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sturner79's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this book, and I almost did. When I finished it I was on a roller coaster of emotions, and I couldn't wait to tell my husband about it. The thing is, I was able to give him the entire basic plot in a span of about 1 minute. The fact that I was able to take something that had originally captivated me and whittle it down to a 1 minute description left me feeling a little deflated - especially considering the amount of time I dev oted to reading the book. I loved the characters and the setting, and the end of the story left me with a lump in my throat. Maybe I'm used to overly complex plots like Diana Gabaldon's novels. Maybe my own preconceived notions got in the way of a story that was intended to be primarily driven by the emotional development of the character. But in the end I was left wanting a little more action. Still, this is definitely a worthwhile read!
nattyg's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting. Boring. Interesting again.
Then finished with a bang. Didn't see it coming.
Then finished with a bang. Didn't see it coming.
stuckonamber's review against another edition
2.0
The 12 century Welsh setting was the most interesting part of this story. It was interesting to see life at that time and the intrigues between English and Welsh rulers. Unfortunately the actual story is focused on a never quite believable love triangle, with a disappointing resolution.
ailurophile_bibliophile89's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 Stars
Honestly, I couldn't even finish it and that's rare for me. The writing was mediocre, the plot was unoriginal, and the characters poorly developed. Mostly, it was the characters that really bothered me.
It reminded me of high school in one of those YA series or in those old 90's teen movies, just in 12th century Wales. "Noble" (that nickname bothered me for no reason other than it's obvious intent to relieve the use of Welsh names) was the popular jock with a hidden playful streak, Isabel his bitchy girlfriend, and Gwirion as his goofy best friend.
Granted, the author admitted that this is a highly fictionalized account of Wales in the medieval period, but even that isn't enough to redeem the book.
So 2.5 stars, a half star given for the author's acknowledgment of it being more fiction than historical. Although that doesn't explain the lack of creativity since it was similar to almost every teen series I've ever seen.
Honestly, I couldn't even finish it and that's rare for me. The writing was mediocre, the plot was unoriginal, and the characters poorly developed. Mostly, it was the characters that really bothered me.
It reminded me of high school in one of those YA series or in those old 90's teen movies, just in 12th century Wales. "Noble" (that nickname bothered me for no reason other than it's obvious intent to relieve the use of Welsh names) was the popular jock with a hidden playful streak, Isabel his bitchy girlfriend, and Gwirion as his goofy best friend.
Granted, the author admitted that this is a highly fictionalized account of Wales in the medieval period, but even that isn't enough to redeem the book.
So 2.5 stars, a half star given for the author's acknowledgment of it being more fiction than historical. Although that doesn't explain the lack of creativity since it was similar to almost every teen series I've ever seen.
mercipourleslivres's review against another edition
5.0
Holy shit. This book was something else. I may need time to recover...
linabird03's review against another edition
5.0
This book was amazing. It kept me completely entranced to the point that I couldn’t do anything but read this book. It mad me feel every emotion possible. I wish this book could have gone on forever.
momelimberham's review against another edition
5.0
The shortest review I can give this book: I read the last 4 chapters (around 100 pages) in one go. I haven't been able to read more than 2 chapters of a book in one go in like 15 years, but I HAD to keep reading at the end of this book. Excellent.
For a longer review: There's a problem with historical fiction in that in order to be as accurate as possible, the characters get less and less sympathetic, simply because things that were normal back then are generally not acceptable these days. I think this book did an excellent job of portraying characters who aren't very palatable by modern standards in their accurate(ish) historical setting. Pretty early on we get something for the three main characters that manages to be very sympathetic even though they each have some unpleasant characteristics: We have Maelgwyn (referred to as Noble all but like 5 times), who very obviously cheats on his wife, allows his friend to torment the court (including his wife), makes no effort to try to make his new wife feel included, and is general kind of a dick - but we also see that he's very burdened by trying to take care of his kingdom, and it takes him some effort to care for his wife who is the niece of the man who killed his father. Then we have Isabel, the wife - she's prudish, she makes no effort to try to relate to her new subjects, she's kind of haughty about things are more civilized where she comes from (which is, humorously, only a few miles from the main setting); but she can't help her upbringing, nobody in the setting tries to be friendly to her or include her in anything, her husband cheats on her, and she has nothing to do all day; and finally we have the titular fool, Gwirion - he's crude, his pranks go too far, he's very vicious to Isabel; but he's also essentially a slave in the kingdom, he has no real status or title, he basically can't even kiss a woman without the king's permission, and his life is ultimately entirely dependent on the whims of the king.
