The Innocent

Well I confess I'm not actually finished reading this book yet, but I'm in the last stretch of it so I thought I'd review anyway.

I think basically the overall problem with this book is it feels like several different books kind of got mashed into one story. The beginning seems like it should some kind of “maybe magic, maybe mundane” plot, with scrying and visions of the future, and a mysterious forest woman teaching an orphan about healing herbs and stuff. Then we have a sort of fish out of water plot, as the orphan becomes a body servant in a well-to-do household, and must deal with jealousies from other servants, and unwanted attention from the son of the Master of the house. Then we get a court intrigue plot, wherein our heroine is now body servant to the Queen, and has to deal with yet more jealousies from her fellow servants, and worse - or better - unwanted attention from the King! And then it gets kind of ridiculous from there.

One of the more ridiculous things is the constant comments about the heroine. From the beginning we know that despite being poor, she's oddly beautiful, and has a grace about her like she's a member of the nobility. As the book goes on, we get more frequent mentions of how stunningly beautiful she is, and so humble! I don't mind this initially, but the part of the book I'm in now seems to be almost entirely people saying “Wow, she's so beautiful! The most beautiful woman in the room! Wow!” and it's getting boring. People are just fawning over her constantly, meanwhile the king is off trying to stop a rebellion and that barely even gets mentioned.

I can't speak to the historical inaccuracies of the book, because I personally didn't notice them. I'm not an expert of this time period, and if you aren't either, you shouldn't be bothered by any of those particular details.

If you're a fan of Elizabeth Woodville (or Wydville, or whatever), look elsewhere. She does not come off very well in this book. I've certainly seen her characterized worse, and the book does say part of her temperament is her being uncomfortable due to her pregnancies, but wow, she's awful. It does feel a bit like the author was purposely making Elizabeth come off badly so we'd better root for the heroine and Edward to get together, because them having known each other a whole 10 minutes, it must be true love, I guess!

The plot twist regarding the truth of the heroine's birth, and the fallout from it, is... well, I'd say a bit on the silly side. I don't mind that part much, though.

Overall, I feel like the first part of the book - which feels a bit like Downton Abbey but in the 1460s and a little more violent - deserves perhaps a 5, while the latter part of the book - which feels extremely tedious and padded out with repetitive scenes wherein we're told the protagonist is lovely yet so unassuming and humble and kind - would deserve perhaps a 2, so I averaged it out to 3 stars here.

Unless the end of this book is truly horrible, I'm intending to read at least the second book in the trilogy, and I hope that's an improvement, or else I won't be reading the third book. Bu I've already purchased both books anyway.

Edit: Have finished the book. Definitely the ending is a disappointment compared to the intriguing beginning. There's no real build-up or explanation for why Edward is so in love with Anne, Anne adjusts to her new identity entirely too quickly to make much sense, and everyone around her adjusts way too quickly to it as well, and the repetition of people commenting on how elegant and beautiful yet so kind and humble Anne is really gets annoying towards the last 1/4 of the book. I'll be reading the next book in the series, but I hope it's better.