The Summer Queen: A loving mother. A betrayed wife. A queen beyond… (edição 2014)

Whelp I managed to finish this first novel in the trilogy. It was not very good. I'm a huge Eleanor of Aquitaine fan but not of this authors writing style.
I felt the novel had too many romance elements and felt the characters didn't think, speak or behave in period appropriate ways. In the afterword I'm impressed at the research and author's sources, just wish she's referenced them a bit more in her writing. It also appears she uses some form of supernatural resources to research 'Akashic records'. I about died laughing at that.
I love supernatural elements as plotlines to stories but sorry Chadwick you are not reaching through some supernatural force to nake contact with the long dead. Good grief.
I'll probably finish the trilogy and not read another book by this author. ( )

lizabeth Chadwick's The Summer Queen tells the story of young Alienor (who will be called Eleanor from now on, because my spellcheck prefers it), from her childhood with her sister Petronella in Aquitaine, through her marriage to Louis of France, the birth of their two daughters, and finally their divorce, and her remarriage. The novel retells historical events, adding personalities to historical characters. I'm not sure how much was embellished for the book -- the actual events are pretty dramatic by themselves. (When I read historical novels, I'm really a history hobbyist, not a serious scholar, so as long as characters aren't using technology that hasn't been invented yet, or traveling across Europe at unreasonable speeds for horseback, I'm happy.)

My full review: Historical Drama in 'The Summer Queen' ( )

Review can be found here -
http://nofeet.booklikes.com/post/2375508/the-summer-queen-eleanor-of-aquitane-1-... ( )

It's okay.

This book is very different in style of writing. It's okay, but not my favorite. Aelinor had to put up with a lot of issues in her young life. Her husband started out to be a man who loved her. But as time progressed, he became increasingly difficult to respect. He mirrors more of his mother and trusts his advisors too much. His blatant disregard for his wife is sad and disgusting. No wonder she wanted her marriage annulled. All in all, I think the story is interesting, but I don't think that this series is intriguing enough for me to continue. ( )

Hmm. A very rich and detailed story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, from childhood through her marriage to Louis, her marriage to Henry, and his ascending to the English throne. However, it didn't really work for me - the beginning is very teen angst, then she grows up a bit and we get a (very detailed) view of her marriage dissolving on every level. Politics and sex (in that order) draw her to Henry - and both of them are determined to be the one in charge in this marriage, which foreshadows what I know of her later life. The author explains in an afterword that very little is really known of Eleanor, so she (like every other biographer of Eleanor) chose the details she liked from what's known and surmised and made a narrative out of them. I was wondering throughout how accurate all this stuff was - lots and lots of details, many of which wouldn't have been recorded if she lived in modern times and had paparazzi following her around, let alone back then. So - not particularly an accurate record of Eleanor's life, and a detailed account of many unpleasant events (some of which were probably entirely fictional). Not something I really enjoy. I don't think I'll read the other two in the trilogy. I have pointed them out to my mom, though - she's interested in Eleanor and has a higher tolerance for depressing than I do. ( )