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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Not my favorite Philippa Gregory by any means but that may have to do with the specific queen in this one.
An interesting spin on Katherine & Henry (not to mention Arthur.) Not sure I buy it, but I'll go with it for the sake of fiction.
I read ¼ of the book. The characters were either flat or irritating.
I won this book from Off The Shelf on Facebook. This is only my second Philippa Gregory book and I really enjoy her writing. She takes real people and writes sometimes real and sometimes fictional stories about them. This is about King Henry VIII's first wife, Katherine. I do not know how much was real but I felt so sad for Katherine so many times. She marries Prince Arthur but after his death she is promised to Prince Harry, who becomes King Henry VIII. Unfortunately for her, Harry is still too young to marry so she has to wait and wait and wait. "Those years turned. I grew older. I waited. I was constant. It was all I could be."
This line really got to me "I don't know why, but if my earthly father can forget me, and forget that I was his favorite child, as he has done, then I suppose my Heavenly Father can forget me too." Heartbreaking. She was so lonely.
This line really got to me "I don't know why, but if my earthly father can forget me, and forget that I was his favorite child, as he has done, then I suppose my Heavenly Father can forget me too." Heartbreaking. She was so lonely.
Interesting story, but the thoughts in the princess head go on and on and on and gets a bit boring a tedious to read.
I feel a compulsion to read every book that this author wrote about the Tudors.
informative
tense
fast-paced
This was my first taste of Gregory's Tudor Court series. Although it is not technically the first book in the series, I have decided to read them chronologically. This one follows Catalina, Princess of Spain who was betrothed to the Prince of England and Wales basically since birth. The story chronicles the hard life she had, and later introduces us to the court of the notorious Henry VIII. I was slightly confused with the ending, because I personally know next to nothing about Katherine of Argon, Queen of England. But I'm sure the pieces will be fully put together when I read The Other Boleyn Girl as that is technically the first book in the series.
I liked this book. Found it really enjoyable. It isn't my favourite Philippa Gregory book so far, but I still really liked it. I knew almost nothing about Katherine of Argon so it was pretty interesting to learn about her life. I've heard some people complain about the narrator in the story, saying the main character is really annoying. I didn't find that. She had her flaws, of course, but she wasn't nearly as annoying as Margaret Beaufort in The Red Queen!
I liked this book. Found it really enjoyable. It isn't my favourite Philippa Gregory book so far, but I still really liked it. I knew almost nothing about Katherine of Argon so it was pretty interesting to learn about her life. I've heard some people complain about the narrator in the story, saying the main character is really annoying. I didn't find that. She had her flaws, of course, but she wasn't nearly as annoying as Margaret Beaufort in The Red Queen!
Historical inaccuracies aside this was a pretty entertaining read. The story centers on Katherine of Aragon and her move from her native Spain to marry Prince Arthur of Wales to cement ties between England and her home country.
Katherine is easy enough to engage in although Gregory has a habit of switching from a third person to a first view point the later done in with italics that made reading the story a bit clunky.
Other than that, this is a pretty light read and if you’re not too bothered with the idea of two fifteen years old who could barely speak the same language being so deeply and passionately caught up in the ‘true love’ stereotype give this one a go.
Katherine is easy enough to engage in although Gregory has a habit of switching from a third person to a first view point the later done in with italics that made reading the story a bit clunky.
Other than that, this is a pretty light read and if you’re not too bothered with the idea of two fifteen years old who could barely speak the same language being so deeply and passionately caught up in the ‘true love’ stereotype give this one a go.
I've liked all Philippa Gregory's books so far. This one is far less showy than The Other Boleyn Girl but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it because I did. I thought it was interesting to read the POV that there was love between Arthur and Katherine and that the non-consummation business was a lie (which, let's face it, it probably was) and I liked the narrative. I don't have anything bad to say about it really.