9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of time and money!, September 14, 2007
This review is from: Queen of Shadows: A Novel of Isabella, Wife of King Edward II (Paperback)
I realize a historical fiction is fiction but usually the author does research and builds the fiction around the facts. I am not an expert and even I picked up on the inaccuracies (not just the dates, places and events but the customs, speech, dress, etc.)
I gave this book one star because of the historical figures she started with and the only good parts in this book are Isabella's interactions with Despenser. I can't say this would even be a good book if you like romance because the love scenes were not fantastic.
Over all this book is poorly written and I am not sure it's the writers fault or the editor. There's so many mistakes it's hard to read through it. The characters are weak, the plot is weak, details of the period are not that discriptive or all wrong. It's so unbelievable, it's comical. As I was reading this book, I thought if it became a movie it would be a cartoon.
If your looking for a good historical fiction, look for Sharon Kay Penman or Anya Seton or even Philippa Gregory.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just like the cover this book is beige (and clearly no research was done on the subject), January 4, 2008
This book sat in my to read stack for two years or so (ever since it was published) and I never got around to reading it. To admit a completely stupid emotion I even felt guilty for having it sit around for so long getting no attention from me. But regardless when I did pick it up and read it I was a little...stunned. Not because this was some fantastic novel that redefined my life or because it was the worst piece of trash ie ever read that left me attempting to scrub my brain with soap to get the bad words out of my head. Not I was stunned because a more mediocre novel I have never read.
I guess it's a good thing that the cover was beige because this whole novel was just.....bla. While apparently the plot is like, edge of your seat, biting your fingernails, peeing in your pants exciting, in reality it's dull. It doesn't even have the imagination to be confusing, it's just boring.
So Gwenith (in reality this should be called a book of Queen Isabella and Gwenith the random royal Welsh girl) had her whole family destroyed by Edward Longshanks during his campaign to get ride of the Welsh princes of Wales and had vowed to her dead grandmother to everything she can to get ride of the present Edward, Longshanks son. Being a lady of waiting to Queen Isabella she gets a chance when a Welsh knight pleads his master's case to her and asks that the queen might meet with his master, Mortimer.
Doesn't sound bad-well it is. On top of all of the historical inaccuracies (and there are soooo many-either this author did no research and went off of what she learned from movies like "Braveheart" or there was no editing at all or both. I mean fiction is fiction, but in historical fiction you need to get the facts strait-you can pay with character emotions, things that are disputed by the historical communities...but not strait out facts!) The plot inches along at a snails pace. Even the action parts of the book are boring. There are only two interesting things in the whole book in fact, one is Isabella and Edwards fights which are really something and the other is the intimation that Edward III is not the son of Edward II, but his real father is never named.
Anyway, this book is a great way to put yourself to sleep. I managed to finish it, but unless you like sleeping all the time or being in a catatonic state, I wouldn't recommend it.
One star.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Romance? Maybe. History? Definitely not!, April 11, 2010
This review is from: Queen of Shadows: A Novel of Isabella, Wife of King Edward II (Paperback)
I agree with the first two reviewers, this book is very badly researched and sloppily written. I actually found it entertaining for the sheer amusement value at all the historical mistakes and anachronistic style of writing. This Isabelle is a product of Edith Felber's imagination, and only bears the slightest resemblance to the historical figure of The She-Wolf of France (not "She-Wolf of Paris" as Ms. Felber put it). In the book, she speaks neither English or French, she speaks contemporary American English, with an "aye" or "nay" here and there for "local colour". The few words of French used are just as bad.
Actually, reading this book made me so mad I had to run and find a history of Isabelle written by a French author (in this case Maurice Druon, of the Académie française) and thoroughly documented, just to take the bad taste out of my mouth, metaphorically speaking.
Since a synopsis has already been posted, I'll just comment on a few details.
I thoroughly resent the aspersion cast on Edward III's legitimacy. Ms. Felber hints at a Scottish father without naming him. She must have seen "Braveheart" but realized that what Mel Gibson made there was one of the most historically inaccurate movie of all times. About the only thing that's accurate about it is that the man was really named William Wallace. But Isabelle (who never set foot in Scotland anyway) was 3 years old when Edward II defeated Wallace, and Edward III was born seven years after Wallace's death. That doesn't keep Ms. Felber from persisting in her assertion that he's not Edward II's son, she even has Isabelle go so far as telling her husband "He's my son, he has royal blood in him, that's enough" (meaning, he has French royal blood, not English). And then at the end of the book, Ms. Felber is so sloppy she mixes up the generations. She has Isabelle look fondly at her grandson and thinking "how like his father - God rest his soul - he is." She means, he's like not "his father", who's Edward III, and who's still very much alive, but "his grandfather", the un-named Scots with whom Isabelle is supposed to have had an affair (Heaven only knows where and when.)
I also resent the fact that Isabelle is made this sweet, lovey-dovey thing who's hurt at being called a "She-Wolf". She was far from sweet, she was made of steel, just like her father, Philippe IV The Fair, who was called "The Iron King". She had to be, just to survive, and to ensure her son would be king of a realm that wouldn't have been totally despoiled by the Despensers. That is what is admirable about her, she was smart, and she was ruthless. And she was a Queen, a real one.
The affair she supposedly had with Mortimer at the Tower of London is rather laughable. Can you imagine the Queen of England, especially one as closely watched as Isabelle was, slipping away for a tryst in the prisons of the Tower without the whole Court knowing it? She did have an affair with him, that is true, but according to Druon, that didn't start until they were both safely in France.
Ms. Felber prettifies the story too much, makes it 21st century rather than 13th century - a more savage age, when gruesome public executions served as popular entertainment. Gwenith being sick at the younger Hugh Le Despenser's execution (and I admit I myself would be sick, but then I'm a 20th-21st century woman) is not believable. At the time, a Queen's lady-in-waiting would have seen much worse - especially one from Wales, as Gwenith is.
And if Ms. Felber had bothered with the merest check on Google, she'd have known that today's historians agree that Edward II wasn't executed with a red hot poker - in fact that he wasn't executed at all. Though both she and Druon tell the same tale about the order from Mortimer and the Queen starting with "Bonum est", which could be interpreted in opposite ways.
She also gets it right that Edward III's claim to the French throne was the start of the 100 Years War. Actually, his claim was pretty legitimate, but that's another story.
Anyway - from now on Edith Felber is off my list of "historical romance" writers I'll read. I'll go with Sharon Kay Penman, some others whose name escape me at the moment, and yes, even Philippa Gregory.
I definitely do not recommend this book, especially not to people who want their historical novels based on factual history. Embroider the facts, invent dialogues, yes. Get names, dates and facts wrong, no.
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