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Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas
Here is an extraordinary novel about real-life Irish chieftain Grace O Malley. From Morgan Llywelyn, bestselling author of Lion of Ireland and the Irish Century novels, comes the story of a magnificent, sixteenth-century heroine whose spirit and passion are the spirit and passion of Ireland itself.
Grania (Gaelic for Grace) is no ordinary female. And she lives in extraordinary times. For even as Grania rises as her clan's unofficial head and breadwinner and learns to love a man, she enters a lifelong struggle against the English forces of Queen Elizabeth -- her nemesis and alter ego.
Elizabeth intends to destroy Grania's piracy and shipping empire--and so subjugate Ireland once and for all. But Grania, aided by Tigernan, her faithful (and secretly adoring) lieutenant, has no choice but to fight back. The story of her life is the story of Ireland's fight for solidarity and survival--but it's also the story of Grania's growing ability to love and be strong at the same time.
Morgan Llywelyn has written a rich, historically accurate, and passionate novel of divided Ireland -- and of one brave woman who is Ireland herself.
Grania (Gaelic for Grace) is no ordinary female. And she lives in extraordinary times. For even as Grania rises as her clan's unofficial head and breadwinner and learns to love a man, she enters a lifelong struggle against the English forces of Queen Elizabeth -- her nemesis and alter ego.
Elizabeth intends to destroy Grania's piracy and shipping empire--and so subjugate Ireland once and for all. But Grania, aided by Tigernan, her faithful (and secretly adoring) lieutenant, has no choice but to fight back. The story of her life is the story of Ireland's fight for solidarity and survival--but it's also the story of Grania's growing ability to love and be strong at the same time.
Morgan Llywelyn has written a rich, historically accurate, and passionate novel of divided Ireland -- and of one brave woman who is Ireland herself.
416 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 1986
56 people are currently reading
2156 people want to read
About the author
Morgan Llywelyn
77 books996 followersMorgan Llywelyn (born 1937) is an American-born Irish author best known for her historical fantasy, historical fiction, and historical non-fiction. Her fiction has received several awards and has sold more than 40 million copies, and she herself is recipient of the 1999 Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award from Celtic Women International.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
December 9, 2015
I loved this historical fiction from Morgan Llywelyn, which tells the story of Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O'Malley), a legendary woman who lived in 16th century Ireland. She was born when Henry VIII was King Of England, and lived long enough to have a famous meeting with his daughter Queen Elizabeth when they were both 'of a certain age'.
Grania, as Llywelyn calls her, lived an unconventional life for a woman of her times. I liked her spirit, her confidence, her joy for life. She was a chieftain's daughter who captained her own ships, always ready to go trading, fishing, or raiding. The men of her clan (and others) followed her with pride. She grew up with the old Gaelic sense of honor, and understood the traditional ways of her country. But she lived to see that all change, when England began more and more to destroy Ireland and the Irish in order to conquer the country.
This was the other aspect of the book. It is not simply the story of an amazing woman. It is the story of a sad time in the history of an amazing country. Ireland functioned under different standards than did England, and that was unacceptable. The Irish were to be conquered, cowed, beaten down to nothing simply because they were Irish. But Grania never submitted. She spent her life trying to ensure an Irish future for her people and her children's children. Trying to Live And Let Live, which seems to be a concept Mankind has never properly grasped.
Grania and the other characters of this book came alive. I could feel the ship beneath my feet; see the ocean through the arrow slits of Rockfleet, Grania's beloved stronghold. I chuckled every time Grania let loose with her 'great honking laugh' that cheers everyone within hearing. (I used to work with a girl who had such a style of laughing, so it was very easy for me to hear Grania.) I suffered through the painful times, but nearly burst with pride when she wrapped herself in Gaelic nobility and stood before Queen Elizabeth as an equal.
I want to learn more about Grania so I have ordered Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace O'Malley, 1530-1603 and look forward to reading it. I also look forward to re-reading more of the Morgan Llywelyn titles I read years ago and enjoyed. I am sure they will be just as grand the second time around, as was Grania's tale.
Grania, as Llywelyn calls her, lived an unconventional life for a woman of her times. I liked her spirit, her confidence, her joy for life. She was a chieftain's daughter who captained her own ships, always ready to go trading, fishing, or raiding. The men of her clan (and others) followed her with pride. She grew up with the old Gaelic sense of honor, and understood the traditional ways of her country. But she lived to see that all change, when England began more and more to destroy Ireland and the Irish in order to conquer the country.
