Beth's Reviews > The Beggar Queen

THE BEGGAR QUEEN-an historical fiction novel portrays the life of Bathilde set in 7th century Frankia. She was a slave, queen, saint and great reformer.

I was immediately drawn to the book because of the beautiful cover, and the title. The author, Kelly Evans has put an enormous amount of research into this novel. I enjoyed learning about a little known figure from the distant past.

Kelly explains in her afterward that she did not have primary sources to utilize for her research. Much of the information for The Beggar Queen came from hagiographic sources, tomes written in adulatory language praising a saint.

The reason I gave it only three stars is because the novel is in great need of editing. It is overly long, and as others have mentioned, sometimes reads like a textbook rather than a story.