This book was such a disappointment. I loved Loupas' book, The Red Lily Crown. I loved how she told tales of the de Medici family and brought Renaissance Italy with all its intrigue to life. Someone who did what she did with the de Medici's should have easily handled Mary, Queen of Scots, and all the drama of her Scottish entourage. One would think.

 

This book was a disaster from the start. Rinette's wedding is forcibly disrupted by a group of Scottish brutes who want to force her marriage to someone else. This starts a theme that will carry throughout the entire novel. ALL Scottish men are brutes. They are savage, bodice-ripping, dagger-carrying, brawling-in-the-streets brutes. The French aren't any nicer but they dress better so the author is a little more forgiving of their actions.

 

And then there is the one and only Mary, Queen of Scots. She was worse than the brutes. For starters, Loupas' MQoS made Charles VI of France look sane. I recognize that there were actual, legit issues with MQoS. Most biographers suggest she suffered from the same disease attributed to King George III's bouts of madness. Sorry but if Mary is really as awful as Loupas makes her out to be, her bastard half brother actually makes her disappear and puts the crown on his own head. He doesn't waste years fighting with her before fleeing the country. So maybe it's all a little more complicated than that. But is it really? Loupas would have you believe that it's really not. After all, Scotland is overrun with violent, wild men who can't stand being told what to do by any woman no matter what her title is.

 

Somewhere in all of this, there's a casket (foreshadow alert) containing letters and a mysterious prophecy written by the one and only Nostradamus. These items were property of Mary's mother, Marie of Guise. Rinette is entrusted with this casket and told to deliver it into Mary's hands upon Marie's death. Instead of just handing the casket to Mary as soon has she is off her French boat, Rinette decides she's going to hold on to it. She thinks she's going to bargain with someone she hasn't talked to or seen since they were eight years old. Before she had been Queen of France and Queen of Scotland. Spoiler alert- It doesn't work out very well for Rinette. 

 

Last issue with this book -

I'm so over authors who spend all kinds of time telling me about their heroines who are strong, brave, and independent women who don't need a man only to have the story ending with a woman who needs a man because she spent the whole book making bad choices. That was a terrible run on sentence. It's exactly how the thought came out of my brain. I'm not apologizing. Just acknowledging. Anyway, if she's (Rinette or Mary. Take your pick.) so smart, why does she continue to make so many bad choices? Both things can't be true. Beyonce has told us as much several time. 

 

Loupas has one other published work I have on my TBR. It takes the reader back to Italy. I'll probably pick it up only because I loved her last venture into Italy. Maybe it's just Scotland with all of its brutes that's the problem. 

 

If I were able to get to the library right now, this book would have gone back unfinished. As it is, I cannot get to the library so I might as well read all of the books I have. 

 

 

Dates read 4/5/2020 - 4/13/2020

Book 25/75 

Typically non-fiction takes me months to read. I tend to get so bogged down in the details that I find myself able to only read a chapter at a time. This was not the case with Guy's biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. 

 

I have yet to find a biographical work that doesn't show any bias. Suggestions welcome if you know of any. This book wasn't any different. Guy obvious has a fangirl thing going on with Mary. He things she's smart, beautiful, and cunning. Personally I think one of those two things may be true. To quote some of my favorite preschool teachers, Mary makes a lot of bad choices. 

 

While Guy makes his adoration of Mary no secret, he also makes it perfectly clear that he is not a fan of one William Cecil (later Lord Burghley). Guy seems to believe Cecil is the root of all Mary's problems. Cecil wasn't leading Mary's fan club or even getting the newsletters but let's not get nuts. Mary was a queen in her own right. If Mary was as smart and capable as Guy wants his readers to believe, shouldn't she have been able to outsmart Cecil and survive? 

 

I have Guy's biography of Elizabeth I on my shelf. While I wasn't planning on reading it any time soon, I may have to move it up the list. I'm interested to see what kind of picture Guy paints of the people living on the other side of Mary's fence. I would think his characterization of Cecil would remain consistent. Right?

 

 

Read 1/1/2020- 1/5/2020

Writing this on my ipad since hubby had to work late and is napping near the computer, so no fun gifs this time, and hopefully minimal typos.

 

I'll start by saying that I liked this enough to read more by Carolly Erickson. It was a good story, an imagining, and definitely entertained me. I'm on a bit of a Mary kick thanks to Reign, so I liked reading another perspective of her life and more ofher later years.  This is a work of fiction, and it really was quite fanciful. I almost wish it wasn't called "memoirs" because it really made me ache for something a little bit more historically accurate.  

 

Overall, an entertaining read that I liked. Solid three stars.

I haven't read anything else on Mary Queen of Scots, so I have no comparison to draw when it comes to the quality and factual information in this book. However, I found it informative and well written. It was interesting to learn more about the queen who was considered such a threat to Protestantism just by her existence.

Kurzgeschichte 1: Bernhard Hennen - Stürmische ZeitenEs war zwar anfangs sehr ungewohnt, etwas von Bernhard Hennen zu lesen, das in der Gegenwart spielt, aber mir hat die Geschichte richtig gut gefallen! Gut, mit dem Protagonisten konnte ich mich nicht 100%ig anfreunden, aber dafür hat mich der Rest vollkommen überzeugt.Toller Einstieg in die Anthologie!****Kurzgeschichte 2: Thomas Plischke - In Wort und BildInhaltlich fand ich die Geschichte sehr gelungen, ebenso wie die teils gruselige Atmosphäre, allerdings gab es ein paar kleine Sachen die mich störten, z.B. der Protagonist, und sein Malerdasein mit Drogenkonsum und viel Alkohol war mir fast ein wenig zu klischeehaft. Außerdem fand ich die ständige Erwähnung von Apple-Produkten etwas nervig. (Wobei...ist ein "Airbook" überhaupt etwas von Apple? Hmm...)***Kurzgeschichte 3: Christoph Marzi - Stimmen, wehend leicht im MeereswindTypisch Marzi. Allerdings war mir der Inhalt irgendwie zu wenig und es konnte mich leider nicht wirklich berühren.**Kurzgeschichte 4: Oliver Dierssen - AkerbeltzAnfangs fand ich manches etwas überzogen, aber sobald ich mich an die Erzählweise gewöhnt hatte, fand ich die Geschichte sehr amüsant, humorvoll, toll. (Und irgendwie habe ich jetzt Lust, endlich "Fledermausland" zu lesen.****Kurzgeschichte 5: Victoria Schlederer - Ein kleiner TodBisher eindeutig die beste Geschichte! Wunderbarer Schreibstil und eine mysteriöse Handlung, die eine ähmm..."nette" Überraschung bereithält.**** - ****,5Kurzgeschichte 6: Thilo Corzilius - In der WüsteDer Schreibstil hat mir gut gefallen, über die Geschichte selbst bin ich mir noch nicht ganz sicher und das Ende war mir leider etwas zu abrupt.***Kurzgeschichte 7: Jonas Wolf - Im Gasthof zum schwarzen EberIrgendwie nicht wirklich meins. Der Anfang war noch ziemlich interessant, aber dann hat die Geschichte nachgelassen und konnte mich leider nicht fesseln. Außerdem war es mir an manchen Stellen doch etwas zu eklig.**