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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Another fantastic historical fiction about a determined and powerful woman. Exactly what I expect and love from Philippa Gregory!
One of Gregory's better written books in general. It gives a more insight into Henry VIII as compared to the other Tudor court novels as Margaret Pole has witnessed his growing up from a pompous little brat (sorry) to a self-absorbed, unreasonable tyrant. Suffice to say, the female protagonists in the other novels focused on their rise to glory as Queens of England (however briefly) and how they attracted Henry's gaze - intriguing enough but not as comprehensive as a study of Henry's character.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ R E V I E W ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⠀
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This book took me a while to get through but I’m so happy I picked it up. It’s been on my TBR for awhile but I have to be in the right mood for historical fiction. As a lot of you know, Tudor historical fiction is my fave! I have an unhealthy obsession with the Tudor family. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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This particular novel is based on Margaret Pole nèe Plantagenet, who is cousin to the White Princess, Elizabeth of York, as well as the niece of 2 previous kings, so she has a major claim to the throne and much royal blood. The novel takes you through her young 20s when she married Sir Richard Pole in an attempt to bury her Plantagenet name through her time as the caregiver to Arthur, Prince of Wales, who is the heir to the throne. It takes you through her trials and tribulations after her husband passes away and what she has to do to protect her five children, who also carry Plantagenet blood, which means they all have a claim to the throne. It takes you through her time as a friend to Catherine of Aragon who becomes Queen of England through her marriage to Henry the VIII. It takes you through her time as caregiver to Princess Mary and all the hardships that went along with that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Overall, this novel is an in depth fictional look at the life of Margaret Pole and her family. It’s a fictionalized drama of the trials and tribulations of what it was like to live as a member of the former royal family and what it was like to live during the downfall of the church in the early 1530s. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
For me, this was a 4 ⭐️ read! I thoroughly enjoy Philippa Gregory’s writing and I love her take on the Tudors. It was well researched and while fictional, provided mostly accurate details of the life of Pole and those around her. It was a little on the long side for me, so I do feel like a few things could have been omitted to move the story along a little bit faster. This type of book isn’t for everyone but I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves the Tudors or royal historical fiction.
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This book took me a while to get through but I’m so happy I picked it up. It’s been on my TBR for awhile but I have to be in the right mood for historical fiction. As a lot of you know, Tudor historical fiction is my fave! I have an unhealthy obsession with the Tudor family. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This particular novel is based on Margaret Pole nèe Plantagenet, who is cousin to the White Princess, Elizabeth of York, as well as the niece of 2 previous kings, so she has a major claim to the throne and much royal blood. The novel takes you through her young 20s when she married Sir Richard Pole in an attempt to bury her Plantagenet name through her time as the caregiver to Arthur, Prince of Wales, who is the heir to the throne. It takes you through her trials and tribulations after her husband passes away and what she has to do to protect her five children, who also carry Plantagenet blood, which means they all have a claim to the throne. It takes you through her time as a friend to Catherine of Aragon who becomes Queen of England through her marriage to Henry the VIII. It takes you through her time as caregiver to Princess Mary and all the hardships that went along with that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Overall, this novel is an in depth fictional look at the life of Margaret Pole and her family. It’s a fictionalized drama of the trials and tribulations of what it was like to live as a member of the former royal family and what it was like to live during the downfall of the church in the early 1530s. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
For me, this was a 4 ⭐️ read! I thoroughly enjoy Philippa Gregory’s writing and I love her take on the Tudors. It was well researched and while fictional, provided mostly accurate details of the life of Pole and those around her. It was a little on the long side for me, so I do feel like a few things could have been omitted to move the story along a little bit faster. This type of book isn’t for everyone but I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves the Tudors or royal historical fiction.
Margaret Pole is the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, cousin to the White Queen and niece of Richard III. Her brother is executed by Henry VII to reduce the number of rivals to the throne and she is married off to a loyal but minor knight. Margaret and her husband are in change of the household of Arthur, Prince of Wales, before and during his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After his death Margaret becomes a trusted companion to Catherine through her marriage to Henry VIII and to her daughter Mary. Living under the rule of a capricious and increasingly paranoid King, Margaret is aware that her loyalty must never be questioned as her lineage marks her for treachery.
This is the background to Gregory's new novel in the 'Cousin's War' series and again she chooses to fictionalise the life of a woman central to events but of whom little is known. My only knowledge of Margaret Pole before this book was of her place in the family tree and the rather horrific circumstances of her execution (which are barely touched on here, as the book is written in the first person).
As ever a new book by Philippa Gregory is a real treat. She has a lightness of touch to her writing which genuinely seems to create a personality and a three-dimensional character to her subjects. As ever there is that little bit too much of the mystical (The King's Curse) but the stories are so engrossing, so well-researched and so enjoyable that can be forgiven.
Many of the events covered here overlap with the events narrated by Mantel in her books on the Tudor court - Gregory is less literary but far more accessible.
This is the background to Gregory's new novel in the 'Cousin's War' series and again she chooses to fictionalise the life of a woman central to events but of whom little is known. My only knowledge of Margaret Pole before this book was of her place in the family tree and the rather horrific circumstances of her execution (which are barely touched on here, as the book is written in the first person).
As ever a new book by Philippa Gregory is a real treat. She has a lightness of touch to her writing which genuinely seems to create a personality and a three-dimensional character to her subjects. As ever there is that little bit too much of the mystical (The King's Curse) but the stories are so engrossing, so well-researched and so enjoyable that can be forgiven.
Many of the events covered here overlap with the events narrated by Mantel in her books on the Tudor court - Gregory is less literary but far more accessible.
