Though the book itself is light on any real plot buzz (nothing much happens) and historical detail (this era was a turbulent post-Conqueror time before the rule of the Plantagenets, but says very little about it), but most of the characters were interesting and complex enough to keep me reading.
Though not much happened I was interested in the growing relationship of Judith and Guyon and the secrets being kept around them. The story did lull nearer the end, and wound up to a kind of flaccid conclusion, but overall I did go back to it. I did’t leap back to it, but I went back and wanted to.
It’s actually hard to understand the same Chadwick managed to turn Eleanor of Aquitaine into some horrid, selfish whinger and King Louis into a violent, abusive tosser (both well against historical accuracy as far as I understand), when she is clearly capable of producing better characterisations for flawed characters that don’t just make someone physically abusive and the other a victim to tell us who we should like (this happened in The Summer Queen, and didn’t work). Interesting how she got lazier on characters later in her career.
Anyway, I would be more inclined to give Chadwick another serious go, on her earlier work at least, based on this text.
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