A review by outsmartyourshelf
Matrix by Lauren Groff

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.0

Marie de France related by blood, via an act of violence, to the royal family in twelfth-century England is unmarriageable. Tall & unattractive, when her mother dies, she is sent to England, & banished to a poverty-stricken abbey to be their Prioress. Over time, Marie rises from Prioress to Abbess & brings the abbey wealth & prosperity, but through it all she nurses her secret love for Queen Eleanor who treats her with scorn.

This starts off so well. I read the first couple of chapters & thought that this was going to be one of those books that looks unassuming but delivers. Unfortunately I found that it soon went downhill for me. It seemed to be more & more of the same: Marie receives a vision, commences building work, the other nuns grumble but do the work, money pours in etc. I looked up the history of the real Marie, & not much is known & this could have been so much better.

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Random House UK Cornerstone/Heinemann Hutchinson, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
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