This was the other aspect of the book. It is not simply the story of an amazing woman. It is the story of a sad time in the history of an amazing country. Ireland functioned under different standards than did England, and that was unacceptable. The Irish were to be conquered, cowed, beaten down to nothing simply because they were Irish. But Grania never submitted. She spent her life trying to ensure an Irish future for her people and her children's children. Trying to Live And Let Live, which seems to be a concept Mankind has never properly grasped.
Grania and the other characters of this book came alive. I could feel the ship beneath my feet; see the ocean through the arrow slits of Rockfleet, Grania's beloved stronghold. I chuckled every time Grania let loose with her 'great honking laugh' that cheers everyone within hearing. (I used to work with a girl who had such a style of laughing, so it was very easy for me to hear Grania.) I suffered through the painful times, but nearly burst with pride when she wrapped herself in Gaelic nobility and stood before Queen Elizabeth as an equal.
I want to learn more about Grania so I have ordered Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace O'Malley, 1530-1603 and look forward to reading it. I also look forward to re-reading more of the Morgan Llywelyn titles I read years ago and enjoyed. I am sure they will be just as grand the second time around, as was Grania's tale.
November 21, 2020
One of the best historical novels that I have read in a while and I very much enjoyed the adventure.
A wave rolling 4.5 rating is well earned.
A wave rolling 4.5 rating is well earned.
September 10, 2007
Morgan Llywelyn is an awesome historical fiction writer and has written books taking place in Ireland from the time of the Druids through present day. Grania, or Grace O'Malley, was a she-king and pirate in the mid 1500s. As cheiftan, she ruled the entire western coast of Ireland from Co. Donegal to the city of Cork. As an Irish ruler in the Elizabethan Era of England, she was a huge rival and in a sense colleage of Elizabeth the 1st. She was widely known for her intelligence, courage and independence. A small sample incedent mentioned in the book that is indeed fact, when Grania was pregnant with her fourth child, she was serving as Captain of one of the greatest ships in her Pirate fleet. She gave birth on the ship while out at sea within hours her ship was being attacked by and English ship while she was still under the deck attending her newborn. When the midwife informed her that her crew was losing to the English, Grania went above deck herself and led the crew to victory.
July 5, 2022
Every year when I visit Maine I like to read something nice and nautical, usually about pirates, and this past weekend was no exception. I’d run out of regular pirate history books, though, so I figured it was finally time to indulge in a find I’d made in my Aunt Birdie’s book box when my dad was cleaning out her storage unit: a weeded library copy of a 1986 historical novel titled Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas, by one Morgan Llywelyn.
I expected this book to be very ‘80s and frankly I also expected it to be very bad, and I’m pleased to report that I was quite correct on the first front but not as much on the second. There’s something in the particular cadence of pseudo-old-timey writing and the particular brand of essentialist-but-thinks-its-doing-a-feminism gender politics that reminds me a lot of The Mists of Avalon, but I really can’t figure out a way to describe it other than “it’s what women who were interested in medieval shit wrote like in the ‘80s,” and if you know what I’m talking about then you know what I’m talking about.
For all that it is full of hilarious overwriting and cheesy sex scenes, I ended up getting very sucked into the book! It seems pretty well-researched, though obviously much license is taken for the sake of writing a narratively and thematically coherent swashbuckler. I am also not at all bored by things that apparently bore a lot of other readers, like all the complicated webs of relationships and rivalries that characterize old Gaelic clan life. It’s got exciting naval battles and petty internecine power struggles and a couple of really hateable villains (there’s a terrible priest, who is probably fictional, and Sir Richard Bingham, who sadly is not). The characterization of this version of Grace O’Malley is pretty well-done; she does some character growth over her long life but is a recognizably strong personality throughout. It’s not a fantasy book but there’s some mysticism around the old religion that peeps through. Overall, it was an effective mix of things to mightily entertain me specifically.
Originally posted at Ta Grainne Mhaol ag teacht thar saile.
