Noteworthy Passages: The Queen's Daughter

The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub. Date: June 8th, 2010
Pages: 370
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis via GoodReads
Joan’s mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England. She loves them both—so what can she do when she’s forced to choose between them? As her parents’ arguments grow ever more vicious, Joan begins to feel like a political pawn.
When her parents marry her off to the king of Sicily, Joan finds herself with a man ten years her senior. She doesn’t love him, and she can’t quite forget her childhood crush, the handsome Lord Raymond.

As Joan grows up, she begins to understand that her parents’ worldview is warped by their political ambitions, and hers, in turn, has been warped by theirs. Is it too late to figure out whom to trust? And, more important, whom to love?

Noteworthy Passages

Third-Person Narrative; pg. 102
Of course. A queen had to be aware of all the undercurrents at court. A queen had to know everything about the realm's enemies. A queen must be familiar with the resources and workings of her domain. A queen must make her husband welcome in her bed, give him heirs, but not be fool enough to love him.
The only thing Mama had failed to explain was why any woman would want to be queen.

Third-Person Narrative; pg. 191
Mosaics covered the vault and upper walls, depicting gardens and orchards, exotic predators and prey, creatures of myth. The same skill that had gone into the Palatine Chapel had been applied here, but with its secular theme, the results were startlingly different. In her fear, she felt she'd stepped into a peculiarly beautiful nightmare.

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Well those are the Noteworthy Passages for The Queen's Daughter. Hope you enjoyed them. If you would like to read my review, you can HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments; I love hearing from ya'll. Hope you all are having a lovely week.








PLEASE NOTE: This is a feature hosted here at my blog in which I present you with selected passages or quotes that I deem Noteworthy from a book I've just reviewed. My hopes are of course, that these passages will make you want to pick the book up and read it. This feature was started and created by me in January in hopes of making my blog more unique. That being said, I would like to kindly request that you do not use this feature as it was intended to be for my blog only and is not a meme. If you see some one else using it, please know it is without my permission. Thank you.

Review: The Queen's Daughter

The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub. Date: June 8th, 2010
Pages: 370
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis via GoodReads
Joan’s mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England. She loves them both—so what can she do when she’s forced to choose between them? As her parents’ arguments grow ever more vicious, Joan begins to feel like a political pawn.
When her parents marry her off to the king of Sicily, Joan finds herself with a man ten years her senior. She doesn’t love him, and she can’t quite forget her childhood crush, the handsome Lord Raymond.

As Joan grows up, she begins to understand that her parents’ worldview is warped by their political ambitions, and hers, in turn, has been warped by theirs. Is it too late to figure out whom to trust? And, more important, whom to love?

Review
I will admit, I've only read a few historical fiction books before. However, as I really enjoyed the ones that I have read, I thought that I was going to love The Queen's Daughter, with it's intriguing premise. Unfortunately I can not say I loved this book, though I guess I liked it well enough.

I found Joan to be a very hard character to connect with; this is something that I don't think was helped by the fact that this story was told in third-person narrative. There were times when I liked Joan and times where she annoyed me greatly. For example, I liked the fact that she had a bold, fiery personality. On the other hand, I thought there were times where she should have, and could have, tried to take more control of the events unfolding in her life. That being said, I was pleased to find that she developed quite well throughout the story and that her emotions felt genuine. Too bad it wasn't until about the last third of the book that I finally managed to form some semblance of a bond with her. There was quite a large array of secondary characters but I felt some of them weren't really around long enough to allow for adequate development. One character who did stick out was Joan's brother, Richard. I didn't like him one dang bit but he was very realistically portrayed and never meant to be liked. As for William, Joan's first husband, I thought he was quite a wuss and then he did something that really ticked me off. However, I also feel he was a bit misunderstood by Joan at times. I often got the feeling that he just wanted her to love and want him; that maybe if she would have at least pretended to be more interested in him, than he would have cared more for her in return. And then, Raymond; he confused me quite a bit. If he always loved Joan then why did he sleep with all of those other women. Why not try and marry her sooner?

The Queen's Daughter is divided into three main parts: Princess Joan, Queen Joanna, and Countess Jeanne. During the first part of the book, I found myself very enveloped in everything going on. There was war, political intrigue, and betrayal. I enjoyed watching Joan grow from just a child to a young teen. However, her life was undoubtedly rough-going during that time. Somewhere around the middle though, the book began to drag and grow monotonous, almost repetitive. It was at this point that I decided I'd set The Queen's Daughter to the side for a moment and read another book and then come back to it, not wanting to spend too much time on one book. Several books later, I picked it back up. To my relief, once I finished up the second part, I found the third part to be much improved in pace and action. As a matter of fact, I actually thought it was better than the first part. Joan was around more for the war going on. There was also more of the politics and betrayal that first got me hooked on this book, not to mention some romance.

