Name: To be Queen
ISBN: 9780451232304

Christy English

Crowned Duchess of Aquitaine at age 15 and betrothed to King Louis VII, Eleanor, Queen of France must find the strength to fight for what she wants despite a husband easily manipulated by the church. 30,000 first printing.

A Novel of the Early Life of Eleanor of Aquitaine

To be Queen

Jeni Enjaian

I really wanted to like this book. I really did.
English's prose creates incredibly vivid word pictures. This is one of the few books that I have read that the prose is crafted in such a way as to seem like I'm watching the story unfold rather than reading it.
Unfortunately, this also contributes to one of its major detractors. When English describes Eleanor's wedding night, her words while chaste created quite an unchaste images. In my opinion, this cheapens the book. 
Additionally, English seems to fixate on Eleanor's relationships with men including her uncle who she meets for the first time at 27 or 28. That completely creeped me out. This apparent fixation on men detracts from the independent, master political manipulator English clearly perceived Eleanor to be.
By the end of the book I had no sympathy whatsoever for Eleanor. That's not what's supposed to happen in a reader in regards to the main character of the book. Eleanor turned from being a confident Duches of Aquitaine in her own right to the Queen of England easily seduced by first her uncle and later Henry of Normandy who later became her husband and King of England.
History and politics are not all about sex. English however seems to think that it is.

To be Queen A Novel of the Early Life of Eleanor of Aquitaine

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