A review by bookishnicole
Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
3.0
For starters this book was just way too long, if Weir had cut out even just a little bit of the book, I felt that it would have been better. While each scene played its part, it was just too long. There is an important part of Historical Fiction that I realized as I was reading this book and that is that Historical Fiction tends to just retell what happened in history rather than have an actual plot. Your plot line starts at when Eleanor meets Henry and ends with her death many many years later.
There is a lot that does happen during this book, but at the same time its like writing a book about your whole life, things will happen, but it isn't important to include every little fight (or time they had sex). That brings me to my next biggest problem with this book. There was just way too much sex. I think the first 7 disks are just filled with Henry and Eleanor going at it, and then Henry and his mistresses and then Eleanor and some duke or something. It is one thing to read about the sex because you can kind of skip over it. Its another thing to have to listen to it when you aren't doing anything else.
I came to hate Henry as a character. There was almost nothing redeemable about him, he was cruel, and self absorbed and frankly didn't deserve to be king. He insists on crowning his arrogant teenage son before he dies and then he doesn't give him any power. Honestly? He was asking for trouble. Maybe it was just because we could see more into Eleanor's mind and not his, but she seemed so much more genuine trying to care for her children and ensure their happiness when it came to their inheritance.
Overall, it wasn't poorly written, and I suppose it deserves a slightly higher rating, but by the 13th disk I was just bored and wanted it to be over with. That being said, I think I'll stick with her books because she has been spot on when it comes to the history that her books are based on.
There is a lot that does happen during this book, but at the same time its like writing a book about your whole life, things will happen, but it isn't important to include every little fight (or time they had sex). That brings me to my next biggest problem with this book. There was just way too much sex. I think the first 7 disks are just filled with Henry and Eleanor going at it, and then Henry and his mistresses and then Eleanor and some duke or something. It is one thing to read about the sex because you can kind of skip over it. Its another thing to have to listen to it when you aren't doing anything else.
I came to hate Henry as a character. There was almost nothing redeemable about him, he was cruel, and self absorbed and frankly didn't deserve to be king. He insists on crowning his arrogant teenage son before he dies and then he doesn't give him any power. Honestly? He was asking for trouble. Maybe it was just because we could see more into Eleanor's mind and not his, but she seemed so much more genuine trying to care for her children and ensure their happiness when it came to their inheritance.
Overall, it wasn't poorly written, and I suppose it deserves a slightly higher rating, but by the 13th disk I was just bored and wanted it to be over with. That being said, I think I'll stick with her books because she has been spot on when it comes to the history that her books are based on.