I expected this book to be very ‘80s and frankly I also expected it to be very bad, and I’m pleased to report that I was quite correct on the first front but not as much on the second. There’s something in the particular cadence of pseudo-old-timey writing and the particular brand of essentialist-but-thinks-its-doing-a-feminism gender politics that reminds me a lot of The Mists of Avalon, but I really can’t figure out a way to describe it other than “it’s what women who were interested in medieval shit wrote like in the ‘80s,” and if you know what I’m talking about then you know what I’m talking about.
For all that it is full of hilarious overwriting and cheesy sex scenes, I ended up getting very sucked into the book! It seems pretty well-researched, though obviously much license is taken for the sake of writing a narratively and thematically coherent swashbuckler. I am also not at all bored by things that apparently bore a lot of other readers, like all the complicated webs of relationships and rivalries that characterize old Gaelic clan life. It’s got exciting naval battles and petty internecine power struggles and a couple of really hateable villains (there’s a terrible priest, who is probably fictional, and Sir Richard Bingham, who sadly is not). The characterization of this version of Grace O’Malley is pretty well-done; she does some character growth over her long life but is a recognizably strong personality throughout. It’s not a fantasy book but there’s some mysticism around the old religion that peeps through. Overall, it was an effective mix of things to mightily entertain me specifically.
Originally posted at Ta Grainne Mhaol ag teacht thar saile.
October 3, 2009
I must say, of the novels I have read about real female pirates, I am least impressed with this one. Having just completed the novel, I cannot decide if I find the heroine to be foolish and cocky, or brave and amazing. On one hand, she grabs life by the horns so to speak and shows the men of the times that women are worthy adversaries indeed. On the other hand, a lot of her decisions hurt other people. Waging wars and looting ships may have helped her select few, but what of others? This novel was also written more like a biography (except the sex scenes and tidbits of conversation here and there). I had to skip a page and half every now and then as I grew weary of reading who was from what clan and what had become of so and so, some of which was irrelevant to the story line. The best part of the book was when she finally had a face to face meeting with Elizabeth Tudor, and it took the entire book to finally reach it.
March 22, 2015
How good was this book? Well, I was up at 4:30 am to finish it. Llewellyn gave me many inspiring quotes and insights on the Irish, Grania and a little of myself.
Black Hugh O'Donnell: "We were all raised to be kings; we are a race of chieftains and warriors, and not followers." "... but the sun will never rise on the day when I myself will grant an O Neill the right to be the only king in Ireland." Of which Grania thinks to herself that there is the trouble for the Irish.
This novel horribly explains the savagery of Richard Bingham, not just an enemy of Ireland, but "a curse." I was brought to tears by the desire of some to wipe out the Irish by every means, including bloody slaughter of villages, starvation and the removal of all resources available for survival. And yet the Irish spirit survives after all.
Full of spirit, love of the sea and independence, Grania, Grace O'Malley, was, indeed, an immensely important part of Ireland's history. Loved it!
Black Hugh O'Donnell: "We were all raised to be kings; we are a race of chieftains and warriors, and not followers." "... but the sun will never rise on the day when I myself will grant an O Neill the right to be the only king in Ireland." Of which Grania thinks to herself that there is the trouble for the Irish.
This novel horribly explains the savagery of Richard Bingham, not just an enemy of Ireland, but "a curse." I was brought to tears by the desire of some to wipe out the Irish by every means, including bloody slaughter of villages, starvation and the removal of all resources available for survival. And yet the Irish spirit survives after all.
Full of spirit, love of the sea and independence, Grania, Grace O'Malley, was, indeed, an immensely important part of Ireland's history. Loved it!
September 9, 2021
I learned about Grace O'Malley from this novel and I'm so, so happy I did. Grace is an amazing historical figure and I wish more people knew about her. If you're interested in badass female pirates, please read this book!
March 29, 2017
I can't remember when I first heard about Grace O'Malley, but I first learned about her last year when my dad recommended I check out Grace, a new pub opening in New York's East Side. I took off to Wikipedia and a short but glorious flurry of research. Some time later, I saw this book at Free Book Day, picked it up, and realized I'd found a gem from my newest favorite imprint.
In case you can't tell, I'm totally biased. I love reading about golden age piracy, Elizabethan-Era history, strong women, lots of characters, and political challenges, so there was very little chance of me not liking this book. I'm happy to say that it lived up to my expectations.
I loved how Grania was set up against Queen Elizabeth throughout the book, how she built up a kind of parasocial relationship with the woman who was so like her and yet so alien. It was also refreshing to read Elizabeth from a less favorable vantage than I usually do--I'm inclined to hero worship, so it was good to have some solid reminders that the Spanish weren't the only ones who saw her as an enemy.
Ireland was richly described, the remnants of the brehon laws and customs well explained. The anthropologist in me delighted in the cultural explorations and clashes even as the pacifist in my cringed at the sheer destruction done to each other.
One of the strengths of this book could easily have been its weakness: it stretches across most of Grania's life, certainly all of her adult life. After one initial vivid scene on the high seas, much of the story is somewhat removed, with only a few intense battle scenes and encounters going into blow-by-blow detail. But it worked--much as I might want to read about those, I'm happy to look for them in another book. The story of Grania's ups and downs is long and varied and Llywelyn encompassed a great deal of it. It can be a challenge to make politics so engaging.
And the climactic scene when queen meets chieftain? I wanted it to go on and on!
One slightly odd thing was that I always felt a bit detached from the timeline. Dates were bandied about but I didn't always feel anchored in them. Much more time passed than I noticed, so that Grania seemed to age abruptly every now and then. This is probably just a quirk of my own, though.
My only great complaint about this book is that all but the last section are named for Grania's romantic interests. The whole story was about being free, having no equals, doing what she wanted to do, but it was trapped in the cage of her sexual exploits. Not that they weren't important, but...so were other things. The sections might have been named for the women in her life (her mother, Evleen, her daughter), for people important to her if not always romantically involved (her father, Evleen, Rauri Oge, a son), for the main places she lived or was politically involved with. It seems a shame that a woman who defied convention is, in this story, defined by who she was sleeping with (until she is too old to be considered desirable by most men, at which point a section is finally named for someone else).
Grania herself was so well done--brave to the point of foolishness, impulsive, learning from hard experience, never beaten down despite so much difficulty. Many of the characters were, even the ones who only stayed around a short while.
So yes, unsurprisingly I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction, piracy, and the Elizabethan era.
No quotes this time because there were a lot of good lines and my cat is sitting on my lap, preventing me from holding a book open and typing at the same time. You'll just have to read this one for yourself. 8-)
In case you can't tell, I'm totally biased. I love reading about golden age piracy, Elizabethan-Era history, strong women, lots of characters, and political challenges, so there was very little chance of me not liking this book. I'm happy to say that it lived up to my expectations.
I loved how Grania was set up against Queen Elizabeth throughout the book, how she built up a kind of parasocial relationship with the woman who was so like her and yet so alien. It was also refreshing to read Elizabeth from a less favorable vantage than I usually do--I'm inclined to hero worship, so it was good to have some solid reminders that the Spanish weren't the only ones who saw her as an enemy.
Ireland was richly described, the remnants of the brehon laws and customs well explained. The anthropologist in me delighted in the cultural explorations and clashes even as the pacifist in my cringed at the sheer destruction done to each other.
One of the strengths of this book could easily have been its weakness: it stretches across most of Grania's life, certainly all of her adult life. After one initial vivid scene on the high seas, much of the story is somewhat removed, with only a few intense battle scenes and encounters going into blow-by-blow detail. But it worked--much as I might want to read about those, I'm happy to look for them in another book. The story of Grania's ups and downs is long and varied and Llywelyn encompassed a great deal of it. It can be a challenge to make politics so engaging.
And the climactic scene when queen meets chieftain? I wanted it to go on and on!
One slightly odd thing was that I always felt a bit detached from the timeline. Dates were bandied about but I didn't always feel anchored in them. Much more time passed than I noticed, so that Grania seemed to age abruptly every now and then. This is probably just a quirk of my own, though.
My only great complaint about this book is that all but the last section are named for Grania's romantic interests. The whole story was about being free, having no equals, doing what she wanted to do, but it was trapped in the cage of her sexual exploits. Not that they weren't important, but...so were other things. The sections might have been named for the women in her life (her mother, Evleen, her daughter), for people important to her if not always romantically involved (her father, Evleen, Rauri Oge, a son), for the main places she lived or was politically involved with. It seems a shame that a woman who defied convention is, in this story, defined by who she was sleeping with (until she is too old to be considered desirable by most men, at which point a section is finally named for someone else).
Grania herself was so well done--brave to the point of foolishness, impulsive, learning from hard experience, never beaten down despite so much difficulty. Many of the characters were, even the ones who only stayed around a short while.
So yes, unsurprisingly I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction, piracy, and the Elizabethan era.
No quotes this time because there were a lot of good lines and my cat is sitting on my lap, preventing me from holding a book open and typing at the same time. You'll just have to read this one for yourself. 8-)
March 18, 2015
I have to say that I did not have very high expectations for this book when I first found it. Cause although I like historical fiction books, I've never been real big on pirate stories. And also cause I'd never really read a book published in my birth year(read it as part of a challenge for this year). But truly, other than a few hiccups in the author's flowery language at times, this story really blew my socks off. Grace O'Malley definitely was one hell of a chick in her heyday and I came out really respecting her on the one hand, empathizing with her during her times of vulnerability, and wanting to smack her a few times when she didn't try with her kids as much as she did to make her trading and piracy biz work. Also the only thing that really disappointed me with this book was the ending. I mean she did so many courageous things and had so many around her throughout life...but in the end, well I'll just say she got the last laugh.
March 16, 2012
I remembered really liking Llywelyn's Irish history novels, so this was a real disappointment. Though I'm sure Grania is a really interesting person, there was something about the writing that didn't make me CARE about her. When bad things happened to characters, I just thought 'Hm, okay then' and moved on. Grania's few sexual exploits proved interesting enough to actually read through, but I mostly skimmed this and actually found myself happier that it was OVER so I could move on to something else than anything. I gave it 2 stars because the only books I give one star on here are the ones that are so incredibly bad that I rage-and-disappointment quit them before I finish reading...but that's about it. I'm sure that if I was in a place with more ready access to books where not finishing one didn't feel like a waste...I might have quit. 1 and a half stars, if anything. So disappointing.
September 6, 2013
Fascinating story about a fascinating woman. I sought out a book about "Grace O'Malley" after reading a scene in Elizabeth I by Margaret George where the two female leaders met.
Llywelyn did a good job blending the legends and historical information into a good story that helped you understand possible motives, feelings and thoughts behind the events that happened, creating a fairly believable character.
Llywelyn did a good job blending the legends and historical information into a good story that helped you understand possible motives, feelings and thoughts behind the events that happened, creating a fairly believable character.
September 28, 2024
Amazing! A must read! Originally had the privilege of reading it in 1995 while traveling the west coast of Ireland. I was spellbound and enchanted, walking in Grace O'Malley's footsteps!
January 1, 2023
I first read this book over a decade ago. Even though it has been a long time since I was last in sixteenth century Ireland, this book left an impression on me. Grania's bravado, her cunning, and her passion have lingered. Unable to banish them, I finally revisited this book, and I remembered why this book made such a big impact with me.
Llywelyn follows the story of Grania's life. For the most part, it happens in chronological order, starting from near the end of her first marriage to Donal O'Flaherty, but there are some dips into the past, but this only enhances the story and the characters, never disrupting the flow. As any real person is, Grania was a complex figure. Sure, she was intelligent, brave, charismatic, and daring. But she was also brash, vindictive, quick to anger, and unforgiving. A lot of her decisions are made for the good of her people, but she sometimes acts in ways that is detrimental to them. She loves her children, but she has a hard time showing it because they are so different from her yet so similar. She's not always likable or even relatable, but you can't help but love and admire her all the same. She lived in a rough time and was given a tough time of it. She did her best, even if it wasn't the best, but can any of us say that? Grania is human, for all her achievements, and that makes her fascinating to read about.
Overall, Grania just wants to be loved and accepted for who she is, which is all any of us really want. This extends from her father, who holds up her deceased mother as the ideal of womanhood, to her various lovers and husbands. Unfortunately, most of them only see a side of her, and like or hate her accordingly. Only Tigernan, a childhood friend who has stood by her side like a lovesick puppy, supports her almost unconditionally. He yearns for her throughout the book, but he never crosses over into "nice guy" territory, as it's clear he respects Grania and never wants to change her. If anything, he wants her to be the best that she can be. Their relationship is touching and rewarding through all of its iterations, and through it, readers witness Grania's vulnerabilities.
