Genre: Young Adult
Sub Genre: Historical Fiction; 1300’s
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Back Cover: Fifteen year-old
Nell’s uncanny resemblance, to King Edward the Third’s daughter Princess Joan,
brings the orphan and her brother George from the murky streets of fourteenth
century London to a grand calling – a means of protection for the Royal Family
by acting as a body double in times of danger. But as the plague that claimed
the lives of Nell’s parents continues to ravish England and France, and
eventually takes Princess Joan herself, Nell is forced by Joan’s brother, the
Black Prince, to take on the princess’s identity for real. Nell must carry out
a plan to expand the empire by marrying the Prince of Castile. Knowing she
could never permanently play the role of the Princess, Nell is determined to
return to England and report the truth of the Princess’s death to the King.
With the help of a number of surprising characters – including a Spanish
minstrel, a monk, a gravedigger, a band of merchants – and most devotedly by
her brother and the young soldier Henry, Nell must escape not only the Black
Prince and his army of rats, but the plague as well…
I haven’t read many historical
novels. I got this book while I was at the Book Expo America. I couldn’t help
but be curious about it having read the back cover. I thought that the
character Henry was a brilliant one as he is seen at the beginning as a small
youth and then we meet him again as a young man. Nell I found to feel as though
she was week and yet she was able to stand up and protect those that she loved.
She even tried to help those who where dieing of the plague. I really liked
this story.
Publisher: Running Press Teens
ISBN: 0762433442
Pages: 272
Series:
Volume:
