Geoffrey Craig

Fair disclosure, I work with the publisher. That doesn't mean I am not allowed to leave an honest review. I couldn't help but comment that this book, in particular, is stunning. I've never read anything like this. It's so perfectly suited for the intended audience. I usually read blindly, and I enjoy trying to guess what the writer is like (based on the writing style). If I had to guess, based on the swings of voice, from strong and exciting to surprisingly tender turns of phrase, I probably wouldn't have guessed that the author was a man - but he is, and it's fantastic! So much thought and careful attention is evident in the obviously deliberate writing, all the earmarks of a father's love for his daughter. I loved this book.… (plus d'informations)

3.75 stars out of 5 stars

The Brave Maiden is a short novel completely written in verse. It's a sweet short work with a strong female heroine as the main protagonist. This is a great book for young females wanting to get a taste of poetry set as one story.

The backstory behind this novel is really sweet. The author, Geoffrey Craig, actually wrote this book a while ago for his daughter when she was young. He wanted to give her a story with a strong female lead to look up to.

First delving into this work was a bit hard to be honest. It took me a while to get the hang of the reading style and fully immerse myself. It's been a while since I read a story in verse, so it took me a bit to get used to it and actually absorb the events of the first few pages. Once doing that, it was a breeze to read through. It was such a quick read, so I finished it in one sitting. This work would be really good if it's adapted to an audio book (I really hope that happens because this story was made to be read aloud).

The novel starts with a short prologue giving the reader background on the turmoil occurring in medieval England.

The main focus of this novel is about our strong heroine, who remains unnamed until the end (well, she actually becomes known as the brave maiden to everyone as she conceals her true identity). The brave maiden (the novel) is set in medevial times (England) around 1205 A.D. The brave maiden (the character) undergoes a personal tragedy that we are told about in the beginning and the story picks up right after. Her only objective is to get her revenge. Thus, we follow her as she slowly gathers her loyal followers (army) and skills needed to get her revenge against one of the main antagonists (Count Gerard). Readers also learn that the citizens under King John's rule and other nobles are living in horrible times. Thus, she also promises to right the wrongs somehow for the people of the lands. Along her journey, she's a strong advocate for the morally right. Thus, if she catches someone doing something bad, she ends up killing them, sending a message, or giving them another chance depending on the circumstance. In a sense, she is leading a revolution that gives the local suffering people some hope and courage to fight back. There is also a bit of magical elements interwoven throughout the story.

This book has a lot of great elements going for it. The plot is interesting, the characters are diverse, empowering female lead for women, hint of magical realism, not cookie cutter, etc. However, I was still left a bit disappointed. This story started off great. And then as it progressed, I felt that the pacing just sped up even more (while it was already a fast paced story). I understand that it's written in verse, and that in itself makes it much harder to write, but it made it feel that so much needed to be covered. It gave me the sense that the author probably felt exhausted and just wanted to finish it. Characters were being abruptly introduced after the first few main ones, and then they were just somewhere in the background that we never really heard. However, the characters that we were given more in depth info about were well written. And time just flew by and you could only get a gauge of how much time passed when it would be announced in passing that it was now summer, a certain month, etc. The story kind of just snowballed as farther you read in to get to the brave maiden getting her revenge. I would have better enjoyed this story if it was further expanded; it had so much potential.

Another issue I had was that I often felt that the author was trying to make sure each line rhymed in iambic parameters. For the majority of the story, it worked out perfectly, where as other times it felt like he was trying to pigeon hole in a word just to make it sound well in verse. Not a very big issue when reading, but it sometimes bothered me personally a bit.

Also, the reason the brave maiden withheld her true identity was a let down. When it was revealed why, I thought it was implied the entire time who she was. I found it laughable the other characters didn't really know. So that took away from the anticipation that had been built up since the beginning.

As much as there were things that didn't live up to my expectations, there were other elements that I enjoyed. I briefly mentioned a few above. A big one that really pleased me (with an exception) was that we didn't get the typical ending. I love when books end with a realistic ending that isn't always as perfect as readers may want it. Although, it did border on kind of shoe-horning a happy ending for our brave maiden and her love interest. Anyways, it set the tone of how things actually work in the real world and left the sense that you hope it all ended up working great for everyone in the end.

I'm not well versed in my medieval England history, but I loved that some things from the actual time period were interwovened into the story. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if much of the inspiration was based on actual events.

Overall, it was a good short read with a strong female. As mentioned, this story is great for females and giving young girls a role model. It's great when female leads can teach little girls that gender doesn't define them or restrict them from achieving great things. The story was also peppered with good morals throughout. However, I still felt this story has a lot left to be improved upon. If more was expanded upon and it was made much lengthier to fill in the things it skimmed by, this book could be a great modern classic for young girls. I would still greatly recommend it to everyone (especially girls), but I can only give it 3.75 stars out of 5 stars. I don't usually get so specific with star ratings, but it was missing some oof to bump it up to 4 stars for me.… (plus d'informations)