The Novice's Tale

I enjoyed this book just as much as the first! I am so happy to have found this series.

The blurb is misleading; it does explain Nicholas' view of the unfolding story, but we also see Emma's point-of-view. So, there is no real mystery, since we know what's going on with her. And her sections were great - she's as engaging of a character as Nicholas.

I've seen a phrase that we measure a hero's strength by what he accomplishes, while we measure a heroine's strength by what she can survive. I'm sure there are many great books that fall in the latter category, but I don't usually enjoy reading about women surviving horrible things. I was afraid, early on, that this book would be about Emma's suffering. She definitely does face hardship, but instead of the narrative excessively punishing her, this is primarily a story about a woman taking charge of her own destiny. Nicholas helps her and the other women in the story, but his goal is to give them the means to choose their own paths, not to make decisions for them, even in this remote time.

There are again a lot of details about daily medieval life, including a couple of sections about candle-making, which were interesting, although they seemed somewhat oddly placed near the climax of the story. I also really liked the visit to the lord's manor; having spent so much time in this series seeing how Nicholas, the nuns, and the college employees live, it was nice to see a version of medieval wealth.

I was very into the sweet and subtle romance between Nicholas and Emma, but I felt it got exactly the right amount of time in this book (very little). This book would be appropriate for just about anyone, even (I think?) an ultra-Christian reader who goes over texts with a fine-toothed comb looking for their version of immorality. Religion is an important part of these characters' lives, and although Emma does not want to be a nun, she never rejects her beliefs. Yet with the strong theme of women's empowerment, it definitely did not offend my own strict moral sensibilities, either.

Warning for animal harm: there are several dogs in the story, and they're frequently hurt and/or in danger. This made certain key scenes really harrowing for me. Only one dog dies, though, and it's one of the bad guy's hunting dogs.