Wings Like a Dove: The Courage of Queen Jeanne d'Albret

Chosen Daughters

by Christine Farenhorst

Jeanne d'Albret, born in 1528, is the only daughter of the King and Queen of Navarre. Standing with her beloved Huguenots, Jeanne steps onto the battlefield of history during the tumultuous years of the Reformation (1517 - 1559). As deadly political events swirl around her tiny Kingdom of Navarre, Queen Jeanne is forced to choose: Will she hide the fleeing Huguenots under the very nose of Catherine de Medicis's henchmen or save her own life? The Chosen Daughters series highlights the lives of ordinary women who by God's grace accomplish extraordinary things.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Historical, Christian, Childrens, Christian Historical Fiction, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2006

About the author

Christine Farenhorst is a contributing writer for Christian Renewal and the author of The Great Escape. Among her books are two collections of short stories, Suffer Annie Spence and The Letter Child, and a novel, Before My Mother s Womb.

Reviews

[Grace DuBois · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good book! I love reading history . It the ending that is so bad: it ended!

[Heather Leipart · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a read-aloud for my kids- my very bright daughter liked it enough, but I just could not get into it at all! Really it had a good premise, and I liked the historical aspects but it was just very dry for my taste. You know it is bad when nearing the end of the book you are still trying to figure out who is who. My little girl helped me out on that problem :) but really...ugh! Okay, so on a positive note, when it comes down to it, her story really is pretty amazing. Some things blew me away, such as her many babies who died and yet she and her husband still went on to endure the birthing process again to have more children. Speaking of the loss of her children- the one child died while two people were tossing the baby back and forth between houses out the upstairs window.... really?? what's up with that?? My little girl and I were dumb-founded. Who does that?? But, anyway, yeah- strange book that really did not appeal to me so much, but we got through it.

[AnyKname · Rating 2 out of 5]

2-2.5 stars
That's not reflective of how well it's written, more that I just didn't enjoy it.
This is hard to do a review for since this is a biography so these things actually happened. Although some things in this book had me like "Did this actually happen?"
I think the main problem I have is that the faith and courage of Jeanne was not that prominent in the story, throughout most of it it's kinda just here and there. Again this is true events but a lot of the time I was like "why are you telling me this?"
I don't know, I'm starting to wonder if this series is just a one hit wonder for me.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*, this would have been greatly improved if it contained a map. I had no idea where Navarre was or what role it played in relation to Spain or France. Jeanne's story is sad and there were some mature parts about mistresses that I omitted as I read aloud to my 12 year old daughter. Jeanne did have courage in standing up for the Huguenot faith but that comes at the end of a somewhat depressing and long narrative. I'm not sad this read aloud is over and don't anticipate reading it again in the future.

[Lyndie Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It both was fun, serious, and I always love the right amount of Christianity. It didn't shove God in my face, but to me was a clear testament of it in simple ways. I loved that though it was in a different day, this woman was always strong and is someone to look up to. I don't read books more then once often but this one I did.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my absolute favorite! I loved this book, even though some parts are extremely sad, it’s beautifully written!

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun to read about a real Basque queen. She was a woman of integrity. I did feel like the fictionalized part was a little cheesy, but overall a good book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a work of historical fiction which appears to be meticulously researched so that the fiction lies largely in the details and the conversations, while the events and people are almost all historical. It kept me wanting to read more, though the story itself is often very sad and may be a bit much for a sensitive girl. I appreciated that about the book, though, that it did not gloss over the faults even of its heroine, Queen Jeanne D'Albret. I enjoyed learning about someone whom I knew nothing about and yet who played a significant role in the life of God's people.

However, the first two thirds of the book had very little spiritual content, probably because Queen Jeanne was not yet a Christian. I found it a little surprising that it focused so much on her childhood and skimmed over much of her older years which were also her Christian years. I'm assuming the author wanted to focus on her childhood since the book is for children, but I would've liked to have known more about her life as a Christian since this is when she did the most good for God's kingdom.

There are a lot of characters in the story and you have to pay attention to remember who is who or sometimes I just gave up and tried to follow the general outline of the story, which was interesting enough itself. There were a number of good lessons to learn, particularly that a handsome and charming man does not necessarily make the best husband, that doing what is right often brings suffering and that good people sometimes do things very, very wrong.

[Natalie Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book transported the reader back to 16th century France, introducing Jeanne D’Albret when she was a little girl. Cameo appearances of Monsieur Jean Cauvin (now known as John Calvin), Monsieur Farel, and Theodore Beza give the book context in the bigger story of the Reformation. In particular, one gains a glimpse into the part the Huguenots played and some of the prominent royal figures throughout France and Navarre, with brief references to other of the European monarchs. The writing style of this book was colorful and engaging, and felt considerably more authentic than Against the Tide, in my opinion.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! It's for the 10-14yo crowd, I'd say, but had a lot of really interesting information about French Huguenots that I didn't know. I gave it to my 11yo, and will encourage my older ones to read it--probably a bit much for my 8yo, still.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Included in the book list for the Renaissance/Reformation class I teach and got excellent reviews from most of the twenty eight students. It was chock full of accurate historical facts while still maintaining an exciting story. Will use it again in future classes.

[Elzbeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This follows the story of a young Princess Jeanne D'Albret of France and follows her life.

I love the Chosen Daughters books. They all follow girls who lived hundreds of years ago and shows how they learned, followed, grew in and spread their faith.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting... now I know more about Jeanne D'albret than I ever knew before!

[Jjfoster]

Great MS or HS read.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book thinking it would be boring but it was kind of addicting! I really liked it.

[Leila Bowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, the historical figure of Jeanne D'Albret is compelling - every young Christian woman should read about her and study the Huguenots, and learn from her example of grace and strength. There isn't much written about her, and even less that is accessible to such young ladies, so I am thankful for this book - it meets just such a need, and I would heartily recommend it as light, good, introductory reading to this figure and time period.

That said, though this is a solid piece of work, it isn't excellently written. The pacing is off - I would like to see less written about her childhood, and more about the end of her life (though I understand why the author focused more on her as a child, as she is writing to a younger audience). At times the characters seemed wooden, and the dialogue lacked life.