The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry Review

Enjoyment: ☺☺☺☼

Plot: ☺☺☺☺

Characters: ☺☺☺☼

Setting: ☺☺☺☺

Overall: ☺☺☺☼

Joan's mother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, is the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England and a renowned military leader. Joan loves them both--so what is she to do when she's forced to choose between them? As her parents' arguments grow ever more vicious, Joan begins to feel like a political pawn.

When her parents marry her off to the king of Sicily, Joan finds herself stuck with a man ten years her senior. She doesn't love her husband, and she can't quite forget her childhood crush, the handsome Lord Raymond.

As Joan grows up, she begins to understand that her parents' worldview is warped by their political ambitions, and that hers, in turn has been warped by theirs. Is it too late to figure out whom to trust? And, more important, whom to love?

~*~*~*~*~*~

The intricacies of the politics behind every little action was enough to give me a headache. I loved it. It was interesting to see the story done in her point of view. The last book that I had read about Princess Joan was The Plague and I had not enjoyed that book. This book gave Joan a personality and she was not completely obsessed with religion. While it is indeed a part of the book god is not mentioned every page and when he is it is tastefully. I also felt that this book made everyone seem more human and did not put the royal family on a ridiculous pedestal. I have to admit that a lot of what happened went over my head because I am not the most avid history student but what I did remember (what little that was) was there (mostly only names).

I have even found my new favorite quote: "A thousand times over . . . I am happily a fool."