I would probably have to say that my only issue with the writing itself would be the fact that it was told in third-person narrative. Unfortunately this was a major issue for me rather than a minor one. It often left me feeling disconnected from Joan and her story, particularly in the second part. Since there wasn't much going on at that time, well there was but Joan wasn't there for it, it really made things move slowly. Had it been told in first person, I would have probably at least had a quicker and easier time connecting to Joan. Aside from that, the writing was beautifully done; everything was so accurately and intricately depicted. You could tell Coventry had done her research on the time period.

I really enjoyed the ending of The Queen's Daughter. I think it's what Joan deserved after all she'd been through and you could really see how she'd matured as a character.

All in all, The Queen's Daughter was a bit of a let down but I did still like it and find it worthwhile. It had it's flaws but it had it's redeeming qualities as well. This isn't a book that I think would be everyone's cup of tea. I would probably recommend it to those who really enjoy historical fiction. I think I probably will eventually re-read this book and I get the feeling I may actually enjoy it more the second time around.

Grade
Characters: C
Writing: C+
Plot: C
Ending: B
Enjoyment/Likability: C
Recommendable: C

Overall: C

Cover: A

In My Mailbox (52)

In My Mailbox
IMM is a weekly meme hosted and created by Kristie atThe Story Siren and was inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

For Giveaway from S&S
~(2) Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
~(2) Posters
~(1) Journal

~(1) Bookmark

(I will be keeping one of the finished copies due to the fact that some pages and the back of the book were damaged in shipping. I'll be giving away my never read ARC in place of it for second prize.)

For Review from Harper
~The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

BookMooch
~The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson
~The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper
~Why I Let My Hair Grow Out by Maryrose Wood

Won from Reviewer X
~Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala

Won from Aimee Friedman on Twitter
~Signed! Sea Change by Aimee Friedman

Won from All-Consuming Books
~Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs

Won from Kasie West
~Signed! Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle

~Bookmark (Not pictured cause I forgot.)

Won from All About {n}
~Follow Me by Joanna Scott

Won from Book Crazy
~Merger by Jacquelyn Wheeler

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All in all, I think I had pretty darn good week book wise. The best week in a long time actually. I hope the rest of you got some great books as well and are enjoying your weekend.

A Time to Remember: 9th Anniversary of 9-11

Today is the 9th Anniversary of 9-11. The day when terrorists attacked the USA by flying passanger planes into the twin towers, killing thousands of people. I am posting this picture (though it is far from great) in memory of those who were taken and in honor of their friends and family. 9-11 was a nightmare come true and will never be forgotten.

I can remember the day it happened like it was yesterday. I was in 3rd grade when Mr. Cowart came into music class and told us the news. I was the only one who cried and sometimes I wonder if any of the others truly understood just what the attack meant. I can remember the number countdown from 10 to 1 on the news when they annoucnced that we were at war. The chill of fear that went down my spine when I saw and heard that is something I'll never forget.

In 7th grade, I got to visit Ground Zero when my Discovery class went to NY. It is impossible to explain how it felt to stand there, knowing what had happened. The piece of metal in my picture was found in the shape of a cross among the rubble after the attack. Some people believe God wasn't there, but I believe this cross is proof He was. Many survivors remember feeling like they were being led out of the burning towers by people who weren't really there or by an unseen presence. My papa (grandfather) died the year before on September 15th, four days before my mom's birthday. He was a war veteran and we all knew that if hadn't have died from RA, 9-11 would have killed him for sure. I like to believe, and maybe this is childish, that God brought my papa to heaven so he could help lead people out of the towers.

I know some of you aren't exactly the religious sort, but for those of you who are I would like to ask you to take a couple of minutes to say a prayer. Everyone else, I only ask that you take a brief, or long, moment of silence to remember those who were lost and all others affected by this attack. Whether you are American or not, it doesn't matter. I would like to thank you all for stopping by and taking the time to read this. God bless America.

God bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, my home sweet home.

(For those of you who recognize this post, yes it is the same one I posted last year but I feel I still have the same things to say. I plan to make this an annual post for as long as I continue blogging.)