The Devil’s Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis

The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

From Jeanne Kalogridis, the bestselling author of I, Mona Lisa and The Borgia Bride, comes a new novel that tells the passionate story of a queen who loved not wisely . . . but all too well.

Confidante of Nostradamus, scheming mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, and architect of the bloody St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Catherine de Medici is one of the most maligned monarchs in history. In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells Catherine’s story—that of a tender young girl, destined to be a pawn in Machiavellian games.

Born into one of Florence’s most powerful families, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early deaths of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and she found herself imprisoned and threatened by her family’s enemies before finally being released and married off to the handsome Prince Henry of France.

Overshadowed by her husband’s mistress, the gorgeous, conniving Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to win Henry’s love and enhance her fertility—for which she would pay a price. Against the lavish and decadent backdrop of the French court, and Catherine’s blood-soaked visions of the future, Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband, Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne.

First off, I have to say that although this is historical fiction because it’s based off of the life of Catherine de Medici, it also has elements of fantasy because Jeanne Kalogridis takes the worst rumours about the queen’s witchcraft and imagines they were real.  It’s not a bad approach and the broad strokes of Caterina’s life are of course accurate but just know that this is not strict historical fiction; there is quite a bit of fantasy.

Many of the characters are memorable but of course Caterina herself is the best.  Her family was out of power when she was an adolescent and before she got married so not only did she experience the glamorous side of life but the rougher side that comes with strife, conflict and civil war.  This early experience with a life-threatening situation leaves a chip on her shoulder that she will carry for the rest of her life.  She knows that it is the most important thing she can do as a queen to produce a son (preferably lots of sons) but when her husband seems disgusted by her and she does not get pregnant she turns to witchcraft and blood magic.  One particular scene is pretty horrific but it’s in keeping with her character: no matter the cost to herself she will have an heir and avert civil war.  She does some pretty horrible things and although she’s not always completely sympathetic, I do feel for Jeanne Kalogridis’ version of her.  Her husband is disgusted by her and goes to his mother figure/mistress Diane de Poitiers, she is not an attractive woman and is marginalized politically, etc.  Caterina had a hard childhood matched by a hard life; she’s far from perfect but you do have to feel for her.

While the plot isn’t exactly fast-paced it is interesting.  I’ve read only one other book about Caterina de Medici so it was nice to learn more about the civil strife that led to her imprisonment in two different nunneries as a preteen and how she was married off to King Henry (then prince).  Once she gets to France there’s a lot of interpersonal conflict between characters but it’s not just drama for the sake of drama.  Jeanne Kalogridis has a purpose to every scene and even though it may not seem like it at the time, every scene moves the plot forward to the horrifying conclusion.  So while The Devil’s Queen is no action/thriller novel, it is very interesting and even if you know about her historical reign as queen and regent, Jeanne Kalogridis may just surprise you with some of the things she speculates at.  Nothing is for certain at court, especially when it comes to the royal family.

I know a little about the period but as you’ve probably guessed I’m no expert.  However, the main events of the story are very much real and Jeanne Kalogridis inserts those little details into everyday life that make you really feel like you’re there.  Personally, I loved that the French all thought Caterina and her Italian entourage were positively barbaric for eating their food with the forks they brought with them.  It’s just those little details that both make you laugh and educate you about how certain cultural practices became the norm in pretty much all of the Western hemisphere.  There are so many more little details like that that you can tell Kalogridis really did her research (particularly about Medieval astrology).  She combines fantasy and history perfectly into this harrowing tale of the complicated life of a complicated woman.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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The Best and Worst of January 2015

Well, January was a pretty good month for me in terms of posting.  I posted every day except Friday and I didn’t post that day because I was pretty sick.  So far, so good.  Hopefully in February I can honestly say that I posted every single day in keeping with my new year’s resolution.  And while blogging was pretty good for me, my personal life wasn’t too bad aside from the aforementioned sickness.  I’m fine now, however, and am looking forward to both The Walking Dead and John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight returning next Sunday.

In January I received 6,644 views in total with 3964 of those being unique views.  I noticed that my comments were way down for most of the month but that’s probably because I didn’t post anything too terribly interesting/controversial other than some Saturday discussion posts.  I’m not going to lose any sleep over it and I’m just happy that January did so much better than December and that I’m back on a regular posting schedule.

So what were the best posts this month?

