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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
My least favorite of her books I've read. Jumps around and I found it hard to follow.
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I think it is important to understand that when you're reading romance-y historical fiction, you aren't necessarily going to get a book that is historically accurate. So I try not to take accuracy into account when deciding how much I liked a historical fiction book. At first I was a little bit annoyed with the constant switching of points of view in this novel, but I got used to it as it went on. I definitely enjoyed Anne and Katherine's chapters more than Jane's, but I understand why the author included Jane's POV. Part of the reason I enjoyed this book was definitely that I find Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard to be the most interesting of Henry's wive, and Anne is my favorite of the 6 wives. I liked that the author tried to make Katherine sympathetic, because she is often presented as a bit of a slut, for lack of a better word, but she was only 21 when she died (although the book ages her down to be 16), so one can't really blame her for cheating on her ill, 50 year old husband with a man her own age.
I got this book because I was in the mood for something involving romance and a little trashiness.
This book is about as close as I am willing to come to a Harlequin novel. It wasn't a bodice ripper exactly, but it wasn't good historical fiction. Not at all. It's as if Gregory sniffed out a story but just dropped the ball. Her use of three narrators seems to have been chosen to give a more thorough understanding of the situation, but truly, it had the opposite effect. The reader ends up reading over the same ideas over and over. I think that Gregory was making a little extra for every instance where she called King Henry VIII fat and insane. Bonus cash for referencing his open wound. It's just tiring on the reader.
I will give Gregory credit for clearly giving each narrator her own complete personality, although Anne's changes so dramatically that she's somewhat unbelievable by the end of the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Katherine Howard's stupidity, on the other hand.
I won't say that I won't read from this author again. If I get in the mood for another cruddy historical romance, I probably will read another of her novels. It will most likely be after I've forgotten my initial reaction to this one.
This book is about as close as I am willing to come to a Harlequin novel. It wasn't a bodice ripper exactly, but it wasn't good historical fiction. Not at all. It's as if Gregory sniffed out a story but just dropped the ball. Her use of three narrators seems to have been chosen to give a more thorough understanding of the situation, but truly, it had the opposite effect. The reader ends up reading over the same ideas over and over. I think that Gregory was making a little extra for every instance where she called King Henry VIII fat and insane. Bonus cash for referencing his open wound. It's just tiring on the reader.
I will give Gregory credit for clearly giving each narrator her own complete personality, although Anne's changes so dramatically that she's somewhat unbelievable by the end of the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Katherine Howard's stupidity, on the other hand.
I won't say that I won't read from this author again. If I get in the mood for another cruddy historical romance, I probably will read another of her novels. It will most likely be after I've forgotten my initial reaction to this one.
This book was interesting in how it was written. It was done from 3 different womens' points of view. Each chapter was one of their points of view, Jane Boleyn (George's wife from The Other Boleyn Girl), Anne of Cleves (bride #4 of Henry VIII) and Kathernine (bride #5). I rather enjoyed it, but sometimes i would forget whow as "talking".
This isn't the first book by Phillipa Gregory that I've read, and from previous experience of her I've been very impressed with her style of writing. The last one I read I found gave a unique view on the period of history being covered whilst weaving an engaging story line through it, so when I saw this one in a charity shop for £1.50 I couldn't resist. And I have to say I was horribly disappointed. I had deliberately stayed with her historical novels because the previous ones I'd read were so good, but instead that although it was definitely historical, it was a matter of debate whether it could be called good...or perhaps even a novel.
===Plot===
The plot is based around Henry VIII and runs from 1539 to the year of his death. So the main story starts with him taking Anne of Cleves as his wife and runs through him ditching her for Katherine Howard and then executing her for her affairs and moving onto Katherine Parr. This is actually probably the largest problem the novel has. This is a story that we have all been taught since we were knee high to a grasshopper, we have learned it off by heard since the year dot. I mean who doesn't know the rhyme; 'Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived'!? I could probably recite it to my foster sisters and they'd probably recognise it; and they're three for cripes sake. We all know the story, we all know the history and we know who lives and who dies. There can be no surprises or shocks in this story, particularly as it focuses directly on Henry's relations with his wives. Because of this it would need some particularly spectacular narrative telling to make this work well, and that just doesn't materialise.
