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princesszinza's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.
Cecily Neville is my 16th great grandmother. I imagine she is the 16th great grandmother of millions. That's why I was interested in this book.
Dr. Ashdown-Hill is careful with history. I appreciate that. This book makes clear the problem of genealogy for anyone using the popular web based genealogy sites. It is so easy to copy and spread inaccurate information. This book makes clear how little actual facts are known about Cecily Neville. What is known, is laid out in an interesting easy to read fashion.
I enjoyed reading about the movements of the royal court and all the intrigue. Who would have guessed that a book about Cecile Neville would be a page turner? This story is so well written that it is!
Side note: I did take the "The Rose of Raby" moniker off my ancestry page.
Cecily Neville is my 16th great grandmother. I imagine she is the 16th great grandmother of millions. That's why I was interested in this book.
Dr. Ashdown-Hill is careful with history. I appreciate that. This book makes clear the problem of genealogy for anyone using the popular web based genealogy sites. It is so easy to copy and spread inaccurate information. This book makes clear how little actual facts are known about Cecily Neville. What is known, is laid out in an interesting easy to read fashion.
I enjoyed reading about the movements of the royal court and all the intrigue. Who would have guessed that a book about Cecile Neville would be a page turner? This story is so well written that it is!
Side note: I did take the "The Rose of Raby" moniker off my ancestry page.
caidyn's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
An interesting read on Cecily Neville. She's a little known figure and this book really brought her to the light.
jacimccon's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Pen and Sword via NetGalley.
While Cecily Neville is certainly not an obscure historical person, very little has been written to focus on her own life and the impact that it had on the course of history. This title was refreshing in that it attempted to single her out in history and focus on presenting as much we can possibly know about her. Throughout the text, Ashdown-Hill sorts through the facts as we have them and the speculative aspects of Cecily’s story. The book was extremely well researched and pieced together much of Cecily’s life and the time period that she lived in. At times, the discussion became a bit repetitive and/or read more like a research dissertation which slowed down my own reading of the text. Occasional interjections by the author regarding his own experiences or opinions felt a bit out of place in an otherwise formally presented history.
However, one of the disadvantages presenting a book on such a focused subject with limited facts and an (understandable) unwillingness of the author to guess at truth is that a number of gaps in a story that begs to be told. Ashdown-Hill’s writing and attention to detail made this an enjoyable read for a self-proclaimed history buff. I have read quite a few other works about the War of the Roses, the Plantagenets, and the Tudors, and my hope was that this book would take a much deeper dive into this era via Cecily’s narrative. Disappointingly, and by no fault of the author, her story falls a bit short of the level of detail that someone already familiar with the tale would desire, simply because there is so much about Cecily that, as Ashdown-Hill points out, we do not know. As a result, I found myself wishing that he had filled in the holes of the narrative with more details about her children, the transfer of the crown, or the time period itself (even though the book is about Cecily and not the English civil wars as a whole). Taken as a scholarly text, rather than a biography, will help readers approach this book with appreciation.
While Cecily Neville is certainly not an obscure historical person, very little has been written to focus on her own life and the impact that it had on the course of history. This title was refreshing in that it attempted to single her out in history and focus on presenting as much we can possibly know about her. Throughout the text, Ashdown-Hill sorts through the facts as we have them and the speculative aspects of Cecily’s story. The book was extremely well researched and pieced together much of Cecily’s life and the time period that she lived in. At times, the discussion became a bit repetitive and/or read more like a research dissertation which slowed down my own reading of the text. Occasional interjections by the author regarding his own experiences or opinions felt a bit out of place in an otherwise formally presented history.
However, one of the disadvantages presenting a book on such a focused subject with limited facts and an (understandable) unwillingness of the author to guess at truth is that a number of gaps in a story that begs to be told. Ashdown-Hill’s writing and attention to detail made this an enjoyable read for a self-proclaimed history buff. I have read quite a few other works about the War of the Roses, the Plantagenets, and the Tudors, and my hope was that this book would take a much deeper dive into this era via Cecily’s narrative. Disappointingly, and by no fault of the author, her story falls a bit short of the level of detail that someone already familiar with the tale would desire, simply because there is so much about Cecily that, as Ashdown-Hill points out, we do not know. As a result, I found myself wishing that he had filled in the holes of the narrative with more details about her children, the transfer of the crown, or the time period itself (even though the book is about Cecily and not the English civil wars as a whole). Taken as a scholarly text, rather than a biography, will help readers approach this book with appreciation.
kristin's review
3.0
2.5 stars
I would like to thank netgalley and Pan and Sword for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Cecily Neville seems to become almost a footnote in her own biography. Ashdown-Hill goes on unuseful and uninteresting tangents. The book can't make up its mind between being a academic and population biography.
There are some interesting points about Cecily, the chapters on her later life more interesting, as they are more focused on her.
I would like to thank netgalley and Pan and Sword for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Cecily Neville seems to become almost a footnote in her own biography. Ashdown-Hill goes on unuseful and uninteresting tangents. The book can't make up its mind between being a academic and population biography.
There are some interesting points about Cecily, the chapters on her later life more interesting, as they are more focused on her.
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