1.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal

2.  How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour

3.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

4.  Best Seller by Martha Reynolds

5.  The Mad Reviewer Reading and Reviewing Challenge 2015 Sign Up

Once again, there are no real surprises here.  All of the top four have been in the top five for at least the last three months and my reading challenge sign up is always popular.  I just have to get around to updating the official list since more people joined!  It’s not as many people as last year but I think those people that did join this time around are more serious contestants.  I can’t wait to see how everyone does with their goals!

So what were the worst posts this month?

1.  Forgotten Figures: Zenobia

2.  The Best and Worst of November 2013

3.  Goddess Born by Kari Edgren

4.  Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars by Sheri Holman

5.  Wake by Amanda Hocking

Um, ouch?  My Forgotten Figures article on Zenobia seems to be truly forgotten by pretty much the whole internet since it only had one view in the entire month.  I spent two hours writing it and far more time researching it so yeah, that’s one of the most disappointing ‘worsts’ in quite a number of months.  The others aren’t that surprising as they’re not the most popular books or they’re quite dated but I was sad to see Goddess Born by Kari Edgren on there since that is an amazingly underrated novel.  But, like Zenobia, my beloved main character Selah was forgotten.

Well, that was how my January went.  How was yours?

Lazy Sundays: Game of Thrones Season 5 Trailer!

 

When I saw that the Game of Thrones season 5 trailer had been leaked to the internet in the form of a videotaped Imax preview, I was so excited.  Then I got really excited when I saw that the producers had gone ahead and just released the official trailer since it was leaked anyway.  (Knowing them, they knew full well it was going to be leaked and totally planned the whole thing.)  Of course, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I watched the trailer a couple of times and now am so excited for April 12.  *mild spoilers ahead*

In the trailer we see the Sand Snakes, some of my favourite Dornish characters and they look absolutely amazing.  We also see Tyrion and Varys, Cersei being her usual scowling self, Littlefinger with his hands all over Sansa, Daenerys being queenly, etc.  Nothing really all that surprising since I’ve read the books but I’m excited nevertheless.  One of the really short clips was of a young blonde girl and a young brunette in fancy gowns walking in some dark woods.  Could this be young Cersei going to see the witch and receive the prophecy that haunts her throughout her life, particularly now?

Seriously, I can’t wait for Season 5.  It’s going to be good.

Any other Game of Thrones fans out there?  What do you think of the trailer?  Anything you see that particularly excites you/piques your interest?

Discussion: The Most Disappointing Book Sequel (For You)

Sometimes an author’s debut novel or their first novel in a new series is just awesome.  You fall in love with the characters, the world-building and the author’s writing style and you’re so eager for the sequel that you can hardly wait.  You try to make sure your expectations aren’t too unrealistic but you do expect that the second book will be the same high quality as the first…except it isn’t.  The writing is trite and full of purple prose, the characters do total 180s and seem to have completely lost their minds and the world-building is revealed to be shaky at best.  It’s the curse of Book 2 Syndrome!

This happened to me most recently with Captive by Aimée Carter.  Pawn had an unique premise, decent characters and a plot that just kept me guessing.  But the sequel Captive was absolutely awful.  Where the main character Kitty had been a smart if relatively naive main character who generally knew when to keep her mouth shut, in the second book she just would not shut up about anything.  She kept smart-mouthing everyone, revealing important secrets she could have kept for leverage later and just generally having a bad case of verbal diarrhea in order to move the plot along.  It was just awful and is one of the best examples of Book 2 Syndrome I’ve ever seen.

What I want to know now is this: Have you ever had a really bad book sequel experience?  Whose book was it and why was it so awful/disappointing?  Or, if you haven’t ever been disappointed by the second book in a series, what was the most disappointing sequel to a movie you’ve ever seen?

Let me know in the comments below!

Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn

Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

A.D. 69. Nero is dead.

The Roman Empire is up for the taking. With bloodshed spilling out of the palace and into the streets of Rome, chaos has become the status quo. The Year of Four Emperors will change everything—especially the lives of two sisters with a very personal stake in the outcome….

Elegant and ambitious, Cornelia embodies the essence of the perfect Roman wife. She lives to one day see her loyal husband as Emperor. Her sister, Marcella, is more withdrawn, content to witness history rather than make it. Even so, Marcella has her share of distinguished suitors, from a cutthroat contender for the throne to a politician’s son who swears that someday he will be Emperor.

