Godiva: A Novel Nicole Galland
“Book DescriptionRelease date: July 2, 2013Nicole Galland, author of The Fool’s Tale, turns her clever pen toward re-imagining the famous legend of Lady Godiva in this expertly crafted historical novel set in Anglo-Saxon England.
A 12th-century noblewoman, Lady Godiva is infamous for riding naked through Coventry to relieve her people of her husband’s unfair and oppressive taxation. Leofric, Earl of Mercia, said he would ease the tax burden if she would ride through the streets, wearing only her glorious, long hair. In doing so she risked everything, including her home and well-being.
Told with humor and precise attention to detail, Nicole Galland’s Godiva brings to life the adventures of the legendary lady, her husband and her best friend the Abbess Egdiva in thrilling detail. It’s an entertaining tale of courtly intrigue, deceit, and romance that is sure to captivate fans of literary and historical fiction.”
If you can be patient and stick with this book through the first 75 or
100 pages, it all becomes worth it. I
have seen this book called “historical fiction lite” but if you were in my shoes,
and you appreciate historical romance, you would see this as a little more ‘hefty”
of a read. This book is filled with
details that are sometimes boring and at other times, quite illuminating.
There are well-drawn characters, enough historical fact without the
book turning into a history textbook. You do not have to overly suspend your disbelief
and the author makes what could have been a dry regurgitation of a tale told
almost too many times, into a wonderfully entertaining story.
Once I slogged through the who’s, what’s and where’s and figured out
that Godiva wasn’t really the slut she portrayed herself as. Godiva is, though,
as portrayed here in this book, a manipulative, selfish, arrogant woman. She is
also proud, caring, shameless and on the side of right. She is a woman that was a surprise for me
considering the era. Once I figured out
that she saw men as nothing more than testosterone-ridden pawns in her game of
anti-taxation, I was able to settle in for a good read. I was surprised to find so much humor in a
book about such a serious issue.
The secondary story about Mother Edgiva, was fascinating and
almost deserves a book of her own. Her ‘crush’ with Sweyen and subsequent issues
with said ‘crush’, made this book satisfying to this admitted lowly “Historical
Romance Lover”. Edgiva is one person
that Godiva probably should not have meddled with, but I can see why she
did. There are political ramifications
as well as personal ones with the relationship between Edgiva and Sweyen.
I loved seeing King Edward portrayed
as an almost idiotic, ultra moralistic, yet surprisingly clever character. It
just takes a while to see Edward as he truly is. The idea that he would use
Godiva’s vanity against her in this manner was clever and fitting. When you look even further, you find that the
King is even cleverer in his punishment, since this punishment subtly delivers
a harsh blow to Leofric more than to Godiva. For the era, it seems that Godiva
and Leofric had a very nearly modern grasp on what marriage is.
As I said, this book is slow to start, but will intrigue those who like
serious fiction as well as those that like fiction on the more entertaining
side. *ARC SUPPLIED BY PUBLISHER*
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