I loved this, full of such rich historical detail. I need to track down the rest of the series now! ( )

Loved this book. Great historical fiction. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Alice Kesterson, Ballantine Regional Sales Manger, describes online how many readers, including her, love these books about medieval times in Wales and English. "Here be Dragons" refers to the areas unknown by mapmakers. This book describes Llewelyn II (?) and his wife Joanna, beloved and illegitmate daughter of King John." Was obviously on a medieval reading course during this time of life; check out other books read during the years 1995-97. And, interesting that they were all written by women. ( )

This engaging work of historical fiction follows the life of Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of King John, the last Angevin king. Married off by her father at a tender age and against her wishes to Welsh prince Llewellyn, Joanna discovers that her political match is actually not so undesirable, and she eventually grows to love and appreciate her husband and his foreign Welsh culture and language, supporting him through the many 13-century political upheavals and grabs for power.

This first book in a series takes place at a fascinating time in English history. The English king and ruling class were not English but Norman French, and the official language and language of court was French. (Of course, if you were a lowly peasant, you likely would still have spoken English.) This sounds rather bizarre to us nearly 900 years later, at least it did to me. Tracking the political factions and changing alliances among the Welsh, English and Norman French was somewhat dizzying, but thoroughly enjoyable. The author has clearly done her research and humanizes these figures from so long ago. It was hard to put down — I absorbed a great deal of new information and was intensely curious to read up on the historical characters involved, but forced myself to wait until the book had ended to avoid spoilers. I have just a few minor quibbles: saffron is mentioned, but the spice is not believed to have been in England before the 14th century, and the author refers to "hazelnuts and filberts," though these are actually different names for the same nut. ( )

Far too long frankly. ( )