Have you ever met someone who you think is pretty fine during that crucial first meeting? But then, you know, there's other stuff to do in life so you don't really get back to them right away? You don't forget them entirely, but there's that hazy aura around them of good feelings? Yet, when you reconnect you wonder just What. The. Fuck. you thought was so good in the first place?Um...yeah.The first book of this trilogy, The Innocent, was a real fun read. The heroine was Mary Sueish to the extreme - royal birth, hocus pocus powers, supah-bootiful and lust-inducing in every male around her - but she didn't really bug me because the story had a great trashy element and there were a lot of characters and situations to get acquainted with.Book 2, The Exiled, was a bit of a disappointment. Mary Sue Anne didn't really do much besides be a brilliant businesswoman in Brussels and dodge long-distance death attempts by Elizabeth Woodville. A Dane showed up as potential love interest, but nothing really went anywhere. For a Timeless Love For All Time, I didn't really give two craps about Anne and Edward ever meeting up again.I picked up Book 3 after a very long break from the previous book, and from very early on my mood rarely varied:Even now, with barely an hour passed since finishing it, I couldn't give you a plot. There wasn't much of anything. Historical events were followed, though. Boring ones.The author writes descriptively, but making it actually interesting was elusive. The plot was mainly a series of perils for Anne to avoid or extricate herself from, usually requiring some form of rescue by her band of peeps. The danger and action and close calls weren't really all that suspenseful, and I got annoyed more than anything else.Edward should have been more interesting. After all, he's got his Twu Wuv and a queen who is popping out the progeny left and right, a gorgeous chick that he willfully fucked up his reign to possess because he's a spoiled little manwhore. There should have been a bit of conflict there, but since Elizabeth was portrayed more or less as a jealous harpy, the reader apparently wasn't supposed to sympathize with the desperate woman, and instead wait with bated breath for every time Anne and Edward shared the same oxygen - which they did with fatuous regularity.The one part I did like was the one thing that a ruthless editor would have cut out entirely: Louis XI. Even though he was written as more of a superstitious hypochondriac than a Spider King, he at least had some pizzazz and livened up a story that staggered between short chapters that often read like vignettes. Still, I'd rather Louis had been a bit more Conrad Veidt than Basil Rathbone.What should have been left on the cutting room floor was all the hocus pocus stuff. Anne and her mother have random visions of the Sword Mother that add absolutely nothing to the plot or story, not in this book or in the ones before it. Bleh.If you want a plot...if you insist...here it is:People hop ships back and forth between Brussels and England.Whenever possible, Anne flies into Edward's arms, usually after some token stoic self-denial.Sex. Infrequent, not pervasive, and pretty much a miss in execution.Elizabeth Woodville in a perpetual state of rage.Finally, she marries the Danish guy, the ending we all knew would come from the moment he and his moony love-from-afar face entered the picture (because HEAs are mandatory and Edward is legally unavailable).This trilogy would have been better if it had only been the first book with the bittersweet ending. Or introduce the Dane and leave it with her going off into exile with him. I'd have been happy imagining the What Ifs from that alone. But dragging it out over 2 more books....
I saw this book for a dollar at a thrift shop, and because it was so cheap I didn't do more than glance at the back and throw it into my basket. Ooops. I guess if I had looked more closely I would have noticed that it is the third book in a trilogy. I hate coming in to the middle of a story like that. At least I didn't have much trouble picking up the story and figuring out what had happened previously. I found the love story very sweet but predictable. The supernatural elements did throw me, though, and seemed sort of randomly added to the story. I skimmed over those parts, and the chapters set in France.Just a few months ago I read Daughter of York, which deals with the same time period. I thought it was funny how both books feature some of the same characters, in a few cases with very different personalities.
What do You think about The Uncrowned Queen (2006)?
I really enjoyed the first 2 books in the Anne trilogy but was disappointed with the last installment. This book didn't flow like the other 2 and seemed like it was trying too hard to wrap up the story. The story veered back and forth on side notes that had absolutely no pertinence to the story itself and could have easily been edited out, everything pertaining to King Louis for instance. I was also bothered by the stronger presence of the fantasy elements to the plot. They never seemed to blend into the story very well and were not believable to me. I found myself rolling my eyes at every mention of the Sword Queen. I love fantasy and would have normally been fine with this sort of theme but it just didn't seem to fit in with the story.
—Laura
The heroine of this series doesn't seem to have existed in history. Jane Shore was actually the most famous mistress of Edward IV. As a character, Anne De Bohun appears to have nine lives as she escapes again and again from people who wish to be rid of her, mainly Edward IV's wife and Queen. Although Anne bears Edward IV's son, she consistently resists becoming his mistress and attempts to lead her own life.Just as Edward succeeds in changing her mind, something happens to make her more set in her resolve to live separate from him. In spite of her love and her heartbreak, the series does end happily but with Edward and Anne together. This series must be read in sequence and I'm only sorry it wasn't published as a single book. It would have been as thick as Les Miserables and maybe the publishers thought that would scare away readers in our fast busy lives today.On the whole, I liked Posie Graeme-Evans' fourth book, The Dressmaker better than I liked this series.I am looking forward to her next book.
—Gaile
I was not too fond of the first two in this trilogy; however I attempted the third book . It was honestly not an enjoyable read and I could not finish it. Overall, after 3 books, there was no impact or connection with the characters or plot. Anne seemed to be the “other” woman who kept falling for Edwards crap. Yes, he says he loves her, but he also says that to his wife, other women and continues to dally in his own life, only calling on Anne after he lost his throne. How is that a love story? The portrayal of the Queen also irks me; why is she the enemy because she is angry at Anne for sleeping with her husband and bearing his illegitimate child? Never in my life did I think something like this could be categorized a “romance/historical fiction love story.” There is a lesson here ladies, if you don’t appreciate the home wrecker sleeping with your husband and compromising your role as his wife/queen, you are an evil woman. Yea right.....
—Whitney
