Review: Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 5, 2011
Other reviews have addressed the more unsavory aspects of Spoil of War as well as the faulty history.  I didn't think it was as bad as Dear Author did and since I'm not up on my Arthurian history, I'll leave that alone.I just plain didn't like the heroine, Elsbeth.  I thought she was a whiny little princess whose endless rant of "Give me my freedom" got really tiresome, given she had no other place to go, the treatment of women in those times and her privileged status in the household.Ms. Sullivan did evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the Dark Ages and the writing itself was very good.  I didn't actively dislike the book, I just thought it could have been a lot shorter (we get it already--Elsbeth doesn't like being a prisoner), but it wasn't exactly OK, either.