I really enjoyed this read. I found the main character very engaging throughout the entire text. I know very little of the Tudor period so I can't speak as to the accuracy of the facts, however as a piece of historical fiction I highly recommend it!
4 stars - It was great. I loved it.
An excellent end to the series! The author has a knack for bringing historical figures to life and I always looked forward to returning to this book while reading it.
I always learn something new when I read Philippa Gregory's book. With this one, I found this excerpt from the Author's Note to be particularly intriguing:
Current interesting research from Catrina Banks Whitley and Kyra Kramer suggests that Henry may have had the rare Kell positive blood type, which can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths when the mother has the more common Kell negative blood type. Whitley and Kramer also suggest that Henry’s later symptoms of paranoia and anger may have been caused by McLeod syndrome—a disease found only in Kell positive individuals. McLeod syndrome usually develops when sufferers are aged around forty and causes physical degeneration and personality changes resulting in paranoia, depression, and irrational behavior.
Interestingly, Whitley and Kramer trace Kell syndrome back to Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, the suspected witch and mother of Elizabeth Woodville. Sometimes, uncannily, fiction creates a metaphor for an historical truth: in a fictional scene in the novel, Elizabeth, together with her daughter Elizabeth of York, curse the murderer of her sons, swearing that they shall lose their son and their grandsons, while in real life her genes—unknown and undetectable at the time—entered the Tudor line through her daughter and may have caused the deaths of four Tudor babies to Katherine of Aragon and three to Anne Boleyn.
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Favorite Quote: She’s like an anchor that he has forgotten, but still it keeps him steady.
First Sentence: In the moment of waking I am innocent, my conscience clear of any wrongdoing.
An excellent end to the series! The author has a knack for bringing historical figures to life and I always looked forward to returning to this book while reading it.
I always learn something new when I read Philippa Gregory's book. With this one, I found this excerpt from the Author's Note to be particularly intriguing:
Current interesting research from Catrina Banks Whitley and Kyra Kramer suggests that Henry may have had the rare Kell positive blood type, which can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths when the mother has the more common Kell negative blood type. Whitley and Kramer also suggest that Henry’s later symptoms of paranoia and anger may have been caused by McLeod syndrome—a disease found only in Kell positive individuals. McLeod syndrome usually develops when sufferers are aged around forty and causes physical degeneration and personality changes resulting in paranoia, depression, and irrational behavior.
Interestingly, Whitley and Kramer trace Kell syndrome back to Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, the suspected witch and mother of Elizabeth Woodville. Sometimes, uncannily, fiction creates a metaphor for an historical truth: in a fictional scene in the novel, Elizabeth, together with her daughter Elizabeth of York, curse the murderer of her sons, swearing that they shall lose their son and their grandsons, while in real life her genes—unknown and undetectable at the time—entered the Tudor line through her daughter and may have caused the deaths of four Tudor babies to Katherine of Aragon and three to Anne Boleyn.
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Favorite Quote: She’s like an anchor that he has forgotten, but still it keeps him steady.
First Sentence: In the moment of waking I am innocent, my conscience clear of any wrongdoing.
I had about 200 pages left to go (out of this 600 page book) before I had to return it to the library. However, unless the writing drastically changed in the last 200 pages, I can write my review with confidence.
I used to be the #1 fan of Philippa Gregory books. Now I'm not sure if I've just gotten older with better reading acumen or Gregory's writing has declined, but this book was very tediously written. I could pull out multiple paragraphs throughout the book that all mean the same thing and do not progress the story at all. All it does is remind the reader over and over about the neurotic nature of the heroine. Maybe that was the point but it just resulted in the heroine coming off as annoyingly whiny.
I would recommend this book as a beach read for a long trip. It has the substance of a smaller chick lit novel but is long enough to last you for at least a week in the Bahamas. This way, you don't have to carry multiple books.
A couple of badly written sentences that I just pulled:
1. "I feel myself grow cold in the cold garden; my hands begin to shake." (pg. 312) - "cold" used twice in one sentence, yikes.
2. "The princess is so dainty and slight and the boy so handsome and tall for his age that they walk at the same pace, their copper heads aligned." (pg. 300) - nonsensical sentence about how being dainty/slight and handsome/tall somehow equals walking at the same pace.
I used to be the #1 fan of Philippa Gregory books. Now I'm not sure if I've just gotten older with better reading acumen or Gregory's writing has declined, but this book was very tediously written. I could pull out multiple paragraphs throughout the book that all mean the same thing and do not progress the story at all. All it does is remind the reader over and over about the neurotic nature of the heroine. Maybe that was the point but it just resulted in the heroine coming off as annoyingly whiny.
I would recommend this book as a beach read for a long trip. It has the substance of a smaller chick lit novel but is long enough to last you for at least a week in the Bahamas. This way, you don't have to carry multiple books.
A couple of badly written sentences that I just pulled:
1. "I feel myself grow cold in the cold garden; my hands begin to shake." (pg. 312) - "cold" used twice in one sentence, yikes.
2. "The princess is so dainty and slight and the boy so handsome and tall for his age that they walk at the same pace, their copper heads aligned." (pg. 300) - nonsensical sentence about how being dainty/slight and handsome/tall somehow equals walking at the same pace.
adventurous
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Love this, the the long of time really showed the contrast in the early years to the final years of Henry the 8th from one womens point of view. Margaret Pole had so many ups and downs in her life time seeing the rise and fall of many women in Henry's life. This really showed some of the struggles women faced as wifes, consorts, and widows. This one was really exciting and gave a lot of information. I cant wait to see some of the events from different points of view and in more depth.
The best book in the series so far - I've always been fascinated by Margaret Pole and this story did not disappoint!