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annathepiperCrown in Candlelight, an older work by Rosemary Hawley Jarman, was recommended to me some time ago--but I only recently got around to trying to actually read it, once I realized I could score a copy from the local library. And even then it took me a while to get through, given that I initially got a hardback edition from the library, and those are always difficult for me to read and cart around. So I wound up laming out and having to check it out twice in order to have enough time to read it all. The second time through, I didn't even finish reading that copy since I just wasn't making the time.
But then I was able to get hold of a recent re-release of the book in paperback form, and that meant I was finally able to finish it. So the question is, was it worth it after all the effort to read the thing?
Yes and no. One of the main reasons it was so tough for me to get through was the language; Jarman's style here is very, very lush and very, very purple. This is a world where every action has an adverb, and every noun an entourage of adjectives. Even the seagulls have topaz eyes. After a regular diet of fairly straightforward and unadorned urban fantasy and SF, making my way through this was like trying to eat a seven-course meal of unfamiliar cuisine. In other words, tasty, but takes a long time to digest.
The book suffers for me as well with spending so much time on backstory. We meet our heroine, Katherine of Valois, daughter of the French king, when she's but a tiny child. Quite a few chapters are spent on her childhood and adolescence, but it can basically be distilled down to this: she's a gorgeous young thing, her father is batshit, and her mother is a scheming manipulator. And oh yeah, she's going to be married off to Henry V of England.
Our eventual hero Owen also gets quite a bit of backstory, albeit initially delivered through the point of view of Hywelis, a witch of Wales, who's in love with him and who risks her own power and standing with her noble father to help Owen go to war in support of King Henry. "You're destined for greatness," she tells Owen, and although she's madly in love with him, she's apparently resigned to the fact that she'll have to go a long time without ever laying eyes on Owen, much less having him back again.
Things don't really get interesting until the action shifts to France, and Owen's joined Henry's armies. He comes to the attention of the king, naturally, and winds up in his household as a bard and one of the servitors in charge of looking after the royal wardrobe. But the thing is, for most of this entire sequence, the interesting character is actually Henry, not Owen. And for a good chunk of the book, despite the fact that the cover blurb is all about the Katherine and Owen love story, we spend time first on the relationship between Henry and Katherine, and what happens when they get married. This for me was actually the most engaging part of the book. Henry as a character had far more depth and nuance than Owen, whose primary function in the story appears to be 'hang around, play music, look handsome, make a bunch of children with Katherine, and be angsty that he can't marry her.'
But eventually Henry dies, and the resultant politics and intrigue that spring up around who'll get to be the guardian and regent to his young son fill out the rest of the story. This is of course set against Katherine's illicit relationship with Owen, but for me that whole love story wound up being interesting only as part of the intrigue. Especially given that things end rather unhappily--and even though Hywelis makes another appearance at the very end, to pronounce how her prophecy about Owen will come true and he'll be the founder of the Tudor line, as a reader I was still left with a bit of a let-down feeling.
Overall not sorry I read it at all, even though it was tough to get through. This is definitely not a book you'll want to read if you're looking for a HEA historical romance. Three stars.
But then I was able to get hold of a recent re-release of the book in paperback form, and that meant I was finally able to finish it. So the question is, was it worth it after all the effort to read the thing?
Yes and no. One of the main reasons it was so tough for me to get through was the language; Jarman's style here is very, very lush and very, very purple. This is a world where every action has an adverb, and every noun an entourage of adjectives. Even the seagulls have topaz eyes. After a regular diet of fairly straightforward and unadorned urban fantasy and SF, making my way through this was like trying to eat a seven-course meal of unfamiliar cuisine. In other words, tasty, but takes a long time to digest.
The book suffers for me as well with spending so much time on backstory. We meet our heroine, Katherine of Valois, daughter of the French king, when she's but a tiny child. Quite a few chapters are spent on her childhood and adolescence, but it can basically be distilled down to this: she's a gorgeous young thing, her father is batshit, and her mother is a scheming manipulator. And oh yeah, she's going to be married off to Henry V of England.
Our eventual hero Owen also gets quite a bit of backstory, albeit initially delivered through the point of view of Hywelis, a witch of Wales, who's in love with him and who risks her own power and standing with her noble father to help Owen go to war in support of King Henry. "You're destined for greatness," she tells Owen, and although she's madly in love with him, she's apparently resigned to the fact that she'll have to go a long time without ever laying eyes on Owen, much less having him back again.
Things don't really get interesting until the action shifts to France, and Owen's joined Henry's armies. He comes to the attention of the king, naturally, and winds up in his household as a bard and one of the servitors in charge of looking after the royal wardrobe. But the thing is, for most of this entire sequence, the interesting character is actually Henry, not Owen. And for a good chunk of the book, despite the fact that the cover blurb is all about the Katherine and Owen love story, we spend time first on the relationship between Henry and Katherine, and what happens when they get married. This for me was actually the most engaging part of the book. Henry as a character had far more depth and nuance than Owen, whose primary function in the story appears to be 'hang around, play music, look handsome, make a bunch of children with Katherine, and be angsty that he can't marry her.'
But eventually Henry dies, and the resultant politics and intrigue that spring up around who'll get to be the guardian and regent to his young son fill out the rest of the story. This is of course set against Katherine's illicit relationship with Owen, but for me that whole love story wound up being interesting only as part of the intrigue. Especially given that things end rather unhappily--and even though Hywelis makes another appearance at the very end, to pronounce how her prophecy about Owen will come true and he'll be the founder of the Tudor line, as a reader I was still left with a bit of a let-down feeling.
Overall not sorry I read it at all, even though it was tough to get through. This is definitely not a book you'll want to read if you're looking for a HEA historical romance. Three stars.