It was a good book, however there was an error. William the Conqueror isn't Eleanor of Aquitaine's grandfather on either side of her parents. Other than the typo or error it was a good look into the medieval era of France. Who would want to live in a building, nowadays, that smells of bodily functions? ( )

I bought the entire Royal Diaries Series many years ago. They are beautiful hardcover books with gold gilded edges and published by Scholastic. I’m such a history lover that I knew they would be of interest to me even though they are written for grades 4-7 or ages 8-12.

Totally not ashamed to say I still read young adult books especially when they are about history. I wish these had been around when I was a young adult.

Although this is a fictional account of Eleanor’s young adult years right before she married at age 15 I thought it was well researched into the pre-medieval years and kept my interest. It wasn’t written in a conversation style but like a diary. So, there was some storyline choppiness (is that a word?) due to the fact that the author was trying to make you feel like you were reading Eleanor’s private diary.

I also liked that at the back of the book there are photos, a family tree, a glossary of characters, and some historical notes.

There were some terms related to the Catholic church and feudal society that even I didn’t know at my age so I had to look those up to understand what was going on. If you are going to let your young adult read it I suggest a dictionary close by. It isn’t too much but if they haven’t studied medieval history they may not have a good grasp of what is going on.

Your young adult may even find the finer details of medieval living kind of gross. . . . the fact that fleas and lice were common in the hair, eating peacocks and swans, rats everywhere, and even some interesting descriptions of bathroom/toilet behavior. It definitely made me glad for my flush toilet and soft tissue paper.

The author even has a Study Guide on her website.

So, if you have young adults in the house check it out. It’s a light read and I think it may even be interesting for boys to read too. ( )

The diary section of this book was rather boring. The entries spent more time discussing the day to day banality of Eleanor's life and glossed over major events. The author was, I'm assuming, trying to paint a picture of life in medieval France. This was not accomplished as successfully as other books she has written in this series. What saved this book from a one-star rating was Gregory's research for the historical notes in the back. This section was well-researched and well-written. This section gave a better picture than the diary entries of Eleanor's life. ( )

I don't know what it was about this book, but I just couldn't get into it as much as I would have liked. It was still a good book, I still learned a lot about France, I just couldn't connect with the main character. I can see where this would appeal to kids of the right age group though. 3.75 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it. ( )

It was one of my favorite royal diaries books. The romance and the excitement kept me reading. ( )