The Bland Queen

I have finally finished 'The White Queen' by Philippa Gregory, the second in the 'Cousins at War' series of books (chronologically anyway!).

'The White Queen' picks up where 'The Lady of the Rivers' finished, with Jaquetta's (Lady Rivers') daughter Elizabeth Woodville heading out to meet King Edward IV at the roadside.  Elizabeth is a noted beauty and Edward a notorious womaniser, so it's not surprising that romance (or lust depending on how you look at it) follows.  The couple marry in secret, an act which has terrible repercussions, bringing war back to the country once more.  Whether married for love or political ambition, Elizabeth, now the White Queen of York, finds herself on a journey that sees her become by turns first lady of the land and outlaw in sanctuary fearing for her life and the lives of her children.  So where will the White Queen's Wheel of Fortune stop turning?

'The White Queen' by Philippa
Gregory (Simon & Schuster
UK Ltd, 2009)

I'm sorry to say that I didn't really begin to get into this book until about two thirds of the way through.  The first part is basically historical fiction romance porn, full of lust and illicit love affairs, the second part sees Elizabeth a long way from the action (at this point I wanted to follow her husband's narrative, not hers) and finally, in the third part, the White Queen starts to get fleshed out a bit and become a real, interesting character.

The final chapters see her hiding in sanctuary with her children, at which point conflict begins to develop between her and her eldest daughter, all based around Elizabeth's 'ambition'.  To be honest, I hadn't noticed that she was ambitious until this point, just that she was a pawn of her mother (who has changed a lot since 'The Lady of the Rivers'). But once she'd been told she is ambitious, Elizabeth seemed keen to make up for lost time.  As well as being ambitious, Elizabeth is also shown to be hopelessly politically naive, which makes it much easier to see her as a human being and even begin to relate to her.  Before that, I couldn't get any sort of grip on her motivations and it made it hard to like/dislike/care about her.

There also seems to be a lot of padding in this book, a lot of phrases and ideas repeated within pages just in different words.  I got absolutely sick of hearing about Elizabeth's hat coming off and her hair being unpinned and falling down.  Also, the habit of modern language slipping through which I first noticed in 'The Other Queen' has reared its ugly head again.  Note to editors: If a sentence ends with 'here' and when you delete it the meaning stays the same, then delete it.

Sadly, this book feels like a first draft.  There is a really great story in here and it's an OK read if you've got the time to spend on it, but I know Ms Gregory can do better and it's really disappointing to read something that just doesn't hit the usual mark.  Then again, it's often things going wrong that make you appreciate it when they go right.  So bring on the Red Queen!

Rivers Run Through It

See what happens when I get a bit determined?  A 497 page book read in nine days flat.  Result!

I've just finished reading 'The Lady of the Rivers', chronologically the first in Philippa Gregory's 'Cousins at War' series.  I was getting a bit washed out by the flood of promotion around the BBC series based on the books, so thought I'd better get started on the novels so I could watch it!

'The Lady of the Rivers'
by Philppa Gregory
(Simon & Schuster UK, 2012) 

The lady of the title is Jacquetta, a daughter of the House of Luxembourg, a family which traces its source to a union between a man and the water sprite Melusina.  These unusual origins are said to give the Luxembourg women the gift of foresight, bringing Jacquetta to the attention of the Duke of Bedford, King Henry VI of England's commander in France.  Bedford marries Jacquetta to use her in his alchemical experiments and no more, leaving her feeling unhappy and confused.  The waters are muddied further when she begins to have feelings for one of the Duke's retinue, Richard Woodville.  When the tide of war turns and the Duke and his household return to England, they find a king whose direction changes with his advisor and an increasingly disgruntled ruling class.  Will Bedford convince the King to fund the fight in France? Can Jacquetta find love and retain her honour? Could disagreement between royal cousins really lead to war?

You have no idea how hard it was for me not to say more in that paragraph.  This is really only the very start of a book which took me on an unexpected journey through the early years of the Wars of the Roses, as we call them today.  All I really know about them is that Henry VII brought them to an end through battle and marriage.  As such, even though this is clearly historical fiction, 'The Lady of the Rivers' gave me a taste of the era and an overview of the key events that has made me want to read more.  This is just as well as there are another three books in the series already and at least one more on the way.

Which leads me onto a bit of a niggle I have.  As readers can see from the family tree at the front of the paperback edition, Jacquetta is rather 'productive', giving birth to 14 children by the end of the novel.  Somehow she carries these babies successfully while riding horses, getting caught up with the boisterous London mob and stressing about her husband, children and Queen.  Clearly, she was made of stern stuff!

As I say, though, this really was just a drop in the ocean, much like the alchemy near the start of the book.  There was a point at which I thought "Where on Earth is this going?" because I was a bit worried that the themes of magic and alchemy were going to drain the book's feel of realism.  Talk to any Philippa Gregory fan and they'll tell you that they love the way she evokes the past and makes it feel realistic, so it worried me a bit that the novel might be slipping into 'Lord of the Rings' territory!

I needn't have worried on either count, though, as 'The Lady of the Rivers' is an absorbing book introducing fascinating historical figures and a time period I really would like to know more about.  Not only am I hoping that the other books in the series will help to start bridging the gap in my knowledge, I hope that the people they introduce will be equally intriguing and I'll get so swept up in the flow of the story that I'll read them just as quickly!

Now, to 'The White Queen'!

Getting the Sums Wrong

I've just realised I've been lying to you all this time!  Although my profile says I've been trying to read all the books I own since August 2010, my running totals only started with the blog, in May 2011!

I have now added everything I read between those dates, bringing me up to a more impressive 66 books over the past 34 months instead of 49.  That's a monthly average of just just under two, not quite what I'm aiming for, but far off at all.

Now that's cleared up, had better get back to the Lady of the Rivers.  I've got a target you know!