Book Tags

The Medieval Queens Book Tag

Hi everyone! I’m back again with another post, except this time, we’re doing a tag! I actually totally forgot to write a post for yesterday, because honestly, all the days are blurring in my head, so we can all rejoice in my day-late evening post that I’m writing on the spot! I haven’t actually been reading too much lately, because I’ve been busy with classes, so I thought a tag could be something fun, light, and enjoyable?? Plus I am absolutely horrible at getting tags done, so actually getting to these things is nice too.

Naemi at A Book Owl’s Corner nominated me for the Medieval Queens book tag weeks ago, and I totally didn’t just forget about it now, but it’s okay because we’re finally doing it! Thank you to her for tagging me, and if you don’t already know her blog already, I’d highly recommend it. She always does such fun, unique posts and they’re always such a joy to read!

Soooo, let’s get started!

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EMPRESS MATILDA (1102-1167)
After her father, Henry I, died naming her his heir, Matilda’s cousin, Stephen, subsequently took the throne for himself. Matilda never stopped fighting for what was rightfully hers. Though she would never be named Queen of England in her own right, she was able to convince Stephen to name her son, the future Henry II, his successor over his own children.

  1. Choose a book with a protagonist who stands their ground.
Serpent and Dove – Lou

I think that Lou totally stands her ground through Serpent and Dove! She is stubborn and does what she wants, whether its for her own benefit, or just to annoy the people she loves. This part of her personality basically sets up the entire plot of the book, as she lives as a witch in a kingdom that literally takes pride in hunting witches, so she kinda has to stand her ground to not die. It also adds a lot to the hate-to-love relationship in the book, which I love!

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ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204)
Before she married Henry II and became Queen of England in 1152, Eleanor was Queen of France as the wife of Louis VII. She sought an annulment from her marriage to Louis, and he eventually agreed because 15 years of marriage had produced no sons, only for Eleanor to go on to have eight children with Henry—five of whom were sons. Ouch!

2. Choose a book or series in which the heroine has more than one romantic relationship.

Clockwork Angel – Tessa

I have no idea if this refers to a more polygamous thing or a love triangle, but I’m going to take it in the love triangle direction. I honestly don’t have the best history with books with multiple romantic relationships like love triangles, but this is my only (I wish I were joking) only exception. Get out of the way all you other love triangles, there’s only room for the one love triangle in town–Tessa, Will, and Jem from the Infernal Devices. I feel like a lot of love triangles have one obvious pairing with the other as the third-wheel, but this was one of the few ones where I could totally see the MC go either way. I enjoyed the tension from that aspect in the romance, and I approve of it.

Now this is such a tangent, but Mark, Kieran, and Cristina from The Dark Artifices on the other hand…well I’m just saying that I wouldn’t be mad if Cristina just suddenly fell off a cliff or something. I’m sorry, I’m only supposed to talk about one series, but I had to put that in there. I’m still recovering from the fact that the entire relationship would have been actually perfect without her haha.

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ELEANOR OF CASTILE (1241-1290)
A keen patron of literature and a successful businesswoman in her own right, Eleanor was Edward I’s first wife. He was so heartbroken when she died that he erected the Eleanor Crosses, twelve stone crosses marking the places where her body rested overnight on its journey from Lincolnshire, where she died, to her burial place in London. Three of the crosses still survive today.

3. Choose a bittersweet book.

Crooked Kingdom

Why. Why did that death have to happen. It didn’t need to! I was perfectly satisfied without it. In fact, I would have loved everything to be fun and cheery with everyone still alive. I mean it was an amazing book, but it I like my books happy. I’m not going to spoil the book by being any more specific, but please do read it if you haven’t had the chance to already. It’s one of my favorite YA fantasy reads, and maybe you can feel my inner frustration.

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ISABELLA OF FRANCE (1295-1358)
Often known as the ‘She-Wolf of France’, Isabella was Edward II’s wife. Unfortunately for Edward, he wasn’t particularly good at being king, and Isabella soon grew tired of his (possibly homosexual) relationship with his favorite, Hugh Despenser. After she began an affair with English nobleman Roger Mortimer while on a diplomatic mission to France, the pair returned to England with an army and she deposed Edward and acted as regent until their son, the future Edward III, came of age.

4. Choose a book where the romance overtook the plot.

The Selection

I usually love romance in my books. I don’t like reading the genre romance, but I will actively seek out contemporaries and fantasies with a decent chunk of romance in it. So, this one was actually kind of hard for me to do. Just by looking at the answers, I know it seems like I just copied Naemi since she put this exact same book here, and I definitely only came up with it because she included it, but I genuinely can’t think of another. I’m sure I’m going to think of a more unique answer like 27 seconds after I publish this post, but we’ll just leave it at this.

