I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Interesting story. If you are into medieval novels this is perfect for you.

I had never heard of this royal woman before. However, she seemed to be a very powerful and influential woman. The story well-paced and the setting seemed to come alive. It is clear the author did her research. I recommend this for fans of Melanie Karsak, Jayne Stone, and G. Lawrence!

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this book about a fascinating woman I had never heard of but intend to read much more about.

Hard pass.
Some historical parts were confusing, and suddenly the change of names? Edward became Edmund. The book was so much of letters i think 80-90% was basically letters. It was very tiredsome.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. This book was a little confusing but I enjoyed it. I like history. Not much was known about Lady Estrid so that was refreshing.

I love historical fiction and this book fit all the things I love in this genre. Strong women, foreign countries and relatable characters- Lady Estrid has it all. Very well written and researched. I have no hesitation in recommending this book. 13th century Denmark is detailed perfectly here, I am reminded of Music and Silence by Rose Tremain, no higher praise.

I was so interested in reading this book about the Danish Kings’ daughter in medieval Denmark. Lady Estrid proved to be an interesting woman. I of course, understand, that her daily life would be factionalized as so little is known about this period. I did find myself confused at times, with all the characters, real and imagined, the author found necessary for the story. There was not a lot of action, as most of the book read like daily diary entries in Lady Estrid’s life. I enjoyed the book, to an extent, but I do wish there had been a little more day to day interactions, instead of what felt like recounting. I will give this author another read, because I feel like M. J. Porter, grew in writing as the story progressed. I was given a copy of this book from Net Galley for my honest review.

M. J. Porter has done a masterful job of bringing Lady Estrid to life. Very little is known about Lady Estrid since she is rarely mentioned except in genealogical lists. She was a queen in 11th century Denmark, with ties to the royal houses of England, Norway, and Sweden.

Since so little is known about Lady Estrid, the author has created a fictional character imagining the possible life she might have lived. I would recommend this title to anyone who loves medieval historical fiction. I would also recommend that readers expecting a nonfiction historical recounting avoid this title, as they will likely be disappointed.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

#LadyEstrid#NetGalley

This book was a historical novel that focused on Lady Estrid, a member of the Danish royalty. It begins with the death of her father and goes on to encompass the ruling timeframes for her brothers, one of her sons, and other family members. The correspondence between Lady Estrid and many members of her family helps enhance and relay the telling of this time in history. It is an interesting read, especially for anyone who enjoys a good historical novel. I, personally, especially appreciated learning more about the ruling families that were in power during the 11th Century. (I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.)

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for an early review copy!

I’m a historical fiction fan to the max addict and Lady Estrid satisfied that craving to the max! Set in 11th century Denmark, Lady Estrid is a bright young woman, daughter of the king, and royal pawn to be used as he sees fit. Initially sent off to Russia to cement an alliance, she returns to Denmark upon the untimely (depending on your point of view!) death of her husband. Although daughters can’t rule, they can influence, and Lady Estrid is the story of a woman whose behind the scenes advice and influence saves kings and countries, including England and Denmark. While Lady Estrid is a real person, there is not much information about her, and M J Porter has done an amazing job of creating an inspiring, engaging person that I’d like to believe represents the real Lady Estrid. What a great story!

Lady Estrada was the daughter of King Swein of Denmark in the Eleventh Century. She was an important member of the House of Gorm. This may be an historical novel but it is in no way stuffy. Yes it is full of historical events and wars for Denmark, England and Norway. But more than that it’s full of adventure, love, life and death. A brilliant read, enjoy.

Lady Estrid, is the daughter of the King of Denmark in the 11th Century where you have the King of England not only fighting to keep England from Denmark you have them being invaded by the Vikings. Estrid tells the story of her life as daughter of the King of Denmark,her brothers who want to rule and all the others. At the beginning M.J.Porter tries to give you a sense of who some of these characters are,but they're so many but as you read,don't give up,they will all start to make sense on who is who. The story is told by Lady Estrid 's letters which I liked, it made me see what was going on better. Follow Lady Estrid's life as it unfolds before you and what happened in this time in history of Denmark,Norway,Sweden and England. This is a very well laid out historical fiction story has all you need to see what happens when you have greed,love hate and what you will go through to rule a country. If your not familiar with this time in history,you will be when you finish. I am fortunate enough to know some of this history so it made sense to me,some of it but not of Denmark 's history but England's history in this period. It's a very well written story of Lady Estrid's life and what happens through her eyes and letters.If you enjoy history and stories of the characters that played a part of these countries history,you will find this book not only entertaining but you will learn history in the 11th Century.. Received from Net Gallery.. This is a must read it you are interested in history ,if not,you will still find the story enchanting of a woman that wanted to rule but was not allowed!!

This book held promise from the beginning. It highlights a lesser known historical figure in a time and setting that don't get much attention in modern publications. Estrid was not a woman who left behind a treasure trove of historical records so M.J. Porter deserves applause for writing about her. Porter did a good job at creating some semblance of a character that readers can relate to in some fashion in Estrid. She does also broadly outline some of the history that surrounded Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and even England in the 11th century. While Estrid's family spanned multiple countries and therefore caused angst in the areas of succession of those countries, I don't feel as if all of those characters were needed to tell this story. The use of so many characters seemed to break up the rhythm of the plot in many areas. There were also many times where the story jarringly jumped from one setting and time to another. Smoothing out those transitions could have made for more enjoyable reading. Despite some of the negatives, it was an interesting read.

I was really excited about this book when I first got it, as it was a time period and country I didn't know much about. However, it was difficult to connect to anything in this book. There wasn't a lot happening, and we spent too much time reading letters and hearing Estrid's repetitive thoughts.

Lady Estrid is a fictitious telling of Estrid Sweinsdotter’s life told in the first person, and includes a lot of letters, which I felt added a level of depth to the story. I was intrigued by this book because although I love history, I don’t know a lot about Medieval European history. I have watched “The Last Kingdom” and “The Vikings” and Lady Estrid’s story picks up about a hundred or so years later. The Danes are now Christian but still trying to rule England.

What was disappointing was that there was no action in this book. It read more like journal entries interspersed with letters, which seemed oddly familiar and having too much information for messages that weren’t secure at the time, but I let that slide just trying to enjoy the story.

Whenever I read books like this, if I don’t know anything about the person I will do some research, so now I’ve learned a bit of history about Estrid, her sons and Denmark of that time, so I’m better for reading it. I did enjoy the story, I wish it would have had more action. And although the author did mention it in the introduction, I still became confused at the cast of characters. Between their last names being their mother or father’s names, people often named their children after their fathers or their Kings so there were a lot of Sweins and Haralds. Hopefully the physical copy has a genealogical chart in it.

Overall I enjoyed the story. It is historical fiction, so I’m not terribly upset with the author taking some license with history, plus so little is actually known about Estrid, it’s interesting to wonder.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

THIS DEFINITELY DIDN'T WORK FOR ME...

I was really excited about this book, because it's so rare to find historical fiction novels written about Denmark, my country. So I was really looking forward to this. Sadly, I was very disappointed and actually stopped reading at 63%. Life's just too short for books like this in my opinion.

👎 What I Disliked 👎

Confusing: As a historian, I care a lot about historical accuracy. And I care a lot about telling history in a straight forward and informative manner. This books did not live up to my expectations. One chapter actually chronicled 3 years, but made it seem like it all happened in a week. That really confused me, because I knew, the right time frame. Others might not know, though, which gives them an entirely wrong impression of the events. That's a thing I cannot forgive.

Even more confusing: Sadly, the historical accuracy was not the only confusing aspect of this book. It seemed that Porter, the author, was also confused... because, several times, Porter referred to Edward the Confessor as Edmund. Two totally different names, which creates a lot of confusion, as there were also a couple of Edmunds active around this time!

Letters: I don't even know how to start... This book.... Contained A LOT of letters. Like, it should really just have been an epistolary novel. Several chapters were 95% letters. No actual action. And Lady Estrid was nothing more than a spectator in this story. Also, as a medieval historian, the historical accuracy of these letters appalled me. It was obvious, that Porter had given no thought as to the formula for medieval letters. Because none of these letters would ever have been written in the Middle Ages. Medieval letters followed a strict formula and they were never private. Royals never wrote or read their own letters. And they never addressed or signed as casually as in this book. And they never had the kind of content, that these letters had. There's so much more wrong with these letters, but I won't bore you with it anymore.

A member of the ruling House of Gorm, Estrid might not be eligible to rule, as her older two brothers, but her worth is in more than her ability to marry and provide heirs for a husband, for her loyalty is beyond question.

With a family as divided and powerful as hers, stretching from England to Norway to the land of the Svear, she must do all she can to ensure Denmark remains under the control of her father’s descendants, no matter the raging seas and boiling ambition that threatens to imperil all.

Lady Estrid by M J Porter, is one of those historical books that shows why someone such as me who likes history, explains why I read and enjoy historical fiction.

Because it takes a period of history, brings it to the fore shows what people did, but with a writer's skill goes into explaining why that person may have done what they did, in a way historical non-fiction may not.

The story is told through the Eyes of Lady Estrid herself, both in what she is thinking and her asctions, as well as letters and messages she receives. This method of the story not only gives the reader an understanding of what is happening at the time.

The letters allow you the reader to see both what information the lead character has to work with and some historical context to what is happening in the world at the time.

One of the main difficulties in reading the book is the names of all the people involved and how they are so different to a modern english reader, with names such as Ethelred, Elfigfu, Athelstan, all names from the English royal family at the time.

However this is not the fault of the writer and once you get into the story the names start falling into place, in addition to this for anyone who has studied the causes of the Norman invasion of 1066, as the book goes on you meet more names of the people you have read about in the history books, for example Emma of Normandy, Edward the Confessor.

Once you work out who everyone is and how they are interconnected, this is a great work of historical fiction, to read, with all the intrigue of the time in how the royal families of Northern Europe were so interconnected at the time. As well as examining how the female members of Royal families were used as political pawns and yet could carve a life for themselves.

Who should read Lady Estrid? The best answer for this would be anyone, who reads historical fiction outside of World War II, in addition to those who enjoy political fiction, like the House of Cards etc. In addition, having just Read Ken Follets prequel to the Kingsbridge Series The Evening and the Morning (which you can read my review here), this novel covers the period if English History just after that book is set.

All the above means that M J Porters Lady Estrid is a book you should read.

i really enjoyed getting to know Lady Estrid, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the time period. I look forward to more from the author.

A historical novel that is filled with twists and turns that I had a hard time keeping up with who was who. I had to write out a cheat sheet so I didn’t have to keep going back and forth to see who was who. I appreciate the time and effort the author took in the research of putting this book together!

I loved the plot and intrigue and the characters, but I think with so many people in the book it became confusing for me to follow at times and I lost what the author was trying to convey. Estrid is indeed a mystery , but the author brought her to life in the book and I loved her strength and growth. I could see her growing, but at times she got lost in the writing style.

I’m sure that others will love this style, but I did enjoy the historical facts I learned.

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.