It is not easy to keep reading a book when you don’t like the
main character. That’s the conundrum I
had with The Canterbury Papers by
Judith Koll Healey. The novel follows
Alais, daughter of a king, sister to a second king, former betrothed to a third
king and mistress to a fourth. Girl gets
around. But soon the reader finds out
that not only is she stupid (she realizes her room at an inn has been broken
into but decides to ignore it), she is also a mean girl. After finding this out, I had to make a
decision to finish the book or stop because I no longer cared what happened to
the Princesse Alais.
I chose to press on.
The story is centered around Eleanor of Aquitaine, demanding that Alais
travel from Paris (again?) to Canterbury in England to retrieve some hidden
letters that would be extremely awkward to the Queen mum if they were ever made
public. In return, Eleanor promises
information about the son Alais believed had died shortly after she gave birth
to him. She feels she has no choice but
to do the queen mum’s bidding.
When Alais arrives at Canterbury, she comes face to face
with the man whom she and her royal siblings tormented as a boy, because he was
smarter than they were. William has
grown into a formidable man and Alais discovers there is much more to him that
meets the eye.
The issue with the letters is a little anticlimactic since
Alais learns their existence and content are the worst-kept secrets in England
and France.
Despite that the book was well-written with few head-hops,
but had great details of thirteenth century England and France without all the
data dumps. The kidnapping scene, which opens the book, isn't suspenseful after the first chapter.
Three ♕ out of five.
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