As the story goes on, Isabel and Gwirion in particular become more sympathetic, and Noble at least becomes more understandable (both to us and to Isabel).
The main characters grow as people even though the book takes place over the course of exactly one year (not counting the prologue), in a believable way.
The ending is... wow. It makes sense entirely based on how the characters developed, and I loved that the author left what EXACTLY happened in the climax vague. Every possibility made full sense given what the characters went through, and ultimately what EXACTLY happened isn't the important part.
Bonus: The author fully admits in her notes that she took a lot of liberties with the storytelling - for instance, the real life Maelgwyn died before the book takes place, Isabel Mortimer never existed, and there wasn't anything like a "court jester/fool" position in the setting (although in the story itself, Isabel points that out - that on the continent they have court jesters and it seemed like Gwirion was filling that role, although nobody in the kingdom had ever heard of such a thing). It's historical fiction so I never expect anything to be 100% accurate, but I do appreciate when the authors explain that they changed this, this, and this for storytelling purposes.
Also the author includes a pronunciation guide which was VERY HELPFUL.
Notes: There are some spicy scenes but it's clean overall. There's mention of "exploring bodies" and lifting legs and crying out in ecstasy but nothing more explicit than that is described.
For a longer review: There's a problem with historical fiction in that in order to be as accurate as possible, the characters get less and less sympathetic, simply because things that were normal back then are generally not acceptable these days. I think this book did an excellent job of portraying characters who aren't very palatable by modern standards in their accurate(ish) historical setting. Pretty early on we get something for the three main characters that manages to be very sympathetic even though they each have some unpleasant characteristics: We have Maelgwyn (referred to as Noble all but like 5 times), who very obviously cheats on his wife, allows his friend to torment the court (including his wife), makes no effort to try to make his new wife feel included, and is general kind of a dick - but we also see that he's very burdened by trying to take care of his kingdom, and it takes him some effort to care for his wife who is the niece of the man who killed his father. Then we have Isabel, the wife - she's prudish, she makes no effort to try to relate to her new subjects, she's kind of haughty about things are more civilized where she comes from (which is, humorously, only a few miles from the main setting); but she can't help her upbringing, nobody in the setting tries to be friendly to her or include her in anything, her husband cheats on her, and she has nothing to do all day; and finally we have the titular fool, Gwirion - he's crude, his pranks go too far, he's very vicious to Isabel; but he's also essentially a slave in the kingdom, he has no real status or title, he basically can't even kiss a woman without the king's permission, and his life is ultimately entirely dependent on the whims of the king.
As the story goes on, Isabel and Gwirion in particular become more sympathetic, and Noble at least becomes more understandable (both to us and to Isabel).
The main characters grow as people even though the book takes place over the course of exactly one year (not counting the prologue), in a believable way.
The ending is... wow. It makes sense entirely based on how the characters developed, and I loved that the author left what EXACTLY happened in the climax vague. Every possibility made full sense given what the characters went through, and ultimately what EXACTLY happened isn't the important part.
Bonus: The author fully admits in her notes that she took a lot of liberties with the storytelling - for instance, the real life Maelgwyn died before the book takes place, Isabel Mortimer never existed, and there wasn't anything like a "court jester/fool" position in the setting (although in the story itself, Isabel points that out - that on the continent they have court jesters and it seemed like Gwirion was filling that role, although nobody in the kingdom had ever heard of such a thing). It's historical fiction so I never expect anything to be 100% accurate, but I do appreciate when the authors explain that they changed this, this, and this for storytelling purposes.
