Lady Rosemarie is a month away from her
eighteenth birthday and her entrance into the convent.
Her parents made the Ancient Vow promising her to God,
and she is fully ready to become a sister of the
sacrament. She will continue to rule her troubled kingdom
with the help of a trusted Abbot. Her neighbor and
friend, the Noblest Knight, comes for a visit, but brings
with him news of an addendum to the Ancient Vow. If
Rosemarie falls in love and marries before her eighteenth
birthday, she will become exempt from the Vow. Two of the
Noblest Knight's men fight for her hand while the third
waits in the shadows for the time to tick down. A series
of brutal attacks lead Rosemarie and her friends to
believe perhaps the Ancient Vow should not be broken, but
Rosemarie's trust in everyone but God has already been
shattered...
Jody Hedlund's first full young adult romance
novel, AN UNCERTAIN CHOICE, has a great deal of wonderful
imagery and a fun story for its intended audience. It
fills all the most beloved tropes of medieval romances;
knights, jousting, wonderful gowns, vows, and of course
true love. The protagonist, Rosemarie, is a very fleshed-
out, sympathetic ruler. Her aversion to torture and her
generous intentions make you like her; her inner failings
and fears make you care for her. She is a very good
protagonist if not the best you could ask for in a
medieval romance novel. Her love interest is a bit on the
cliché side; Sir Derrick is a poor knight who believes
more in honor than he does in love. Their progression to
full love is hasty and driven by the time line, but
Rosemarie does address the speed and potential to be stuck
in infatuation rather than in love.
The point of view shifts from Rosemarie to
Derrick, but it is a sporadic change which adds very
little to the story except that we get some information
which Rosemarie could not give us. These things are not
necessarily that vital to the story. The switches are so
few and far between that at first I was unaware anything
had changed until I registered the different font in
which Derrick's point of view was set. I found this
confusing and disconcerting. I think point of view shifts
can bring a lot to a story, but here it just adds words.
Another critique comes in the form of the twist,
of which I cannot say much without giving away the
ending. What I can say is that it truly does come out of
nowhere. I read the book a second time and can say
without hesitation that there were no clues to the twist.
If you like twists similar to that of the Sixth Sense, it
might be good for you, but for me I was just disappointed
with the solution to this mystery which had such
excellent buildup.
I think AN UNCERTAIN CHOICE suffers most from the change
in dynamic. Jody Hedlund has a large body of work for
adult readers; this is her first full-length YA novel and
it really shows. Half the time it is too immature for
even a young audience, and the other half of the time it
deals with elements of torture and medieval devices which
seem too advanced and developed for a twelve-to-fourteen
year old mind. AN UNCERTAIN CHOICE is a fun novel, but it
is not one I would recommend for children who are not
particularly mature or knowledgeable about the relations
and torture devices of this time period. For the more
religious readers, this is a Christianity-based novel
which does not paint the most positive picture of the
Church, which is what it originally seemed to be written
for. I would say approach with an open mind, some
caution, and a great deal of patience.
Due to her parents' promise at her birth, Lady Rosemarie
has been prepared to become a nun on
the day she turns eighteen. Then, a month before her
birthday, a friend of her father's enters
the kingdom and proclaims her parents' will left a second
choice--if Rosemarie can marry before
the eve of her eighteenth year, she will be exempt from
the ancient vow.
Before long, Rosemarie is presented with the three most
handsome and brave knights in the land.
But when the competition for her heart seemingly results
in a knight playing foul, she begins to
wonder if the convent is the best place after all. If only
one of the knights--the one who
appears the most guilty--had not already captured her
heart.
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