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RE: The Fool's Girl

Rating: 
2

A young woman emerges from the sea, a lone survivor from a shipwreck, onto a foreign land. To preserve her virtue she presents herself to the Duke of Illyria as a man. In this disguise many mix-ups and mistaken identities are plotted through before Viola is able to reveal her true self to Orsino, the man she loves. Thus the story of Violetta's parents is portrayed by Shakespeare. But what has Shakespeare to do with Violetta, and what is she doing so far from home in England?

The Fool's Girl is many things, Stephano's girl, Viola's daughter, Duchessa of Illyra's, but she is no Fool's Girl. I really wanted to like this book, there are so many elements that on their own are exciting and mysterious and if explored more would have been very interesting. There are pirates, politics, Shakespeare, allusions to faeries, and love. Unfortunately the end product is a story of a girl who is always protected by one shinning knight or another.

(http://larissabookgirl.blogspot.com/)

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Reviewed Book

The Fool's Girl
Celia Rees