I know the entire *point* of The Selection is probably the romance with a synopsis mimicking the show “The Bachelor,” but I wish there was just more to it. I genuinely can’t remember anything else in this book besides the romance between Maxon and America, which probably isn’t a good thing. If I only wanted romance, I would just read something from the romance genre.

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PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT (1310/15-1369)
Queen of England as the wife of Edward III, Philippa was beloved by the English people for her compassion and kindness. The Queen’s College, Oxford, founded in 1341, is named in her honor.

5. Choose a book set at a university.

Fangirl

This was way harder to think of than it should have been. I have read so many books set at high schools, but the amount of books set at universities thins out for no real reason. I even looked on Google for YA books set at universities, but this was the only one I’ve read.

To be quite honest, I don’t remember a single thing from this book, but I’ll recite to you some of my thoughts from 1.5 years ago! Reading over it, I just remembered how absolutely brutal I was when it came to reviewing books, so I’ll save you all from reading it and just summarize my thoughts. I apparently though it was kind of boring and wasn’t the biggest fan of Cath, but I gave it a 3.5 star which isn’t even that bad? I guess it wasn’t as good as I expected, but it wasn’t too terrible either. So yay!

Now after all of that sorta-negativity, I’ll leave you with a better rec from a high school setting. I found One of Us is Lying to be a really fun murder mystery, and I thought that it was a great read! I loved how all the characters fit together, and I would totally recommend it if you’re interested in a light YA fiction read.

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JOAN OF NAVARRE (1368-1437)
Joan was Henry IV’s second wife. Six years after his death, Joan was accused of attempting to poison her stepson, Henry V, through witchcraft and was imprisoned for four years until he ordered her release, just six weeks before he suddenly died.

6. Choose a book about witches.

Empire of Storms – Manon

I know only about half this series has witches in it, but I’m including it anyways, since the only other series I can think of right now is Serpent and Dove, which I already included. I really enjoyed reading about Manon and the rest of The Thirteen, and I thought that they were great additions to the story. She’s probably one of my favorites from the series and definitely increased my enjoyment of the latter half!

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So that wraps up my post! Thank you so much again to Naemi for nominating me, and to all of you for reading through this post. It was really fun to come up with all of the responses, and I hope you all enjoyed reading through it! Even though I rarely do them, tags are always fun, so if you ever need someone who will do them *maybe* 50% of the time, I’m always here to tag!

I’m going to nominate a couple of people who I really love, but none of you should feel any pressure to do it!

Cherelle @ Cherelle the Bibliophile
Abi @ Scribbles & Stories
Ahaana @ Windows to Worlds
Nefeli @ Biblio Nebula
Tammy @ Books, Bones, & Buffy

Or if you’re reading this post right now & weren’t tagged, but want to give it a try, please do! I’d love to see what you all have to say.

Have a great day everyone and happy reading!

-Allison

16 thoughts on “The Medieval Queens Book Tag”

  1. Yes, the days blur together. Until about noon I kept thinking today was Monday. The first book in a university setting that came to my mind is Urban Legends by Yawatta Hosby. It’s rather bloody, though, so it’s not for everyone.

  2. Allison, you officially have me terrified of Crooked Kingdom. I literally started SoC today and I am so in love and PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME ANY OF MY PRECIOUS MARSHMALLOWS DIE 😱😱😱

    *ahem* Anywho, I loved reading this post if you couldn’t tell and I’m still head over heels for these prompts. I really need to get to writing up my own answers!!! Great post Allison 💜

  3. thanks for the tag allison (: i love the prompts!!
    i STILL cant get over how cute your blog is!! i love how you’ve organised this post too!!
    happy reading, stay safe, and thanks again ❤

  4. Ooh, I had so much fun reading your answers! 🤗 And I must admit, it’s nice that I’m not the only one who takes weeks (*months*) to get to things I’ve been tagged in 😁
    Though I must admit, your willingness to sacrifice Cristina and your indifference about Fangirl stabbed me in the heart 😂😂 As did remembering the ending to Crooked Kingdom 😭😭😭 Though I did love how sad it was, too…

    1. Thanks! I’m glad I’m not the only one bad at getting to tags 😂

      Hahaha I’m glad you enjoyed both Cristina and Fangirl though!! And I totally get that, it was an amazing bittersweet ending! (even though I’ll still be sad about it)

  5. That is one hell of an awesome tag! 😀

    Oh no. Why’d you remind me of Crooked Kingdom? I am trying to get over it after my re-read. I’m still afraid to pick up that book and read it again 😭😭

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