Sherry Jones: White Heart

[bibliogramma]

The novella White Heart, by Sherry Jones, is intended as a prequel to her novel Four Sisters, All Queens. Its focus is Blanche of Castile, grand-daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, and Eleanor of England, wife of Louis VIII of France, mother and regent of Louis IX - and a significant character in the novel, as one of the sisters is her son's wife.

Unfortunately, the novella did not impress me. Covering the period just after the death of her husband, with occasional flashbacks and forelookings, the non-linearity of the narrative was somewhat distracting, even confusing at times, and got in the way of my forming a clear sense of the character. Which is a pity, because that is, apparently, the reason it was written - to give insight into the motivations of the character for her actions in the novel. I was not impressed with the author's writing style either, but on the off-chance that this was actually a collection of bits of writing that had to be dropped from the main work, and thus wasn't polished and edited as much as a final piece would have been, I'm still going to try the novel, as the concept intrigues me.