Another book review

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner


My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I know it's very early (on page 12) but I'm not impressed with this book so far. For starters, there is a sentence that ends with "a symbolic symbol of defeat". This just struck me as very poor writing - you don't need both words "symbolic" and "symbol" because by definition, a symbol IS symbolic!

I plowed on, determined to give it a chance. But then came to a point when the women of the conquered moors committed suicide and Catalina's (Catherine) eyes were covered to protect her innocence since she is the youngest. This confused me because just prior, the entire royal family rode through the battlefield where the dead and dying still lay. Surely this is no less horrific than watching someone commit suicide?

Additionally, I'm not even sure I believe that the children would be present at the battlefield upon victory. In this book, Juana described her childhood as mainly living in tents alongside battlefields. She even describes the sounds of battle as the sounds she fell asleep and awoke to and in the background of her tutoring. It just doesn't sound very realistic to me - surely the children would be safely tucked far away in a grand house or palace?

I haven't completely written it off yet, only because it gets so many good reviews both here and on Amazon. But this book has a lot to make up for if my opinion on it is going to improve.

Update: I thought if there were no more issues like this, I could enjoy finishing it. But there are. On page 17, the author actually uses the phrase "I could care less"! Not only is this an extremely modern term that has NO place in a novel set in the 15th-16th century but technically, it's not even correct grammar. I'm not even a grammar guru or anything but I still know a phrase like this in a book like this is just appalling. I'm shocked that not only would an author use this term but that it would go unspotted by the editor!

This is more subjective but not long after that, Juana is told she will marry Philip of Flanders. Despite having been betrothed to him since childhood, Juana is shocked. I just found this unrealistic. Although I'm sure leaving your home and family for a foreign land to marry a man you've never met would be distressing and daunting - but it was not uncommon so I'm confused by her shock. Juana follows up her shock with a childish whine "But why me?" I just found this really annoying and it didn't make me like her character at all.

Juana then goes on to try to persuade her father to not marry her off to a foreigner. He uses some very see-through reverse psychology and frustratingly, it works. It doesn't say much for Juana's intelligence and again, it doesn't make me like her character.

Sorry, I know I'm only on page 39 but I gave this book more than enough chances - continuing to read even after what I saw to be at least 5 major flaws. The sixth was the last straw. My husband says life is too short to read books you don't like so I'm giving up on this one.

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