But when a bloody coup turns their world upside down, Cornelia and Marcella—along with their cousins, one a collector of husbands and lovers, the other a horse-mad beauty with no interest in romance—must maneuver carefully just to stay alive. As Cornelia tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered dreams, Marcella discovers a hidden talent for influencing the most powerful men in Rome. In the end, though, there can only be one Emperor … and one Empress.

In order of publication, Daughters of Rome is technically the second book in Kate Quinn’s Empress of Rome series but chronologically it is the first.  It’s a sort of prequel and you will recognize some of the characters we meet in Mistress of Rome except for the fact that they’re a couple of decades younger.  And the story takes place not in the relative stability of Domitian’s reign but the violent chaos that was the Year of the Four Emperors.  You would think that by virtue of having more drama (which Kate Quinn excels at writing about) the story itself would be better.  The problem is, it isn’t.  The strength of the first book was in its characters, notably Thea, but in this second book the characters really are the weakness.

First off, in true Roman fashion there are four cousins, all named Cornelia because they’re from the wealthy and influential Cornelii family.  Kate Quinn helpfully gives us nicknames for them all (the eldest Cornelia is the only one actually called by her name) and it does take a little bit to get used to.  However, after a couple of chapters it’s pretty easy to get everyone all organized because their personalities are fairly distinct.  Cornelia is the ideal senator’s wife, Marcella is a bookish woman who just wants to write history, Lollia has the most unfortunate string of marriages imaginable and Diana, the youngest, is horse crazy.  We do get to see the chaos from the eyes of all four of the sisters: the changing alliances, the marriage swapping, the crass power grabs not even bothered to be cloaked in lofty ideals, etc.  The Year of the Four Emperors was a horrifying time to be a Roman, particularly since backing one person meant glory one day and committing suicide while on the run the next.  Against this horrific background, you’d think that the characters would particularly stand out.

The problem is that none of the characters stand out; they didn’t have that authenticity that made Thea such a powerful, moving character.  Diana is the only one who is vaguely believable in her actions but the idea that she’d be a female charioteer is just ludicrous.  Roman women were generally more free than Greek women but they certainly weren’t that free, especially if they were from one of the main families in Rome.  Lollia’s string of husbands is definitely believable but even though she finds love in an unusual place I never really connected with her and her plight.  Like Marcella, her character felt rather hollow.  Marcella’s character didn’t ring true to me because even though she’s a bookworm much like myself, she gets into all of these situations that feel like they’re the direct result of Kate Quinn’s manipulation of historical fact.  It doesn’t feel natural that she finds herself in the midst of all of this trouble as it should; it feels forced and as such her character doesn’t grow in the way you would expect it to.  Cornelia, the eldest of the four cousins and sister of Marcella, is a bland Roman matron who also finds love in an unexpected place.  She at least is a believable character and I could sort of connect to her plight.

While the plot was certainly fast-paced and interesting (how could the Year of the Four Emperors not be, though?), it was surprisingly unsatisfying.  Kate Quinn uses the most gossipy of all the gossipy sources on Roman history and takes the worst of said gossip to portray each emperor as a caricature of what they probably really were.  This is not surprising given her portrayal of Domitian as a total sadist in the Marquis de Sade mold but it does make it seem like she’s going for the most drama no matter the historical reality.  Galba was a stick in the mud, Otho was a jealous brooding sort of hedonist and Vitellius was a total glutton/hedonist but I think Quinn takes things just a little too far and it seems like she’s playing things up for her audience.  As some people on Goodreads mentioned, it makes it feel like you’re reading The Real Housewives of Ancient Rome.  Really, the story would be just as good if she toned down some of the drama and didn’t rely so heavily on Flavian-biased historians.

Overall, I felt that compared to Mistress of Rome was a much better book than her second book.  That’s kind of shocking considering it was her debut but it was certainly much more satisfying than Daughters of Rome, which ends so randomly and incomprehensibly that I was left scratching my head in disbelief at the actions of three of the four sisters.  There were a lot of good things happening in this book, mainly the portrayal of the chaotic events and the uncertainty that gripped all of Rome but on the character front it was the most unsatisfying book I’ve ever read by Kate Quinn.  It’s just a complete disappointment to me, considering the fact that I loved her Borgia Chronicles and her debut novel.  Really, the only thing that can adequately express my feelings toward this book is the word ‘meh’.

I give this book 2/5 stars.

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