I love your books!

Fatal Crown and Beloved Enemy bring to life people, times and places that we can normally only experience through dry facts.
Ellen's novels actually made those facts believable.
Fantastic writing and I have not given up hope on the third of them. I can't wait to read Ellen's spin on Eleanor and her sons running amok on Henry and or Thomas.

I'm English and love to read my country's history. I'm lazy, too, so when an author like Ellen Jones does meticulous research and distills it all into a highly enjoyable story it's like having my cake and eating it. I rank this book right up there with Margaret George's "Autobiography of Henry VIII." The reason I logged on to Amazon.com today was to see if the sequel was published yet. I hope it comes out soon.

Before you start off reading this book, be aware that it is historical fiction. And that for all that Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most famous high profile women of her time, very little isource documents remain and as such very little is actually known about her.

What is known about her is quite well represented in this book, but as is often the case, it has been done better elsewhere (Sharon Pennman's novels are far superior). However, if you are new to Eleanor and her turbulent love life, this is as good a place as any to start. It certainly presents her as fesity and compassionate, and indeed I like to think that this is an accurate representation.

However, the author delves into areas such as her relationship with her uncle that have never been proved by the most vigorous research as anything but gossip, and whereas this may make for an amusing chapter or two in the novel, I couldn't help but think that it lessened the reading of the story for me. It is hard to believe that she who was so aware of her status would be so foolish. Similarly this novel deals only with the time when her relationship with Henry is turbulent, but still loving. Fans of the time will know that things ended very, very differently.

That being said, it is an entertaining novel, with some good research into the mores and habits of the time. It paints both Eleanor and Henry sympathetically enough, but it could have been much, much better.

At the end of this book the author states that she's working on a sequel. Where is it? The book leaves off before Henry II banishes Eleanor. That's a pretty important part of both Henry and Eleanor's story.

Aaagh!

Ellen Jones "hooked" me with Fatal Crown and Beloved Enemy, and at the end of Beloved Enemy, she writes "To Be Continued..." I've exhausted every resource I can think of to find this elusive continuation to no avail. Does anyone know its title? It isn't merely the story of Eleanor and Henry that has me hooked, but the wonderful richness of Jones' characters. She creates characters with whom I can empathize regardless of whether it is a "she" or "he," royal or penniless, I feel as tho' I'm there beside him or her and realizing events equally. (The occasional romp in bed doesn't hurt either.) If anyone knows of the 3rd book in this series, pls. post the info! thanks.

This book takes the great amount of research done on this magnificent woman, and weaves it into a fantastic story. Please hurry with the sequel, I'm dying to read about Henry III, Richard the Lionhearted, and the other great children of the Eagle!

I enjoyed this book enormously for the simple reason that having read Marion Mead's factual (but never dry!) biography," Eleanor of Aquitaine", Ellen Jones' "Beloved Enemy" filled in the gaps in this extraordinary true love story by imagining the human emotions, frailties, motivations and dialogue and made each encounter seem real. I would reccommend both books to any Anglophile, romance reader, or history buff.

As an avid English history buff, I have enjoyed both The Fatal Crown and Beloved Enemy by Ellen Jones. I am anxiously awaiting her sequel to Beloved Enemy. I would say Ms. Jones talent is close to that of Sharon Kay Pennman whom I regard as one of the best in the writing of historical English fiction.

I join the many others who are dying for the next book promised after Beloved Enemy.
I hope I live to see the day! Ellen, are you listening?