More towards the end, Llywelyn's prose takes on a more nonfiction or biographical tone, as she starts listing dates and summarizing events in the lead up to Grania's encounter with Queen Elizabeth I. This didn't bother me because I felt Grania's personality still shone through, coloring the pages with adventure and danger. There's never a dull moment.
Honestly, this book has everything: romance, high adventure, intrigue, action, daily life, and just a good dose of history. There's something in it for everyone. The only reason I think some people might not like this is because there are many scenes of sex in varying degrees of graphic-ness. That's not some people's cup of tea. Otherwise, it's a book about Ireland and the people who embodied its spirit during one of its most difficult eras. Thanks to them and Llywelyn, that spirit has endured to today.
Llywelyn follows the story of Grania's life. For the most part, it happens in chronological order, starting from near the end of her first marriage to Donal O'Flaherty, but there are some dips into the past, but this only enhances the story and the characters, never disrupting the flow. As any real person is, Grania was a complex figure. Sure, she was intelligent, brave, charismatic, and daring. But she was also brash, vindictive, quick to anger, and unforgiving. A lot of her decisions are made for the good of her people, but she sometimes acts in ways that is detrimental to them. She loves her children, but she has a hard time showing it because they are so different from her yet so similar. She's not always likable or even relatable, but you can't help but love and admire her all the same. She lived in a rough time and was given a tough time of it. She did her best, even if it wasn't the best, but can any of us say that? Grania is human, for all her achievements, and that makes her fascinating to read about.
Overall, Grania just wants to be loved and accepted for who she is, which is all any of us really want. This extends from her father, who holds up her deceased mother as the ideal of womanhood, to her various lovers and husbands. Unfortunately, most of them only see a side of her, and like or hate her accordingly. Only Tigernan, a childhood friend who has stood by her side like a lovesick puppy, supports her almost unconditionally. He yearns for her throughout the book, but he never crosses over into "nice guy" territory, as it's clear he respects Grania and never wants to change her. If anything, he wants her to be the best that she can be. Their relationship is touching and rewarding through all of its iterations, and through it, readers witness Grania's vulnerabilities.
More towards the end, Llywelyn's prose takes on a more nonfiction or biographical tone, as she starts listing dates and summarizing events in the lead up to Grania's encounter with Queen Elizabeth I. This didn't bother me because I felt Grania's personality still shone through, coloring the pages with adventure and danger. There's never a dull moment.
Honestly, this book has everything: romance, high adventure, intrigue, action, daily life, and just a good dose of history. There's something in it for everyone. The only reason I think some people might not like this is because there are many scenes of sex in varying degrees of graphic-ness. That's not some people's cup of tea. Otherwise, it's a book about Ireland and the people who embodied its spirit during one of its most difficult eras. Thanks to them and Llywelyn, that spirit has endured to today.
July 10, 2017
As someone innately drawn to the story of Mary Queen of Scots, I fully enjoyed this Irish heroine's tale that mirrored the time during which Mary reigned. I know even less of Elizabeth, but learning more and more about strong women of history, while it was very much a man's world, is as insightful as Llywelyn's words were captivating. I was expecting this to be a sea-faring adventure and was surprised - but not disappointed - that most of the pirating and sailing descriptions were kept to a minimum. I enjoyed that Llywelyn focused on the harsh landscape, political, and religious influences of the late 1500s and the carefully developed contrast between Gace and Elizabeth. A wonderfully historical read that should be in everyone's personal library.
September 25, 2011
I have always loved this author's books. She ensnares you quickly into the plot, her characters are bright, bold, & heroic. Grania is no disappointment. Grace O'Malley is a legendary figure in Ireland, she may be a pirate, but she fights for her independence, & for that of her country & her people against England & Queen Elizabeth. Full of action & derring do, Grace also learns what it is to love as well as fight, & the story of her personal growth along with her people's growth is a captivating one.
February 18, 2008
This was a disappointing epic about an incredibly interesting historical character. I realize that the balance of historical recitation with personal perspective is difficult to balance in historical fiction but if that's your genre...I believe you can do a much better job than Llewelyn managed. The most detailed and interesting parts of Grania's personal life was her sexual experiences, and while fascinating, hardly enough to carry a novel.
August 19, 2009
This is about an Irish woman in Elizabethan times who went against tradition to help her people. Reminded me of Philippa Gregory books. For the most part it was entertaining but it was slow at times and I found myself getting frustrated by some of Grania's actions (or inactions). And as with Gregory's books, the main character does a lot of similar thinking which is probably realistic but it's repetitive to read.
