Interesting historical fiction with a great heroine. How much is true? I don't know but I found myself turning the pages.

The warrior princess is a good book that tells the story of the Welsh rebellion against the English in the 1100. Good enough to keep me reading.

Already familiar with the history and character of Nesta ferch Rhys, I was intrigued by this fictional adaption of this notable Welsh woman.

I was in too minds with this book - 1130s in Anglo-Welsh history is a fascinating one filled with plots & conspiracies, rebellion & battles, larger than life men & women, personal loss & gain. Here is a woman conflicted by her loyalities to family, husband, children - who fell a little flat for me, probably in part due to the various other voices demanding our attention.

I would recommend reading the series in order to get a fuller sense of characters and story, especially if unfamiliar with this period of history.

I didn't want to stop reading this book! Great storytelling. Fast-paced with political intrigue and good action sequences. Eagerly awating the second book.

Historically accurate, this book touches on (to me) the little known history of the Welsh rebelling against the British in the 1100s. Although a touch gory, this is well written and developed well.

I really appreciate that someone's taken a bit of Welsh history and made a novel from it -- there's plenty of Welsh history to choose from, but apart from books based on the lives of some of the Tudors, I can't think of many other books that really touch on it. While I knew about Nest ferch Rhys (Nesta, here; I believe that's a popular version of her name which maybe sounds better to the English-speaking ear), I didn't know anything about Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, for whatever reason, so if nothing else I'm grateful to this book for drawing her to my attention!

The style is a little disappointing, though; I found it rather wooden at times, even with the author's attempts to vary the vocabulary by varying the inquits (asked, sighed, etc). The pacing was quite slow, too, and I felt at times like I was having the information dumped on me, rather than introduced organically. If you enjoy the author's writing style, it's likely you'll enjoy this as well; it's probably a personal taste thing as much as anything.

I did appreciate the historical note at the end -- always good to get a bit of the background, so you know where to research if you're interested.

Review goes up on my blog 23rd September!

Overall a good read. However the prologue was a bit lengthy and lacked the wow factor that immediately engages a reader. The story starts slowly but surely and builds up to a good action fantasy tale. I highly recommend the book, just don't let the first few pages get you down!

Given the subject matter, this should have been an exciting and interesting read. It tells the story of Gwenllian, the warrior princess of the title, and her Welsh rebellion against English rule in the 1100s. Unfortunately, I found this pretty slow and the dialogue was incredibly wooden. It took a long time for the story to really get going and then the bulk of the action all happened in a rush towards the end. The prose wasn't great and overall, I was quite disappointed.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thanks to Outlander en Braveheart even we non-British people know the stories of the Scottish rebellions. However to me the Welsh rebellion was totally unknown. A few weeks ago I read a simple romance novel in which the heroine's mother wanted her to be a second Gwenllian. The first Gwenllian was apparently some freedom fighter who was still remembered in the Welsh battlecry. I thought all of that was fiction till all of a sudden the book Netgalley asked me to review was about exactly that Gwenllian. First thing I did was check Wikipedia. Yes she was a historical figure. No do not check before you have read the book as the tale is as historically correct as possible and checking a history book will spoil the suspense of the story!

It is less then 100 years after the Normans under William the Conqueror aka the Bastard have invaded England. But even now they have their claws in the Wales territory and have occupied some of the principalities/kingdoms while others are still free. Princess Gwenllian and her husband prince Gruffydd ap Rhys alias Tarw of Deheubarth had been fighting the English invaders but have disappeared / died a decade before. The sister of the prince is happily married to a Norman knight who holds one of the big English castles in the area, Pembroke.

All seems more or less peaceful but then the English king dies, the son of the steward of Llandeilo is arrested for rebelling against the English and the second man of castle Pembroke has plans of his own. In a few months time the area is knees deep in a civil war.

The book is a fascinating read for people who are interested in history and people who like to read about military campaigns. Because it is done as a novel it reads a lot better than when done as an article.

What surprised me to see was how much European (continental) influence there was in the conquest of Wales. Flemish knights, mercenaries from Saxony and I read somewhere also many Flemish immigrants sent there to colonise Wales. EU migration 1000 years early. It also made me wonder why the Normans rather had foreigners there than trying to conquer the Welsh hearts. I mean England did not have that much of a problem with them unless we have to believe Ivanho.

While we more or less see what happens to all the players in the book from a birds eye perspective, that does prevent a bit to form a strong connection with the individuals. It is more their acts than their thoughts we read about.

When you have finished do go to Wiki and see what happened with the ones who are still alive at the end of the book. The author did explain the historical facts at the end. Maybe he should have also added a little bit of an historical epilogue. I liked the successtory of son Rhys.

Not a book you finish in a day.

Five out of five stars. Really recommend it.

3.5 stars.
It was a good read, although not really my usual historical novel type, I tend to avoid a lot of battle scenes and gore. That being said, I think the author's notes were superb, so for sure some history was there. I gave it a bumping grade for that reason.

I have read several books about Nest so had no idea this one would lead to multiple executions, and that Gerald of Windsor sort of vanishes at the end. I would have liked, or hoped that Nest would have gone on towards her next relationship at the end.

Also was Nest or Gwenllian the Warrior Queen, the primary character? There was a bit too much of jumping from scene to scene with depth and context. Curious as to whether this was a standalone of a sequel to the Blood of Kings Series.

I appreciated being given an ARC at Netgalley by Thomas and Mercer for this read. Recommended for followers of this author and others who write about Welsh rebellions.