Book Review
Dec. 14th, 2009 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe First Princess of Wales
by Karen Harper
This lush, romantic novel is about Joan of Kent, wife of Edward, The Black Prince. Harper focuses mostly on the relationship between Joan and Edward over the years, portraying it as a deep, strong, passionate love that endures through Joan's being married off to Thomas Holland, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Plague, and the machinations of the Plantagenet court. I wish Harper had stuck more closely to historical fact - she takes a few major liberties with the facts and timeline. I also wish that she hadn't stuck so closely to romance novel conventions - occasionally swoopy language, ending with a wedding rather than showing the relationship through an entire lifetime, preoccupation with spark and chemistry, etc. However, Harper does a very good job with the way love and a relationship change and deepen over time. At the beginning, both Joan and Edward are young and headstrong, and their relationship is a fiery storm of desire and clashing wills. Over time, their experiences and duties change their love into something more mature, true, and full.
by Karen Harper
This lush, romantic novel is about Joan of Kent, wife of Edward, The Black Prince. Harper focuses mostly on the relationship between Joan and Edward over the years, portraying it as a deep, strong, passionate love that endures through Joan's being married off to Thomas Holland, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Plague, and the machinations of the Plantagenet court. I wish Harper had stuck more closely to historical fact - she takes a few major liberties with the facts and timeline. I also wish that she hadn't stuck so closely to romance novel conventions - occasionally swoopy language, ending with a wedding rather than showing the relationship through an entire lifetime, preoccupation with spark and chemistry, etc. However, Harper does a very good job with the way love and a relationship change and deepen over time. At the beginning, both Joan and Edward are young and headstrong, and their relationship is a fiery storm of desire and clashing wills. Over time, their experiences and duties change their love into something more mature, true, and full.
