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Four Sisters All Queens Sherry Jones Books

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Four Sisters All Queens Sherry Jones Books

It is hard enough to write a novel with one or two protagonists. It is extremely hard to write biographical fiction. But when you put the two together and write biographical fiction about four main characters, as Sherry Jones did in her novel FOUR SISTERS ALL QUEENS, you have given yourself an almost impossible job.

Sherry Jones solves the problem of the four protagonists by circling among these women as their different stories unfold. The first half to two-thirds of the novel is extremely well-done, with the sisters' different voices coming through, their struggles and conflicts fresh and vivid. But towards the end, the novel grew repetitious and uninteresting. To me, it seemed as though Ms. Jones kept repeating herself, and I felt that a stronger editorial hand was needed. Three and a half stars.


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Four Sisters All Queens Sherry Jones Books Reviews

There are many good things about this story - the way the sisters are so different from each other, the way they relate - how they come together and then apart as they try to navigate through their complicated lives. Characterization is good, but the plot is all over the place - there's no clear line - and it seems to rush to the end of their lives all of a sudden, leaving the reader wondering how the years suddenly passed by so fast.
I really enjoyed this book. The author took us from the family home in Provence where the sisters all grew up and on their individual journeys as they married into royalty. I particularly liked how Ms. Jones wrote from the perspective of each of the girls/ladies and often on the same event. It added a unique dimension to the storyline and certainly added to the premise that there is always more than one opinion/perspective in every situation.
I put that there is no violence/sex. This is a historical type novel about the lives of actual people who lived. I enjoyed it very much, even if the writing wasn't totally factual. 2 of these queens fall into my genealogical lines and that's what I read the book for, initially. But, the stories about each of the sisters were wonderful and could be verified in other places.
What I loved about this book, first and foremost, is the nuanced storytelling of the push and pull of sibling relations played out on a a royal stage. I had not heard of these four sister before — four very intriguing stories — and I kept wanting to read the next chapter to see how each of their lives progressed.

There were a few characters I kept mixing up/not remembering as I was reading, but they key people definitely stand out.
I'm a fan of historical fiction, which I describe as a fictionalized version of real people and real events. I am particularly interested in the 13th through the 16th centuries. This book takes place in the 13th century. The oldest daughter, Marguerite, marries Louis IX of France, thereby aligning the family with royalty and allowing greatly advantageous marriages for her 3 younger sisters. Marguerite's story is extremely interesting, as Louis IX is a puppet of his malicious mother. I couldn't put this book down; it was so captivating. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in medieval times, royalty, the roles of women in male-dominated societies, and the relationships between sisters of any era.
I enjoyed reading about the sisters and their lives. I especially enjoyed reading about their mother who could easily have been a modern mother in her attempts to get her daughters as far as possible up the social ladder. I found it rather fascinating in that the sisters tried to outdo each other even as they reached heights most other people would not get to. And at the same time there were sisterly love. It was interesting too that each of them really had a difficult time in many different ways, just like all other people, but even when they didn't get along the love for the other sisters were there. Of course, the whole family was very unusual and it was truly interesting reading.
While the stories of the sisters are interesting and competently told, this is more a recitation of history than a full imagining of the lives of the historical women. They fail to develop unique, integrated personalities in the author's hands, and instead are simply historical sketches of prominent women that move from important event to important event with little personality development -- approximately what we could get in a history book, but with conversations invented. This is no "The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B" (which I suspect is what it aspires to) and certainly no "Wolf Hall." However, if you are interested in the time period, it is full of detail and certainly does a competent job of outlining the historical events and how they relate to the four Savoy sisters. I found the book approximately 25% too long, and I began to lose interest in the second half when it was clear that the personalities of the sisters were underdeveloped and not well-connected throughout the story. Still, enjoyable historical fiction about an interesting group of women.
It is hard enough to write a novel with one or two protagonists. It is extremely hard to write biographical fiction. But when you put the two together and write biographical fiction about four main characters, as Sherry Jones did in her novel FOUR SISTERS ALL QUEENS, you have given yourself an almost impossible job.

Sherry Jones solves the problem of the four protagonists by circling among these women as their different stories unfold. The first half to two-thirds of the novel is extremely well-done, with the sisters' different voices coming through, their struggles and conflicts fresh and vivid. But towards the end, the novel grew repetitious and uninteresting. To me, it seemed as though Ms. Jones kept repeating herself, and I felt that a stronger editorial hand was needed. Three and a half stars.