This problem could have been nullified if the topic had been approached in a completely unique way, or if the characters were fantastic or if different aspects were looked at to normal. And to be fair, Phillipa Gregory has tried. It's just that it is difficult to come up with a unique view on this particular segment of history and although her view on the characters is unusual and interesting it just doesn't quite cut it.
===Characters===
This book is told from the first person perspective of the three main players: Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Jane Boleyn. Henry is only spoken of in a third person point of view from the perspective of the three women. This is, to be fair, probably a very sensible move on Phillipa Gregory's part as it means she can give far more of an air of terror to Henry's reign and behaviour. I understand that we all know these characters as historical figures and we probably know a lot about their actions, but as Phillipa Gregory has tried to make the novel out of the characters she has tried to put a unique spin on them.
To a point she has managed. Anne of Cleves is usually described as being ugly and I know that I was certainly taught in Year 5 that the reason for Henry rejecting her in the beginning of the relationship was because she didn't live up to her picture. Phillipa Gregory on the other hand portrays her as a naïve, pretty young woman who was miserably out of her depth in the more liberal England. It was completely outside the sphere of her realm of experience. She portrays the first meeting of Anne and the king at Rochester as the reason for Henry's hatred of her, as when Henry first met her he was dressed in rags and pretending to be a commoner. She had no way of recognising the drunk, ugly and ill old man as the kind in 'disguise'; even the pictures she'd had of him were from when he was a young man in the prime of his life. So she rejected him first, she spat out his kiss and therein lies the reason that he can never forgive her. Phillipa Gregory also goes further into her background and childhood than most of us are aware and so to a point she can make a new story out of it.
Katherine Howard, or Kitty, is seen as a victim. A young girl no more than sixteen, whose only crime was loving a boy her own age and not a man old enough to be her father who is rotting from the leg upwards. Like Anne of Cleves she was disastrously out of depth in a court of manipulative and sophisticated older people. Like any sixteen year old she is self obsessed and she has no real view of her own mortality. But most sixteen year olds can get away with this behaviour, for most it has no real effect other than a couple of rather embarrassing memories that they can still remember in their forties but really wish they couldn't. But for her this has disastrous consequences and Phillipa Gregory certainly did succeed in arousing my pity for the girl. Well, by the end of the book anyway when she'd stopped irritating the living daylights out of me.
And Henry is very much seen as a charming young prince turned tyrant. This is not a new portrayal and is certainly an accurate one by the evidence, but Phillipa Gregory does show that she has no interest in pulling her punches:
“This is the man they call a great king, the greatest king we have ever had in England. Does it not teach us that we should have no king? That a people should be free? That a tyrant is still a tyrant when he has a handsome face under a crown?”
===Style===
Originally this irritated me because it was slow. The process of flipping so often between different characters was just plain irritating because in the early stages of the book it just seemed to go nowhere. This was by the way made so much worse by Kitty Howard's character in the early book it is untrue. Her teenage inanities made the entire sections unbelievably dull. I understand that this is always a risk with the adult looking into the teenage psyche due to the sheer amount of floss that they carry around involving boys, clothes and emotional baggage that they haven't learned to control (not that I can talk about that even now!). But even so, there is only so many times I can read about her wanting to throw herself in the Thames and do herself in because of some inane reason or another usually involving boys, sex and clothes...and how she'll never be a princess. I actually wanted to hit her because she was just winding me up with the whining and complaining about how bad she's got it. Later in the story then I might have been more understanding, but I hit my tolerance level very early on and became very willing to throw her in the Thames myself if only to shut her the hell up. Or possibly throw myself in the Thames in a desperate last bid to get the irritation to go away.
