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A review by emmarj
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland
4.0
Deserted Island Book Rating System --
4 stars: Reread but only because there are no libraries on deserted islands.
I loved the main character for her morals, her drive, basically everything about her. I don't think there was a single other character I liked though. I felt that all characters aside from Petite herself really lacked depth, though they easily could have been fleshed out.
The pacing of this book felt so incredibly lopsided to me. So much time is spent telling us all about Petite's childhood in incredible detail - much of it unnecessary, in my humble opinion. And then when we get to the time in her life when she serves as a waiting maid to the Sun King's sister in law, great leaps of time lapse between chapters which, I believe, lead to my next problem...
I thought this book was about Petite's life in regard to her relationship with the king. It certainly covered her life but as for her relationship with the king, we see very little of it. The king visits, he leaves. She bears him a child, the child is sent away. We see very few snippets of their conversations and time together so in the end the effect is that we're told they're in love but never shown it.
I still really enjoyed this book despite the issues I've listed here, thus 4 stars and my willingness to reread it if I were stranded on a deserted island.
4 stars: Reread but only because there are no libraries on deserted islands.
I loved the main character for her morals, her drive, basically everything about her. I don't think there was a single other character I liked though. I felt that all characters aside from Petite herself really lacked depth, though they easily could have been fleshed out.
The pacing of this book felt so incredibly lopsided to me. So much time is spent telling us all about Petite's childhood in incredible detail - much of it unnecessary, in my humble opinion. And then when we get to the time in her life when she serves as a waiting maid to the Sun King's sister in law, great leaps of time lapse between chapters which, I believe, lead to my next problem...
I thought this book was about Petite's life in regard to her relationship with the king. It certainly covered her life but as for her relationship with the king, we see very little of it. The king visits, he leaves. She bears him a child, the child is sent away. We see very few snippets of their conversations and time together so in the end the effect is that we're told they're in love but never shown it.
I still really enjoyed this book despite the issues I've listed here, thus 4 stars and my willingness to reread it if I were stranded on a deserted island.