"The Winter Crown" has a lot of the same qualities of "The Summer Queen". So why did I come away from it feeling disappointed?

First I'll talk about the good. This is not a bad book. It does a bad thing, but it's not a bad book. Firstly, I think that the novel handles things like female friendship and the maternal relationship with children exceptionally well. In fact, I think that Alienor's growing relationship with Richard is the best part of the book. You just know that there's a tragedy waiting to happen there.

That being said, I'm distracted by how incredibly Chadwick vilified Alienor's husband Henry. Don't get me wrong--dude was an asshole. But for so much of the book, Alienor and Henry's relationship is fascinatingly layered. It's a match of wits and strength. And I know it sours; that makes total sense. But at the novel's end, one act seemed so incredibly out of character--so over the top and written for shock value, to make Alienor the perfect heroine--that it turned me off of the book almost entirely.

I just wish it would have been as gray as "The Summer Queen".