It did however improve; it started to move more quickly and the stupidness of Kitty Howard seemed to come down to a more manageable level. As soon as the book actually gets into its stride her style does work, particularly as the plot is moving at enough of a pace to allow her habit of continuously switching from one character to another to work.
===My Opinion===
This was a disappointment. Now I am not saying that this was an awful book, or even a bad book, because it wasn't. It just wasn't up to standard that I have come to expect from her due to my experience of her previous books. Personally I feel that she set the bar far too high in attempting to write something new about such a well known period of history because it just doesn't work. Her ability to stick to history is to be applauded, but she doesn't carry this off with enough wit or flair for it to work. All the way through I felt that I knew what was going to happen and I was wondering why on earth I continued reading because it just wasn't a gripping enough story.
In addition to this I didn't actually attach myself to any of the characters. Granted in the later sections of the novel I did feel sorry for Kitty Howard, but for the majority of it I felt nothing but the desire to murder her myself and therefore save the king an awful lot of hassle later. Considering the set of circumstances I find this strange as usually I will get engrossed in a book to the point where I will cry with the characters, but at no point in this did I find that. Instead I felt oddly detached and it seemed like a struggle to get through. Anne is the only character who you really feel for because she is so out of her depth and so desperate to make things work, but because she is so desperate to be the perfect queen this makes her a rather cold and dry character.
Phillipa Gregory does stick remarkably well to historical fact, but in this novel it actually undermines what she is trying to do. She would have been better off creating an entirely fictional novel, perhaps loosely based on history, because in confining herself to the history she seems to have restricted herself too much. On the other hand based on other reviews I'm bucking the trend here so you may have a completely different opinion.
===Conclusion===
If you are a mad Phillipa Gregory fan then by all means go and knock yourself out and buy it, although granted you probably already have it. This is not however a book which I would recommend to the casual reader, particularly if this is the first of her books you would read. She has written far better even if you only count her historical novels in this. It has its moments, but it is not a great book. It's certainly not her best book.
'He stumbles back, he, the great king, almost falls back before her contempt. Never in his life has he ever seen any expression in any woman's face but desire and welcome. He is stunned. In her flushed face and bright, offended gaze he sees the first honest opinion of himself that he has ever known. In a terrible, blinding flash he sees himself as he truly is; an old man, long past his prime, no longer handsome, no longer desirable, a man that a younger woman would push roughly away from her because she could not bear his touch.'
===Plot===
The plot is based around Henry VIII and runs from 1539 to the year of his death. So the main story starts with him taking Anne of Cleves as his wife and runs through him ditching her for Katherine Howard and then executing her for her affairs and moving onto Katherine Parr. This is actually probably the largest problem the novel has. This is a story that we have all been taught since we were knee high to a grasshopper, we have learned it off by heard since the year dot. I mean who doesn't know the rhyme; 'Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived'!? I could probably recite it to my foster sisters and they'd probably recognise it; and they're three for cripes sake. We all know the story, we all know the history and we know who lives and who dies. There can be no surprises or shocks in this story, particularly as it focuses directly on Henry's relations with his wives. Because of this it would need some particularly spectacular narrative telling to make this work well, and that just doesn't materialise.
This problem could have been nullified if the topic had been approached in a completely unique way, or if the characters were fantastic or if different aspects were looked at to normal. And to be fair, Phillipa Gregory has tried. It's just that it is difficult to come up with a unique view on this particular segment of history and although her view on the characters is unusual and interesting it just doesn't quite cut it.
===Characters===
This book is told from the first person perspective of the three main players: Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Jane Boleyn. Henry is only spoken of in a third person point of view from the perspective of the three women. This is, to be fair, probably a very sensible move on Phillipa Gregory's part as it means she can give far more of an air of terror to Henry's reign and behaviour. I understand that we all know these characters as historical figures and we probably know a lot about their actions, but as Phillipa Gregory has tried to make the novel out of the characters she has tried to put a unique spin on them.
