MixedBookreporter.comI don’t mean to make The White Queen sound like hard historical labor. It’s not; it’s impassioned and absorbing and, despite some repetitious passages that an editor should have caught, beautifully written. You just have to get your bearings … The novel is strongly marked by these two different aspects, the historical and the metaphysical. Its more realistic side retells the Cousins’ War from the vantage point not of the men who go into battle but the women who watch and suffer – and often scheme behind the scenes … However, Elizabeth and Jacquetta – and, later, Elizabeth’s daughter and namesake – fight in their own way, with water-based witchcraft instead of swords and axes. I must admit that this side of THE WHITE QUEEN often seemed silly and unnecessary to me, a bit of trickery that is at odds with the women’s actual power and assertiveness.
