Edith Felbar’s Queen of Shadows is the story of Queen Isabella of England, later called the “She-Wolf of France”, queen of King Edward II. Isabella’s story is told by the fictional Gwenith, a Welsh woman who comes to court to serve her.

Queen of Shadows seemed fairly clearly to be a well-researched book, and it was certainly good, but definitely not fantastic. At some points the book moved too quickly through seasons and years, which kept me from gaining much empathy for the characters (real people!) and their emotional states.

If you are interested in the basic storyline of Edward II and Queen Isabella, by all means read this book. If you want a great novel, there are probably other things that you could choose.

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http://devourerofbooks.wordpress.com/... ( )

A well researched, intriguing story with clear character voices. I was totally engrossed in this novel and couldn't put it down. The author gave the characters a depth of emotion often lacking in some historical portrayals and clear motives for their behaviors. Very well done. ( )

Felber has chosen an extremely fascinating period of history for her novel. Reading Isabella's story is like reading a tabloid. Its hard to believe that this took place in the fourteenth century. There is murder, jealous lovers, adultery. Yet somehow the book seemed to fall flat. While I enjoyed it, I just felt that this story wasn't as compelling as the real history is. I guess the bottom line is that I didn't get pulled into the story. I didn't feel like I was really there.

In Felber's defense, I think that Isabella's story is a hard one to tell. Mainly because it takes place over such a long period of time. To appreciate the full scope of the story, you do have to tell it over a period of many years. One thing that Felber was great at was the transitions in time. I felt that even though I was reading a chapter that took place many months or years after the previous one...the author didn't lose the flow. That is a very huge praise on her part. A lot of times it's hard for author's to pull off the time flow. It was probably the best thing I have to say about Felber...she did it beautifully. ( )