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kedawen's review against another edition
3.0
This was a good book to read right after The Tudors: The Complete Story Of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer. I wondered what happened to Katherine Parr and while I would like to read a book from Kate's perspective, it was still enjoyable to be immersed in the world of Tudor England.
anna_memoreira's review against another edition
3.0
História meio esquisita mas a escrita é bastante interessante e bem elaborada
sarabr's review against another edition
3.0
Sono rimasta tristemente delusa.
Katherine Parr non è la vera protagonista di questo libro e non viene nemmeno raffigurata come l'ultima moglie di Enrico VIII.
Questo libro parla della sua vita dopo la morte del re, ma soprattutto si concentra sulla figura di Cathy, la vera protagonista.
Si può considerare un buon libro per l'ambientazione o per la visione esterna di tre ragazze che diventeranno regine: Jane Grey, Mary Tudor e Elisabeth. Non lasciatevi illudere, però, di conoscere gli ultimi momenti di vita di Enrico VIII con Katherine Parr. Non è così.
Katherine Parr non è la vera protagonista di questo libro e non viene nemmeno raffigurata come l'ultima moglie di Enrico VIII.
Questo libro parla della sua vita dopo la morte del re, ma soprattutto si concentra sulla figura di Cathy, la vera protagonista.
Si può considerare un buon libro per l'ambientazione o per la visione esterna di tre ragazze che diventeranno regine: Jane Grey, Mary Tudor e Elisabeth. Non lasciatevi illudere, però, di conoscere gli ultimi momenti di vita di Enrico VIII con Katherine Parr. Non è così.
agameofbooks's review
3.0
Recently I discovered a copy of The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn in a little free library near my house. Since historical fiction novels about the time of Henry VIII are some of my favourites, I was very excited about this find.
The story is supposed to be about Katherine Parr, Henry's sixth and final wife. However, even though the novel was named after her, it's actually the story of the Duchess of Suffolk, Cathy. She tells us her memories of Katherine Parr from the moment of Henry's death until Katherine's own death. Because of this set up the story was told in a very distant way. I couldn't relate to Katherine Parr because her thoughts and feelings were never described. Additionally I couldn't relate to Cathy either because there was barely anything you learned about her. I didn't even know who the storyteller was until I was more than 50 pages into the book. Confusing, and I didn't even know what to Google to try and clear it up for myself.
On the other hand, I did really like reading about Henry's final wife. I didn't know too much about her, because most novels that are set in this time focus on Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. I never knew that Katherine Parr was such an educated, calm and kind woman. I just really wanted her to have a happy ending even though I did know her fate beforehand (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived).
The story is supposed to be about Katherine Parr, Henry's sixth and final wife. However, even though the novel was named after her, it's actually the story of the Duchess of Suffolk, Cathy. She tells us her memories of Katherine Parr from the moment of Henry's death until Katherine's own death. Because of this set up the story was told in a very distant way. I couldn't relate to Katherine Parr because her thoughts and feelings were never described. Additionally I couldn't relate to Cathy either because there was barely anything you learned about her. I didn't even know who the storyteller was until I was more than 50 pages into the book. Confusing, and I didn't even know what to Google to try and clear it up for myself.
On the other hand, I did really like reading about Henry's final wife. I didn't know too much about her, because most novels that are set in this time focus on Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. I never knew that Katherine Parr was such an educated, calm and kind woman. I just really wanted her to have a happy ending even though I did know her fate beforehand (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived).
mrsbooknerd's review against another edition
2.0
This was a book about passion, friendship and betrayal. There was guilt and grief and all those wonderfully deep and stormy emotions that should have made this novel impactful. Unfortunately, there was a distinct lack of emotion and I felt that this was the ultimate downfall for 'The Sixth Wife'.
I wanted to feel the genuine reliance and friendship between Cathy and Kate. I wanted to feel the weight of Cathy's guilt as she took up with Thomas, to feel the depth of grief at Kate's passing.
More so, I wanted to feel the passion between Cathy and Thomas so that their affair was somehow 'justified' or worth the risk. But none of these emotions were captured. Cathy remained aloof and detached throughout the book, and I never once felt her emotions through her narrative. I wanted to feel Cathy's attraction to Thomas, I wanted to know why she felt that he was worth the risk.
I wanted her to feel hopeful after Kate's passing that he would offer for her, to feel the second wave of grief as she had to watch him be arrested and to give evidence that may have killed him.
Instead, I didn't feel that Cathy even liked Thomas, and so I couldn't really support them
There were any number of times that Cathy or Thomas said 'I love Kate' but I never felt that or was shown that throughout the book. In fact, the voiceless Kate was the one who showed her affection more avidly, a touch of her hand here and a smile of affection there…
The plot was rather simple, and covered only a short space of time, and so there needed to be another level to maintain interest, the emotional bonds being the most obvious. As such, the book felt quite slow paced and just… lacking.
The writing style was also a bit of a struggle for me, and I found that the sentence structures were difficult to read, interrupting the fluidity of the story telling. There was one section that I can't remember exactly now, but it was written like:
"They were gazing up at the stars. They were on their backs. On the ground."
So fragmented and blunt! Why did a descriptive sentence such as this need to be in three or four parts?