Also the author includes a pronunciation guide which was VERY HELPFUL.
Notes: There are some spicy scenes but it's clean overall. There's mention of "exploring bodies" and lifting legs and crying out in ecstasy but nothing more explicit than that is described.
sbbarnes's review against another edition
3.0
I guess 3.5 stars? I am having a really hard time deciding whether or not I liked this book. It follows the high medieval border wars between England and Wales and also between bits of Wales, with some of it being historically accurate-ish and most of it being fiction. Maelgwin, the king called Noble, marries Isabel in order to end the fights with her English family over the border. She is at first disgusted and later fascinated by Gwirion, the king's sort-of court jester (only not really because that wasn't a thing in Wales). And also there's a lot about politics and fighting and backstabbing lords going back on treaties.
On reflection, I think my central problem is that the two big issues of the book - namely the political infighting and the love triangle - have basically nothing to do with each other. The former never even gets resolved, which is I guess vaguely more historically accurate but also unsatisfactory fiction. Similarly, the resolution to the love triangle is pretty darn unsatisfying (but you can take that with a grain of salt because I generally hate love triangles and think they should be solved by polyamory THEN AGAIN that would have been an ideal and elegant solution in this case). It just kind of ends abruptly with a lot of character motivation left unexplored. In my opinion, you could probably cut out a good half of the political whatnot and thus shorten the first half of the book, which drags, and then lengthen the resolution to be less...Shakespeare-y? Galland herself clearly states that her writing focus was always on the relationship between the three characters and the history stuff came in later, and honestly it really shows.
Pacing is in general a problem, because while this book being about a love triangle is announced on the back cover, the book doesn't get there for about 300 pages, and they're kind of slow pages. For another thing, while Isabel's relationship with both male characters is pretty extensively demonstrated, I really can't put my finger on why Gwirion and Maelgwin still tolerate each other. I've seen this a lot in fiction - the sort of "we-hate-each-other-but-we've-been-friends-forever-and-now-we're-codependent" relationship, but it almost always struggles for me to show that codependence. I didn't see much more than Maelgwin being amused by Gwirion and sort of using him a little escape from responsibility, nothing of the affection and codependence I would have expected. And Gwirion seems kind of over the whole thing already at the beginning, but can't/won't leave? It's hinted that this has something to do with the Childhood Trauma in the prologue, but not very clearly. Like, I could have done with an episode of Gwirion trying to leave and then panicking and giving up to demonstrate any internal conflict besides wanting to bone Isabel.
The other issue is that Maelgwin is a straight up psychopath. This is demonstrated and even explicitly stated (well ok they use the word "tyrant" but like in an era where you still paid cash for virginity in Wales and that was a-ok, that's pretty much the same thing) multiple times in the book, starting pretty early, so I don't think I'm really spoiling anything here. And that also doesn't really get resolved. Honestly I found the ending kind of baffling, because I had kind of read Maelgwin as ultimately coldly self-interested with flashes of startling brutality, but I didn't really see his actions towards the end lining up with that. I mean he even spins wanting to have consensual sex as like a kink that helps out his self-interest and ego. Thus there's kind of a confused aspect to his character because on the one hand, he's legit nuts, and on the other, he apparently loves Gwirion like a brother, or at least needs him, and he also treats Isabel pretty well about half the time and the other half then...not so much. I guess typical abuser tactics? Like, for about half the book you're left thinking they should just have a threesome already and for the other half you want to punch this guy in the face.
Final note: Gwirion's character is also kind of interesting. Gwirion and Maelgwin reminded me of that bit in Pride and Prejudice where Lizzy says something like "there's only enough goodness between them to make one really good man, and I'm afraid one got all the goodness and the other all the appearance of it", which I think is kind of what Galland was going for here? There's certainly enough pride and prejudice going on between Isabel and Gwirion. Gwirion has these occasional flights of being a good dude, like being anti-rape and anti-kidnapping (way to set a low bar). He's also pretty much a coward, kind of flighty, and doesn't really know what he wants. Which honestly I think is great characterization. Isabel too, while I'm at it. The book is really unflinching with her faults - childishness, pettiness, some amount of prudery, certainly excessive pride, as well as with her positive traits, like her sense of justice and duty, and also in some ways her understanding of passion. This could have honestly been just such a good love story with a solid base in character and it was kind of wasted on the two plot threads that wouldn't really go together and Maelgwin.