To a point she has managed. Anne of Cleves is usually described as being ugly and I know that I was certainly taught in Year 5 that the reason for Henry rejecting her in the beginning of the relationship was because she didn't live up to her picture. Phillipa Gregory on the other hand portrays her as a naïve, pretty young woman who was miserably out of her depth in the more liberal England. It was completely outside the sphere of her realm of experience. She portrays the first meeting of Anne and the king at Rochester as the reason for Henry's hatred of her, as when Henry first met her he was dressed in rags and pretending to be a commoner. She had no way of recognising the drunk, ugly and ill old man as the kind in 'disguise'; even the pictures she'd had of him were from when he was a young man in the prime of his life. So she rejected him first, she spat out his kiss and therein lies the reason that he can never forgive her. Phillipa Gregory also goes further into her background and childhood than most of us are aware and so to a point she can make a new story out of it.
Katherine Howard, or Kitty, is seen as a victim. A young girl no more than sixteen, whose only crime was loving a boy her own age and not a man old enough to be her father who is rotting from the leg upwards. Like Anne of Cleves she was disastrously out of depth in a court of manipulative and sophisticated older people. Like any sixteen year old she is self obsessed and she has no real view of her own mortality. But most sixteen year olds can get away with this behaviour, for most it has no real effect other than a couple of rather embarrassing memories that they can still remember in their forties but really wish they couldn't. But for her this has disastrous consequences and Phillipa Gregory certainly did succeed in arousing my pity for the girl. Well, by the end of the book anyway when she'd stopped irritating the living daylights out of me.
And Henry is very much seen as a charming young prince turned tyrant. This is not a new portrayal and is certainly an accurate one by the evidence, but Phillipa Gregory does show that she has no interest in pulling her punches:
“This is the man they call a great king, the greatest king we have ever had in England. Does it not teach us that we should have no king? That a people should be free? That a tyrant is still a tyrant when he has a handsome face under a crown?”
===Style===
Originally this irritated me because it was slow. The process of flipping so often between different characters was just plain irritating because in the early stages of the book it just seemed to go nowhere. This was by the way made so much worse by Kitty Howard's character in the early book it is untrue. Her teenage inanities made the entire sections unbelievably dull. I understand that this is always a risk with the adult looking into the teenage psyche due to the sheer amount of floss that they carry around involving boys, clothes and emotional baggage that they haven't learned to control (not that I can talk about that even now!). But even so, there is only so many times I can read about her wanting to throw herself in the Thames and do herself in because of some inane reason or another usually involving boys, sex and clothes...and how she'll never be a princess. I actually wanted to hit her because she was just winding me up with the whining and complaining about how bad she's got it. Later in the story then I might have been more understanding, but I hit my tolerance level very early on and became very willing to throw her in the Thames myself if only to shut her the hell up. Or possibly throw myself in the Thames in a desperate last bid to get the irritation to go away.
It did however improve; it started to move more quickly and the stupidness of Kitty Howard seemed to come down to a more manageable level. As soon as the book actually gets into its stride her style does work, particularly as the plot is moving at enough of a pace to allow her habit of continuously switching from one character to another to work.
===My Opinion===
This was a disappointment. Now I am not saying that this was an awful book, or even a bad book, because it wasn't. It just wasn't up to standard that I have come to expect from her due to my experience of her previous books. Personally I feel that she set the bar far too high in attempting to write something new about such a well known period of history because it just doesn't work. Her ability to stick to history is to be applauded, but she doesn't carry this off with enough wit or flair for it to work. All the way through I felt that I knew what was going to happen and I was wondering why on earth I continued reading because it just wasn't a gripping enough story.
In addition to this I didn't actually attach myself to any of the characters. Granted in the later sections of the novel I did feel sorry for Kitty Howard, but for the majority of it I felt nothing but the desire to murder her myself and therefore save the king an awful lot of hassle later. Considering the set of circumstances I find this strange as usually I will get engrossed in a book to the point where I will cry with the characters, but at no point in this did I find that. Instead I felt oddly detached and it seemed like a struggle to get through. Anne is the only character who you really feel for because she is so out of her depth and so desperate to make things work, but because she is so desperate to be the perfect queen this makes her a rather cold and dry character.
