3/18/13

Book Review: The Rogues Princess - Eve Edwards

Author's Site:  Eve Edwards
Genre: Young Adult - Historical, Romance, Fiction
Form: e-book

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
1586 – London, England. Sixteen-year-old Mercy Hart is the daughter of one of London’s richest – and strictest – cloth merchants. Kit Turner is an actor and the illegitimate son of the late Earl of Dorset. A chance encounter finds Kit falling for the beautiful Mercy’s charms, but their love is forbidden. A merchant’s daughter and a vagabond – it simply cannot be. If Mercy chooses Kit she must renounce her family name and leave her home. Will she favour duty over true love, or will she give Kit his heart’s desire?

My Review:   I was intrigued by this book, because it was compared to Philippa Gregory’s writing, and I’ve always loved her books.  I’m not sure I would go that far, however.  Where Philippa Gregory goes rather in depth in the intrigue as a well as emotions, Eve Edwards kept everything pretty surface level.  Instead of feeling like I was involved in the story, I felt more like I was watching it from a distance.  I would have liked to have felt more emotion from both Kit and Mercy, it doesn’t work to just say that the emotions were there, it has to be drawn out of the reader. 

I loved the setting though.  As the book opened, I was immediately sucked into the movie Shakespeare in Love, with the play house, and the religious heretics yelling from the street.  Of course, at the time I didn’t realize that that was the EXACT setting of the book, so it was a pleasant surprise to find I was right. 

I did love the characters, and the story.  I must say, my absolute favorite part was Kit out in the sand acting out his short poem for Mercy.  It was sweet and silly and just all around cute.  The story barely scraped the surface of scandal and problems.  I would have loved more details.  All around, I would have just loved a bit more book.

Regardless, The Rogue’s Princess was a quick, fun read.  Perfect for young teenagers and clean-reader adults alike.

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