Troubadour by Mary Hoffman

Will Elinor be able to capture Bertran's heart and change his views about marriage or will another handsome gentleman steal her heart first? Elinor has fantasized her entire life about marrying the mysterious troubadour Bertran de Miramount, so when she learns that she may never see him again and her parents don't approve of nuptials between her and Bertran, she comes up with a plan. She takes on the disquise of a boy troubadour and sets forth into a journey of a lifetime and a brand new life in hopes of finding her true love and escaping the marriage her parents had arranged for her, before it's too late. Little does she know that there are tensions brewing everywhere and many of the surrounding cities are on the brink of war. Having no hope in the life she left, Elinor believes that she made the right decision in leaving everything she once knew and loved like her family, friends, and the extravagant life of a noble; but is the hope of satisfying her heart's desire worth the possiblity of putting her life at jeopardy?


I thought Troubadour by Mary Hoffman was a pretty good book. The words were very much age-appropriate and there was an easy-to-use glossary in the back of the book, as well as a neat historical note that was very informative of the ways of the thirteenth century time period. The plot was fairly interesting but I found it was hard to focus on what I was reading because the text was hard to follow and confusing thanks to the excessive and somewhat outrageous number of characters. The author tried to help with this problem by providing a list of characters and their roles in the back as well, but I was still confused and got kind of annoyed at having to constantly flip to the back of the book. The over-all plot was well thought-out and developed but I thought that the action of the plot, as well as the conversations between the characters were very repetitive. This repetition caused me to get bored easily because it felt like I had already read those lines at least ten other times. I enjoyed the happy ending and was glad that the story took a surprising turn for the better. There is plenty of romance, adventure, and war for a large range of readers to enjoy.

There was a lot of war and bloodshed, as well as different religious matters.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Upper Strasburg, PA USA