Phillipa Gregory does stick remarkably well to historical fact, but in this novel it actually undermines what she is trying to do. She would have been better off creating an entirely fictional novel, perhaps loosely based on history, because in confining herself to the history she seems to have restricted herself too much. On the other hand based on other reviews I'm bucking the trend here so you may have a completely different opinion.
===Conclusion===
If you are a mad Phillipa Gregory fan then by all means go and knock yourself out and buy it, although granted you probably already have it. This is not however a book which I would recommend to the casual reader, particularly if this is the first of her books you would read. She has written far better even if you only count her historical novels in this. It has its moments, but it is not a great book. It's certainly not her best book.
'He stumbles back, he, the great king, almost falls back before her contempt. Never in his life has he ever seen any expression in any woman's face but desire and welcome. He is stunned. In her flushed face and bright, offended gaze he sees the first honest opinion of himself that he has ever known. In a terrible, blinding flash he sees himself as he truly is; an old man, long past his prime, no longer handsome, no longer desirable, a man that a younger woman would push roughly away from her because she could not bear his touch.'
I'd rate this between a 3 and a 4. Engaging story and good use of 3 different points of view. I had problems sympathizing with Jane but once I realized the author didn't really intend for her to be sympathetic, I was okay with it. Katherine was infuriating and I had to keep reminding myself that she was pretty much a child. The whole story (and that of Henry's other wives) was just so sad and frustrating.
My first book written by Philippa Gregory gave me what I wanted to get out from this book. I wanted to know more about Henry the VIII’s wives, their personality, behavior, why they were chosen, how they handled themselves, etc. This book and the audiobook brought Queen Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and a member of the court Jane Boleyn to life. I enjoyed the format of each chapter from the perspective of each lady giving into their personal thoughts and ideas as events moved around them. The audiobook had a cast of three talented voice-actresses giving each woman their own unique individuality. If you want to listen from the same audiobook look for the audio cast that includes, Bianca Amato, Dagmara Dominczyk, and Ruthie Henshall.
I will say out of the three women, my heart went to Queen Anne of Cleves. I admired her silent strength and her ability to overcome the boundaries she faced. I loved her from the beginning and upon reading further became more involved in her story. I took on Queen Anne of Cleves personal feelings toward Katherine Howard. Katherine Howard being the youngest of 14 years old made me laugh and I enjoyed her youthful exuberance.
Lastly Jane Boleyn I found to be a complex character. She seems to be continually in “survival” mode and it is hard to decide if she wanted to be where she placed herself. During this period, women didn’t have much say or ability (even if they became the Queen of England). I think in Jane’s case, there were possibilities for her that would have been safer, yet not as grand as being in Court. I am aware there is another book from Philippa Gregory that goes more into the character of Jane Boleyn, the wife of George Boleyn, who is the brother of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. I might read that one on a later date to explore the complexity of her character more.
This book was a great introduction to the two wives of Henry VIII and a woman who has been in Court serving the many Queens’ of the King.
I will say out of the three women, my heart went to Queen Anne of Cleves. I admired her silent strength and her ability to overcome the boundaries she faced. I loved her from the beginning and upon reading further became more involved in her story. I took on Queen Anne of Cleves personal feelings toward Katherine Howard. Katherine Howard being the youngest of 14 years old made me laugh and I enjoyed her youthful exuberance.
Lastly Jane Boleyn I found to be a complex character. She seems to be continually in “survival” mode and it is hard to decide if she wanted to be where she placed herself. During this period, women didn’t have much say or ability (even if they became the Queen of England). I think in Jane’s case, there were possibilities for her that would have been safer, yet not as grand as being in Court. I am aware there is another book from Philippa Gregory that goes more into the character of Jane Boleyn, the wife of George Boleyn, who is the brother of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. I might read that one on a later date to explore the complexity of her character more.
This book was a great introduction to the two wives of Henry VIII and a woman who has been in Court serving the many Queens’ of the King.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes