'Attractive characters, several layers of mystery and, as one might expect, meticulously researched historical detail.' Daily Mail
'A great read. Appealing characters and detailed historical setting.' Kiss
'Romping and intriguing' The Daily Telegraph
The year is 1453, and all signs point to it being the end of the world.
Accused of heresy and expelled from his monastery, handsome seventeen-year-old, Luca Vero, is recruited by a mysterious stranger to record the end of times across Europe and travel to the very frontier of good and evil.
Isolde, a seventeen-year-old Lady Abbess, has been trapped in a nunnery by her brother to prevent her claiming a rich inheritance. But when the nuns in Isolde's care show signs of maddness, she's accused of witchcraft and outisde the abby a pyre is being built to burn her for her wickedness. Luca is sent to investigate and all the evidence points to Isolde's criminal guilt, but is there something more sinister behind the maddness?
Forced to face the greatest fears of the dark ages - black magic, werewolves, madness - Luca and Isolde embark on a search for truth, their own destinies, and even love as they take the unknown ways to the real historical figure who defends the boundaries of Christendom and holds the secrets of the Order of Darkness.
Changeling by Philippa Gregory was an interesting read. I didn’t really find that I cared one way or another about it. Changeling wasn’t be but it wasn’t memorable either. I can remember vaguely patches of the story (lesson: write reviews promptly after finishing a book), but overall I remember a young man, his kitchen animal whispering squire/page, a young woman and her companion…oh! and a wolf and some crazy nuns.
This was my first Philippa Gregory novel and I feel like that might have been a mistake. I don’t hold this as a bad story against Gregory. I just have a feeling that I would vastly enjoy her adult titles more than this type of book.
This feels like a very botched up review but I honestly can’t drum up enough feeling to write a better one. It’s a solid three stars. Not bad, but not great either.