Overall, I'm going to say that this wasn't the worst novel that I've ever read, though I felt like it missed a trick with the emotional elements. It felt authentic to the time, and there was a great level of detail and scene setting that I enjoyed. I actually rather liked the plot and the supporting characters and subplots that eventually fed into the main to create a more tense ending, but it did just lack for me.
I wanted to feel the genuine reliance and friendship between Cathy and Kate.
More so, I wanted to feel the passion between Cathy and Thomas so that their affair was somehow 'justified' or worth the risk. But none of these emotions were captured. Cathy remained aloof and detached throughout the book, and I never once felt her emotions through her narrative. I wanted to feel Cathy's attraction to Thomas, I wanted to know why she felt that he was worth the risk.
I wanted her to feel hopeful after Kate's passing that he would offer for her, to feel the second wave of grief as she had to watch him be arrested and to give evidence that may have killed him.
Instead, I didn't feel that Cathy even liked Thomas, and so I couldn't really support them
There were any number of times that Cathy or Thomas said 'I love Kate' but I never felt that or was shown that throughout the book. In fact, the voiceless Kate was the one who showed her affection more avidly, a touch of her hand here and a smile of affection there…
The plot was rather simple, and covered only a short space of time, and so there needed to be another level to maintain interest, the emotional bonds being the most obvious. As such, the book felt quite slow paced and just… lacking.
The writing style was also a bit of a struggle for me, and I found that the sentence structures were difficult to read, interrupting the fluidity of the story telling. There was one section that I can't remember exactly now, but it was written like:
"They were gazing up at the stars. They were on their backs. On the ground."
So fragmented and blunt! Why did a descriptive sentence such as this need to be in three or four parts?
Overall, I'm going to say that this wasn't the worst novel that I've ever read, though I felt like it missed a trick with the emotional elements. It felt authentic to the time, and there was a great level of detail and scene setting that I enjoyed. I actually rather liked the plot and the supporting characters and subplots that eventually fed into the main to create a more tense ending, but it did just lack for me.
leialocks's review against another edition
1.0
This book is misleading. It paints that it will be about Katherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII, instead, it is a tale narrated by, Cathy, the Duchess of Suffolk, who the author has painted into the Tudor era Mean Girl. Not to mention it takes place after Henry has died and ends as Kate (Parr) dies. It begins and ends in Kate Parr's most boring point of her life. The tone of this novel is very hard to get past. Did not like the Valley Girl/inner monologue style. I feel like I wanted to tell Cathy to get over it, either hate Kate for being perfect or be her friend. I was certainly over it after a while. The character of Thomas Seymour was on point and it went the predictable route. Kate, who to be fair is one of Henry's boring wives, is really just a shell in the action. Any Tudor lady at court could be the center of the story; the character being Katherine Parr adds nothing to the story. Overall, nothing special going on with this book.
kelspe's review against another edition
1.0
The title of this book and the byline which reads: "She survived Henry VIII to be betrayed by love" is very misleading. Anyone, myself included, would have expected this book to be about Katherine Parr, the Sixth Wife of Henry VIII. Katherine had a supporting role to say the least. The book is a first person narrative by her best friend Catherine Brandon, widow of Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk. I had forgiven the author for the misleading title as all aspects of the Tudor reign interest me. However this book was awful.
The narrator Catherine Brandon is very unlikable and even the author admits to her ambivalence of her in the question/answer in the back of the book. So why she chose to write her first person is beyond me. Catherine came off as self-righteous, self-absorbed, selfish and cold. So when you are writing of such a person in first first person it makes for a horrible read.
The author also prides herself for not using "tudorspeak" but calling Catherine Brandon "Cathy" and Edward Seymour "Ed" along with all the other written words she chose for this time period just came off as sounding ridiculous instead of original as the author wanted it to be.
I wanted to quit this book so many times but I also didn't want to be a quitter. The only thing that kept me going was her brief references to Edward Seymour, one of the most interesting men of the Tudor times.
The narrator Catherine Brandon is very unlikable and even the author admits to her ambivalence of her in the question/answer in the back of the book. So why she chose to write her first person is beyond me. Catherine came off as self-righteous, self-absorbed, selfish and cold. So when you are writing of such a person in first first person it makes for a horrible read.
The author also prides herself for not using "tudorspeak" but calling Catherine Brandon "Cathy" and Edward Seymour "Ed" along with all the other written words she chose for this time period just came off as sounding ridiculous instead of original as the author wanted it to be.
I wanted to quit this book so many times but I also didn't want to be a quitter. The only thing that kept me going was her brief references to Edward Seymour, one of the most interesting men of the Tudor times.
gemmabelle's review against another edition
2.0
This book was OK. It kind of trudged along without anything really happening. I didn't like or sympathise with any of the main characters. The narrator just felt like she was having a huge moan. The sex scenes had no sense about them or a clear reason for happening and so just seemed a bit gratuitous.
It was a quick read and the epilogue was quite interesting but this is not the best example of historical fiction
It was a quick read and the epilogue was quite interesting but this is not the best example of historical fiction
empressofeverything's review against another edition
2.0
I have a lot of books about Katherine Parr, apparently. This one was really underwhelming and everyone in it was just...awful.
nkmeyers's review against another edition
2.0
More like a 2.5 bcs it feels like too much context is left out in favor of imagined domestic, romantic, and sexual detail that feels like soap opera filler. If there was ever a cast of real world characters who don't need that touch up to create a sense of dramatic arc or intrigue to support a page turning work of historic fiction this might be them ?
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