Saturday, March 12, 2016

ROYAL DIARIES: ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1136)

Kristiana Gregory is the author for Cleopatra's Royal Diary, as well as Catherine the Great's and several Dear America books.

I have the same mixed feelings about this as I did about Cleopatra's. While Gregory's voice in each diary is very relatable and she has the girls talking about things girls that age would talk about, they're almost too much slice of life and not enough action. Remember when I said Cleopatra's diary was "actually fairly boring?" This one is worse. Eleanor has far less freedom than Cleopatra and she doesn't do much of anything. Her secondary cast of characters is also far less interesting. I like her sister, but Gregory didn't dig deep with them at all. Petronilla is just kind of there. All the characters are really just kind of there.

Eleanor was a powerful historical figure, and yes, much of that came later in her life, but there still could have been more here. We could have gotten even further into her head on several topics and the diary should have continued on to describe her daily life once she marries and moves to Paris. There would have been many things jarringly different for her, because the Aquitaine society was much more fun-loving, and I would have liked to read about her thoughts on either adjusting or trying to convince Paris to learn from her. I would have enjoyed comparing her experiences to Marie Antoinette's from her Royal Diary, which does exactly what I wanted to see this one do.

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