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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed this book as much had I not listened to it, but I really got into it. So much so that different roads, that I travel frequently, have become associated with settings in the book. I haven't enjoyed many of her books since her earlier Tudor novels: The Other Boleyn Girl, The Constant Princess, The Queens Fool, and The Virgin's Lover. They've been pretty unremarkable since then but this one caught me up in all the intrigue. I hated Henry VIII, hated him. I loved that it elicited such intense emotion from me. The reader was fantastic and interestingly enough, when I pulled up Margaret Pole on Wikipedia, I really felt like the reader's voice brought up in my mind a pretty good likeness of her. So I'll definitely look to listen to Gregory's books from now on.
Phenomenal. Utterly phenomenal. The ending is one of the most poignant I've ever read. Margaret Pole was truly a remarkable woman, and Philippa Gregory captures her perfectly.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
So it's a Philippa Gregory book, of course I liked it. I might even say it's one of my favorites of The Cousins' War series. I really enjoyed the voice that was given to Margaret Pole in this book.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I’d like to give this a middle of the road 2.5 stars, but I can’t do half stars so going to round down instead of up for this one (review initially written on Goodreads)
I’m making my way through the Plantagenet series, and generally enjoy them. They’re easy to read, entertaining and give me a bit of an overview of British history (though a very juicy and fictionalised one). But this one was just waaaaay too long. It could’ve easily been cut in half as a lot of the time nothing happens and she repeats A LOT. I didn’t dislike it as such, and I wanted to know what happened (without googling the Tudors
I’m making my way through the Plantagenet series, and generally enjoy them. They’re easy to read, entertaining and give me a bit of an overview of British history (though a very juicy and fictionalised one). But this one was just waaaaay too long. It could’ve easily been cut in half as a lot of the time nothing happens and she repeats A LOT. I didn’t dislike it as such, and I wanted to know what happened (without googling the Tudors
This actually may have been one of my favourites of the Cousins Wars series. It covered a wide range of time and explored the change of Henry VIII from golden boy to tyrant. Gave me a fresh perspective on a time period I enjoy
This has the potential to be a 3-3½ star, book, but with the repeated insistence of the bullshit from The Constant Princess (plus pretty much everything Iset says below), it's dragged down to two stars.
Another glitch is that the author mentions the Plantagenets dating back to Fulk of Anjou (not specifying which one) and "a water goddess".
Never mind that the water goddess ancestress (Melusina) is from the House of Burgundy, not the Plantagenets!
Another glitch is that the author mentions the Plantagenets dating back to Fulk of Anjou (not specifying which one) and "a water goddess".
Never mind that the water goddess ancestress (Melusina) is from the House of Burgundy, not the Plantagenets!
As a fan of both historical fiction and Philippa Gregory, I expected to like this book. I did NOT expect to like it as much as I did. Because this book actually surprised me!
I've read many versions of the story of Henry VIII and his six wives. But these have been consistently from the perspective of either Henry or one of his wives. In THE KING'S CURSE you'll find a different perspective.
The main character is Margaret Pole, a first cousin of Henry's mother and a members of the royal family that preceded the Tudors. Because of her royal blood, Margaret naturally plays an important role in the Tudor court, assigned various roles that bring her close to Henry's older brother Arthur, to his wife Catherine of Aragon, and to his firstborn daughter Mary.
But in the telling of Margaret's 40 year story, the author skillfully presents the unfolding events of Henry's reign, as they must have appeared to those outside the royal family, to people who had no idea how it would all turn out. Just think how many "firsts" Henry is responsible for? Questioning the sacrament of marriage, putting a sitting queen on trial, taking on the Catholic Church, enacting multiple new laws about the succession -- just to name a few.
Gregory provides rich details about how Henry's decisions impacted the everyday lives of the English and she also offers some believable speculation on how contemporaries might have processed Henry's edicts. For example, she imagines courtiers contemplating questions like,
• Can anyone question the legitimacy of a marriage and if so, who could rightfully decide such an issue?
• Why is the King assuming greater power over the church and nobility and would we be right to challenge him?
• What will happen to travel and who will care for the sick and poor if the monasteries are closed?
It's all fascinating to consider and I applaud the author's ability to present this remarkable sequence of dramatic events in England's history and show how each might have been seen at the time.
I've read many versions of the story of Henry VIII and his six wives. But these have been consistently from the perspective of either Henry or one of his wives. In THE KING'S CURSE you'll find a different perspective.
The main character is Margaret Pole, a first cousin of Henry's mother and a members of the royal family that preceded the Tudors. Because of her royal blood, Margaret naturally plays an important role in the Tudor court, assigned various roles that bring her close to Henry's older brother Arthur, to his wife Catherine of Aragon, and to his firstborn daughter Mary.
But in the telling of Margaret's 40 year story, the author skillfully presents the unfolding events of Henry's reign, as they must have appeared to those outside the royal family, to people who had no idea how it would all turn out. Just think how many "firsts" Henry is responsible for? Questioning the sacrament of marriage, putting a sitting queen on trial, taking on the Catholic Church, enacting multiple new laws about the succession -- just to name a few.
Gregory provides rich details about how Henry's decisions impacted the everyday lives of the English and she also offers some believable speculation on how contemporaries might have processed Henry's edicts. For example, she imagines courtiers contemplating questions like,
• Can anyone question the legitimacy of a marriage and if so, who could rightfully decide such an issue?
• Why is the King assuming greater power over the church and nobility and would we be right to challenge him?
• What will happen to travel and who will care for the sick and poor if the monasteries are closed?
It's all fascinating to consider and I applaud the author's ability to present this remarkable sequence of dramatic events in England's history and show how each might have been seen at the time.
Although I found Margaret Pole to be one of the characters in this series I like least, she certainly didn't come close to the horrifying Margaret Beaufort, who spawned the likes of Tudor kings and their reigns of blood and terror. My issue with Margaret Pole was the way she never owned one side or the other, but played just enough of both to remain secretly indignant and fearfully alive. As for Philippa Gregory, she is certainly, at times, a bit repetitive, though while some reviews have implied she's insulting the intelligence of her readers, I think she is just a bit overzealous in clarifying her point. I like that she takes the position of one character to narrate the events, which means the point of view is always biased and limited to that individual. One of the things I liked best, earlier in the series, was the overlap of time, so that the same story could be told from another perspective. Since, I believe, this was the final book in this series (at least to date), I suppose that counterbalance won't happen here, but then again, there is her Tudor Court series, so perhaps there will be some of this same sort of shift in view. I'm looking forward to finding out, as I intend to move into that series next. All in all, I found the entire Cousins' War series to be riveting, and I appreciate Gregory's note at the end that points out where she took liberties to create a work of fiction centered around historical facts.