On reflection, I think my central problem is that the two big issues of the book - namely the political infighting and the love triangle - have basically nothing to do with each other. The former never even gets resolved, which is I guess vaguely more historically accurate but also unsatisfactory fiction. Similarly, the resolution to the love triangle is pretty darn unsatisfying (but you can take that with a grain of salt because I generally hate love triangles and think they should be solved by polyamory THEN AGAIN that would have been an ideal and elegant solution in this case). It just kind of ends abruptly with a lot of character motivation left unexplored. In my opinion, you could probably cut out a good half of the political whatnot and thus shorten the first half of the book, which drags, and then lengthen the resolution to be less...Shakespeare-y? Galland herself clearly states that her writing focus was always on the relationship between the three characters and the history stuff came in later, and honestly it really shows.
Pacing is in general a problem, because while this book being about a love triangle is announced on the back cover, the book doesn't get there for about 300 pages, and they're kind of slow pages. For another thing, while Isabel's relationship with both male characters is pretty extensively demonstrated, I really can't put my finger on why Gwirion and Maelgwin still tolerate each other. I've seen this a lot in fiction - the sort of "we-hate-each-other-but-we've-been-friends-forever-and-now-we're-codependent" relationship, but it almost always struggles for me to show that codependence. I didn't see much more than Maelgwin being amused by Gwirion and sort of using him a little escape from responsibility, nothing of the affection and codependence I would have expected. And Gwirion seems kind of over the whole thing already at the beginning, but can't/won't leave? It's hinted that this has something to do with the Childhood Trauma in the prologue, but not very clearly. Like, I could have done with an episode of Gwirion trying to leave and then panicking and giving up to demonstrate any internal conflict besides wanting to bone Isabel.
The other issue is that Maelgwin is a straight up psychopath. This is demonstrated and even explicitly stated (well ok they use the word "tyrant" but like in an era where you still paid cash for virginity in Wales and that was a-ok, that's pretty much the same thing) multiple times in the book, starting pretty early, so I don't think I'm really spoiling anything here. And that also doesn't really get resolved. Honestly I found the ending kind of baffling, because I had kind of read Maelgwin as ultimately coldly self-interested with flashes of startling brutality, but I didn't really see his actions towards the end lining up with that. I mean he even spins wanting to have consensual sex as like a kink that helps out his self-interest and ego. Thus there's kind of a confused aspect to his character because on the one hand, he's legit nuts, and on the other, he apparently loves Gwirion like a brother, or at least needs him, and he also treats Isabel pretty well about half the time and the other half then...not so much. I guess typical abuser tactics? Like, for about half the book you're left thinking they should just have a threesome already and for the other half you want to punch this guy in the face.
Final note: Gwirion's character is also kind of interesting. Gwirion and Maelgwin reminded me of that bit in Pride and Prejudice where Lizzy says something like "there's only enough goodness between them to make one really good man, and I'm afraid one got all the goodness and the other all the appearance of it", which I think is kind of what Galland was going for here? There's certainly enough pride and prejudice going on between Isabel and Gwirion. Gwirion has these occasional flights of being a good dude, like being anti-rape and anti-kidnapping (way to set a low bar). He's also pretty much a coward, kind of flighty, and doesn't really know what he wants. Which honestly I think is great characterization. Isabel too, while I'm at it. The book is really unflinching with her faults - childishness, pettiness, some amount of prudery, certainly excessive pride, as well as with her positive traits, like her sense of justice and duty, and also in some ways her understanding of passion. This could have honestly been just such a good love story with a solid base in character and it was kind of wasted on the two plot threads that wouldn't really go together and Maelgwin.
epersonae's review against another edition
3.0
placeholder. write more later. (ending bummed me out.)