Review: I really enjoyed The Pelican Bride. Mostly for the historical aspects of the story. The amount of research put into this novel is remarkable. The vocabulary in this book was extensive and impressive. I discovered a few French words that I didn’t know were part of the English language. I think my favorite part of the book was learning new words. However, that’s just me. Not everybody may enjoy that
Genevieve and Tristan—the main characters—were well-developed and easy to like. However, I found myself liking Genevieve’s mischievous little sister—Aimee—more. I hope that the author writes Aimee a book of her own! I also liked Ysabeau, despite what happened to her. Nothing was said about what happened to her at the end of the book, so I’m hoping that she may come into another novel.
The author put into perspective how dangerous it was to have a different religion other than Catholicism in France in 1704. Even when Genevieve escaped France to go live in America she was not able to reveal her differing belief for fear of being thrown into jail and even executed.
The relationship between Genevieve and Tristan was sweet and romantic, though sometimes unrealistic. But this fact can be easily overlooked when viewing the novel as a whole.
I was surprised at how little time Genevieve and Tristan spent in each other’s company, since this novel says that it is Historical Romance. Tristan was off on a journey for a large portion of the story, leaving Genevieve to fend for herself. He did, however, save her near the end of the book. And when they were together, I enjoyed seeing how they bantered back and forth or encouraged one another.
As I mentioned before, there was a lot of research put into this book. However, I felt sometimes that the characters were swamped with too many details, neglecting the development of some more minor characters. I appreciate all the research the author put into this novel. But the character development is just as important as the research.
I really liked the subplot that incorporated Tristan's younger brother, Marc-Antoine. I kept on wondering if somehow Aimee would end up with him or an Indian woman named Nika that kept on coming into the story. You'll have to read the book to find out!
The Pelican Bride was an enjoyable, historically saturated read(plus the cover is beautiful :). I give it 31/2 out of 5 stars.
* I received a free copy of this book from the publishers for an honest review, which I have given. The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone.