Karla B. (gaslight) - , reviewed on 4/18/2009 + 145 more book reviews

This was the first Plaidy book I'd read in years, ever since high school actually. I remembered loving her stuff back then, but as I read this one & The Sun in Splendour, I had the sense that the books were copiously cribbed histories with a minimal effort at dramatizing the whole thing. (No doubt a reason why she was so prolific.) The dialogue shows no real spark and is absurdly simplistic, and the pace is about as brief and deep as an encyclopedia article! From scene to scene, the same phrases and thoughts were repeated, as though we could have forgotten! Katherine of Valois is just a woman talking, not a friend or a confidante or even a real person, and this reader eventually didn't care. The reader is told who are the characters are, not shown.

So it was disappointing to realize that Plaidy's style isn't all that good, after years of nostalgia, but that's the way of so many childhood authors, I guess! I suppose that Plaidy is a good author to start with for a time period/royal personage, and then read a novel that is more focused and has more depth & narrative skill. IE, read Plaidy's Sun in Splendour and then Sharon Kay Penman's novel on Richard III. Do NOT read them in the reverse order, as I did, else you'll also be stabbing your eyes at Plaidy's dry, uninspired prose with the memories of Penman making it all the more excruciating. Better yet, save lots of time and read a Wikipedia entry and then grab Penman or Gregory.

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