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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Even though I'm not a fan of the style of this book - part 3rd person, part 1st person in italics, I did enjoy the story, and will definitely read the next book in the series.
This book is on the rising senior, CP English IV list, so I felt that I had to read it.
The two choices for the CP students students are this book OR Grendel...and I don't know which is worse. It does make Katherine of Aragon seem like a feistier queen than most account I have read, but Henry is really a wimp. I really did not like it.
However, I do want to read more about the Moors in Spain, during the 700 years before 1492. What an amazing culture. I want to travel to Andalusia and Grenada, too!
The two choices for the CP students students are this book OR Grendel...and I don't know which is worse. It does make Katherine of Aragon seem like a feistier queen than most account I have read, but Henry is really a wimp. I really did not like it.
However, I do want to read more about the Moors in Spain, during the 700 years before 1492. What an amazing culture. I want to travel to Andalusia and Grenada, too!
4.25/5 It took me a while to get into this one (maybe because the writing style felt different to the other novels in the series) but I think this is one of my top 2 so far in the series!
(note: read in abridged audio book form)
Enjoyable enough as light reading.
Enjoyable enough as light reading.
I liked it, but I didn't LOVE it. I am big on pacing, drama and continuity; there were too many huge gaps for me to LOVE it. I understand that is not Gregory's fault, because she is covering the story of a woman's life, but I could have done with more detail in-between the major events. I want to know what her 7 years of poverty were like, and what happened before the Boelyn girls came into the story, after she won against the Scots. I like little agonizing details, that makes a story rich to me. If a character sits in agony for 7 years, I want to sit with her for part of that time, not jump to the next "interesting," thing. But, barring that, it was an enjoyable read.
Definitely NOT as sexy or dramatic as The Other Boelyn girl, but there were some things in this novel that kept me sucked in. The beginning with the Spanish Inquisition.. I will admit that I'm not a huge History buff, and I don't know much about this particular crusade. I found myself reading for longer spans during the beginning of the book, and when she was contemplating whether or not her parents had been right to do what they did to "the Moors." The Doctor character towards the end was especially intruiging, if not a little shallow.
Gregory ends it well. I'm a little dissappointed that she didn't go ALL THE WAY to her death, but it is an exciting way to close the book.
Definitely NOT as sexy or dramatic as The Other Boelyn girl, but there were some things in this novel that kept me sucked in. The beginning with the Spanish Inquisition.. I will admit that I'm not a huge History buff, and I don't know much about this particular crusade. I found myself reading for longer spans during the beginning of the book, and when she was contemplating whether or not her parents had been right to do what they did to "the Moors." The Doctor character towards the end was especially intruiging, if not a little shallow.
Gregory ends it well. I'm a little dissappointed that she didn't go ALL THE WAY to her death, but it is an exciting way to close the book.
Not my favorite of Gregory's Plantagenet and Tudor novels. The differing perspectives made the narrative feel disconnected, and the audiobook narrator didn't vibe.
I really liked this one! Almost as much as The Other Boleyn girl. Catherine of Aragon was such an interesting woman and I loved the author’s interpretation of her in her youth. The story is oddly told in both 1st and 3rd person which was a challenge at first, but the audiobook narrator uses an accent when Catherine is speaking in a letter/to herself and that helped.
Catalina is daughter of two of the greatest monarch's Europe has seen. She has known since she was three that in addition to being an Infanta of Spain she is the Princess of Wales and will one day be Queen of England. Nothing will stop her from claiming these titles that she see's as her birth right. Not the death of her first husband Arthur, her parents refusal to pay the rest of her dowry or her inability to secure a betrothal to Arthur's younger brother, Harry.
I'm a Gregory fan, for the most part. There are always things about her novels that make them slightly irritating, but that rarely effects the breakneck pace I read them at. The Constant Princess was no different. I really enjoyed Catalina/Katherine's thoughts and life as she journeyed from Spain to England. Her life is usually thought of as the First wife of Henry VIII, the woman set aside for Anne Boleyn, and the mother of 'Bloody" Mary I. It was nice to see her young and in love, even if her first, love filled marriage is short.
Her time waiting to become princess again is a bit long. Catalina's italicized thoughts take up pages and pages where before they book up a page at the very most. Her waiting and scheming would be very irritating if you didn't know she would be successful. All the odds are against her and her attitude, as well as Henry VII and his mother Margaret Beaufort are irritating.
Her actual reign as Henry's queen is more interesting and gives a lot of insigt into a time I didn't know much about. She was a much stronger woman that I would have previously given her credit for. I'd been putting off reading The Constant Princess because Katherine didn't interest me as much as Henry's other wives/other historical women, but I'm glad I did pick it up. A very enjoyable read.
I'm a Gregory fan, for the most part. There are always things about her novels that make them slightly irritating, but that rarely effects the breakneck pace I read them at. The Constant Princess was no different. I really enjoyed Catalina/Katherine's thoughts and life as she journeyed from Spain to England. Her life is usually thought of as the First wife of Henry VIII, the woman set aside for Anne Boleyn, and the mother of 'Bloody" Mary I. It was nice to see her young and in love, even if her first, love filled marriage is short.
Her time waiting to become princess again is a bit long. Catalina's italicized thoughts take up pages and pages where before they book up a page at the very most. Her waiting and scheming would be very irritating if you didn't know she would be successful. All the odds are against her and her attitude, as well as Henry VII and his mother Margaret Beaufort are irritating.
Her actual reign as Henry's queen is more interesting and gives a lot of insigt into a time I didn't know much about. She was a much stronger woman that I would have previously given her credit for. I'd been putting off reading The Constant Princess because Katherine didn't interest me as much as Henry's other wives/other historical women, but I'm glad I did pick it up. A very enjoyable read.
I accidentally listened to the abridged book and I didn’t realize it until it was over. I’ll have to do this one again because I was not a fan of stilted the story telling seemed.
Jeg er lidt i tvivl om, hvad klimaks var, og slutningen er noget brat - så er det jo rart med lidt viden om historien derudover