I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

The fictional story of Macbeth, complete with witches, ghosts and prophecies, is well known thanks to Shakespeare’s play, but how many of us know the story of the real historical figure – King of Alba (Scotland) from 1040 until 1057 – on whom the play was based? I have read one version, Dorothy Dunnett’s wonderful King Hereafter, but it’s always interesting to see how different authors approach the same subject so when I came across Blood Queen, Joanna Courtney’s recent novel about ‘the real Lady Macbeth’, I decided to give it a try.

I remember reading one of Courtney’s previous books, The Chosen Queen, several years ago and my impression at that time was that she was a good storyteller but spoiled things by replacing the names of her historical characters with modern equivalents. She does the same in this book and again I found it annoying and unnecessary. She explains in her author’s note that some of the historical names sound unnatural to ‘the modern ear’, so Gruoch and Suthen become Cora and Sibyll, Lulach becomes Lachlan and Gillacomghain becomes Gillespie. I don’t really understand that decision at all; it’s a story set in the 11th century and readers will understand that, so why not just leave the names as they are?

Anyway, we first meet the sixteen-year-old Cora MacDuff on the eve of her wedding to Macbeth, son of the Mormaer of Moray. Cora fled to Moray several months earlier following an attack on her home in Fife by the men of King Malcolm, her father’s cousin. She swears to ‘make of myself a sword to avenge the wrong done to my father by his own blood’ and she is driven by this desire for the rest of her life. Cora believes that if she marries Macbeth, part of the royal bloodline of Aed, their heir would be able to challenge King Malcolm, or at least his son, Prince Duncan. Before the wedding can take place, however, Cora is abducted during a raid and forced into marriage with another man – Macbeth’s rival, Gillespie, who also believes he has a claim to the throne.

Cora’s story alternates with the story of Sibyll, the Danish-born wife of Prince Duncan. Sibyll, sister of Ward (or Siward), the Earl of Northumbria, is also no stranger to violence, having lost both parents when their small fishing community in Denmark was attacked by the Wend tribe. Her marriage to Duncan, which takes place early in the novel, means that their son, if they have one, will be king one day…but not if Cora’s son gets to the throne first.

In this novel, Joanna Courtney has chosen to focus on the parallel lives of Cora and Sibyll, showing how, although circumstances make them rivals, both women have the same hopes and ambitions, both just wanting the best for their children. A lot of care seems to have gone into the writing of the book; there are maps of Alba, descriptions of the system of alternate inheritance used in Alba at that time, genealogy charts showing the royal lines of Aed and Constantin, and a very extensive set of notes at the end. This is why I was surprised to come across a description in the third chapter of Gillespie as a ‘wide, cumbersome young man with a belly that already hung ponderously over his kilt’. Kilts in the 11th century? I don’t think so, though I’m happy to be corrected.

Blood Queen is the first book in a Shakespeare-inspired trilogy; the second, Fire Queen, is about Ophelia from Hamlet and the third, the upcoming Iron Queen, will be about Cordelia from King Lear. After trying two Joanna Courtney books I probably won’t read any more, but I have to admit that I know absolutely nothing about the inspiration for Ophelia or Cordelia and would have been interested to find out more.

Thanks to Little Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This seemed like an interesting read but I didn't realise for a while that it was based on real history as opposed to Shakespeare's play. Macbeth is (rumoured to be) from my hometown but the real history is not something I was particularly aware of so I was looking forward to finding out more.

The book follows Sybil, the wife of King Duncan, and Cora, the Lady Macbeth character. The chapters alternate between their two viewpoints. I preferred Sybil's character and story overall, I couldn't really buy into Cora's motivations and didn't feel like I got a meaningful insight into her character.

The author clearly did her research but the voice of the book just felt too modern. Would an 11th century queen really refer to her son as 'Lachy'? It didn't help that names were changed to make them more accessible to the modern reader which I felt was unnecessary.

The plot also just felt a bit dull. It's almost impossible not to compare it to the Shakespeare tale and, in my opinion, it's just not a particularly interesting period of Scottish history.

Little things niggled me about the setting too like referring to Rosemarkie as 'Moray'. It may be on the Moray Firth but is most certainly not Moray.

Overall, it was solidly ok but I wouldn't be in a rush to recommend it to anyone.

Blood Queen

I enjoy historical drama, and when I saw this the real story of Lady Macbeth I had to request this book. I spent many months studying Macbeth in secondary school, and Lady Macbeth is portrayed by Shakespeare as being an ambitious schemer.

Those of this who are interested in Scottish history however, know that Macbeth was a strong king, whose reign was peaceful and prosperous, so I was intrigued as to what his wife Lady Macbeth was like.

Unfortunately, this novel is not the one to tell me very much about her. For a start her name is Cora. It does explain in the notes at the end that the author considered her real name to be to much of a mouthful. But Cora? In 11th century Scotland?

The other main character is Duncan’s queen, a Danish Princess with the name of Sybil.

There are horrific scenes early in the book of rape, violence, and anima cruelty. Cora is horrifically raped and scarred. I really began to feel that I was reading a different version of Outlander.

This book almost languished on my Did Not Finish shelf, but I did manage to get to the end. The research into the back story of Alba (as Scotland was known in the 11th Century) is interesting. Some of the characters are interesting and the dynamics of how progressive Macbeth’s reign was interesting. The dual story line of Cora and Sybil is also interesting but as a novel it was not what I hoped.

Thank to you the publishers and Netgalley for an advance ARC in return for an honest review.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased
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I love historical fiction as a genre so knew immediately I would love this - and I did

I liked that it was a very different take on Macbeth. I loved the evocative use of language - very descriptive and atmospheric

Well written, great paced, with brilliantly developed characters - I got into this very quickly and couldn't put down.

If historical fiction is your thing, you will love it too

This book was of average quality
It was quite a hard read.
It was well researched and well written
An average book

I love historical fiction and this book was very good. It's a different take on Macbeth. The atmosphere, the historical setting was very well done. The pace of the book was amazing, I didn't want to put it down at any point.
The female characters were very well developed, the writing was smooth and engaging.
Overall, I loved it. If you're a historical fiction fan, it's a very good choice.
Thanks a lot to the publisher and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

An amazing, entertaining and well written book.
I like the different look to Macbeth story, the strong and well written female characters, the well described historical setting.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't be the last.
It was an engrossing and interesting read.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.