The Irish Princess by Karen Harper

Courtesy of Barnes and Noble

The Irish Princess by Karen Harper turned out to be a disappointing read. The novel tells the story of Elizabeth Fitzgerald, better known as Gera, a young woman who is forced into exile by the downfall of her powerful family and must learn to navigate the treacherous currents of Tudor politics if she hopes to ever find her way back to Ireland and also to the love of her life, Edward Clinton.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

While the story sounds promising Harper, whose novel The First Princess of Wales I so enjoyed, fails to create substantial characters other than Gera herself. We know very little about Gera's family members or even her beloved Edward. We rarely get a glimpse of their personality and see them only through Gera's eyes. Also Gera's relationships are not fully developed. She seems to go from love to hate in one step with no apparent explanation.

Furthermore, the story itself seems to jump around. While it is perfectly natural for a prologue to take place at a later time than the first chapter it is very strange that within one paragraph the story jumps years into the future with no explanation or a character ends up in a place with no account as to why she is there.


Overall, The Irish Princess could have been better, but does give some glimpse into the power players of the Tudor period.