June 16, 2011
I always enjoy Morgan Llywelyn's writing. Grania was an engaging and fascinating read. However, it didn't get my blood pumping in the same way as her other books always have. Perhaps it was the British and the inevitable fact of their intrusion into Ireland. Perhaps the setting was just too modern for my taste. Nevertheless, I believe Llywelyn did great justice to the story, and commend the book.
March 2, 2015
As a novel read for pure entertainment this was a difficult read. Once you get into the rhythm of the writing, it is better. Knowing th history and difficulties of the time, the story makes it easy to follow the struggle. Not sure how much of the story was drawn from factual information and how much was creatively put together. It was interesting. Not exactly a love story but not quite a purely adventurous tale.
January 25, 2022
HF story about woman who roamed the Irish Seas during the 17th century, as a pirate and leader of a crew of men. The story is taken from Irish Mythology.
It was a fun read. In this re-telling, Grania is portrayed as a strong, fearless woman. A little research on the myth told me in the original she is pictured as shallow and neurotic. Makes me glad I read this story first-LoL,
If you like adventure and women portrayed in strong roles you may enjoy this one
It was a fun read. In this re-telling, Grania is portrayed as a strong, fearless woman. A little research on the myth told me in the original she is pictured as shallow and neurotic. Makes me glad I read this story first-LoL,
If you like adventure and women portrayed in strong roles you may enjoy this one
March 7, 2008
Morgan Llywellyn once again brings to life a wonderful Irish heroine who can be at once admired! The characters just jump to life and hold your interest from page one! I would reccomend this book to anyone who wants to learn a bit of Irish history, wants to be swept away into a land of old traditions, honor and swashbuckling fun, or just wants a good read! Happy reading!
February 4, 2016
As much as this book is about Grace O Malley, it's a book about a sea-faring way of life and a story of Irish and English political maneuvering during the 16th century. Grania is a fascinating historical figure (one of my ancestors, I might add) and while the writing tended to be melodramatic and racy for me, Llywelyn has painted a bright portrait of a remarkable and resourceful woman
March 1, 2014
A riveting tale about a woman who challenged pretty much anything and anyone, including Elizabeth Tudor. Still, it felt as if I never really managed to get into her head; a certain distance did remain in place throughout.
April 25, 2017
The book was okay. I didn't hate it but I didn't totally love it. When you read the synopsis of the book you are lead to believe that there would be more to her relationship with Queen Elizabeth. I feel there was something missing from the story. Like I said however I did not hate the story.
November 7, 2015
Finished this on 10/27. It took me a really long time to read it - it's a very large book. Good, but Grania was kind of annoying at times. Also, I think Llywelyn overemphasized the relationship between Grania and Queen Elizabeth a bit. But overall a fun read.
Want to read
November 18, 2011Does any one know if Leywelyn's Pirate Queen is a follow up to Grania or reissue of this title?
July 12, 2017
This is a historical novel about an Irish piratewoman/chieftain. Subtitle: She-King of the Irish Seas. Bought at a church yard sale or something. And really quite entertaining!
May 17, 2022
Gráinne Ni Mháille--Grania--Grace O'Malley. Contemporary to Elizabeth I, she attempted to preserve a small part of Ireland from English expansion. A chieftain's daughter, she always loved the sea--and men willingly followed her in both trade and piracy. Through marriages, lovers, children, and prison--she fought to survive. To do things her own way. She even confronted Elizabeth, she-king to she-king. Politically savvy as well, if impulsive. Like the sea eagle she admired, none could tame her or force her will.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2023
An interesting story of the fabled Grace O'Malley, ships captain, merchant seaman and privateer. Takes place during the time when Britain first threw the cloak of subjugation over the Irish during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor.
Personally, it keep me reading, but not one of my favorites of Ms. Llywelyn.
Personally, it keep me reading, but not one of my favorites of Ms. Llywelyn.
March 15, 2024
7/10 It's entertaining and well written, but it could have been a lot more. The book focuses in great detail on Grania's early days, and then zooms out and speeds up leaving several conflicts and great battles with little description. The pace is not well managed. The book does carry you. Unfortunately the most interesting stories are condensed in the last 20% of the book.
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