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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Good but too long. I also think this is the book that's cured me of my infatuation with Henry Tudor. I know Gregory's books are fiction and some of the things she says are questionable/wrong, but the way she's portrayed Henry here makes him completely unlikable and makes me question what we were taught of him in history classes.
this probably the worst in the cousin's war series and just couldn't get into the book and felt in parts was rushed
A fabulous book that illustrates the decent of King Henry VIII from golden prince to mad tyrant. The best of the series!
informative
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Let me first start off by saying that I really enjoyed this book. It was nice to get a view of court from the outside. Even though there were parts that were inside of court (like where Margaret was serving Queen Katherine), most of the book was from outside court (where Margaret was at home or serving Princess Mary). It helped me to gain a different perspective of what being exiled from court was like.
This book is first person point of view, which I really liked. First person POV helps the reader to gain insight on the character's feelings and innermost thoughts. We follow Margaret Pole. She is a Plantagenet. From what I can gather from this book, the Plantagents ruled before the Tudors took the throne from them. So all Plantagents had to hide, were executed or be married into Tudor blood so they will be safe.
This is what happened to Margaret. She was basically in line to rule before the Tudors came. She was raised as princess. In the beginning she was married to a low level knight. That is quite a downgrade. As the blurb says she becomes the chief lady in waiting for Katherine of Aragon, the first of King Henry VIII's wives. What follows is a tale of how the beloved boy king becomes a paranoid old man, a court where no one can trust anyone and the Plantagenets attempting to rise and set everything back to the way it was.
As I previously stated, I enjoyed this book. I have yet to dislike a Philippa Gregory book. What prevented me from giving this book a full 5 stars, like the rest of the them, is there was just so much filler. The book didn't have chapters, it had dates and places. Some of them would only be a paragraph long while others could be 4 pages. It depended on what happened during that season. I felt that this book could have been at least 200 pages shorter if there wasn't so much filler. Some of the "mini chapters" (for lack of better words) would be about Margaret running her manor and doing menial tasks like paperwork. Did that really need to be in there?
But overall, I really liked the book. I got to know who Katherine of Aragon really was, what the commoners thought of the infamous Anne Boleyn, how they reacted to Jane Seymour and their thoughts on their country being torn apart by a man who threw tantrums if he didn't get what he wanted.
Like all historical fiction books, I do not know how much of it is true but for those that doubt everything, there is a handy reference section where Philippa Gregory has every single one of her sources that she used to write this book.
This book is first person point of view, which I really liked. First person POV helps the reader to gain insight on the character's feelings and innermost thoughts. We follow Margaret Pole. She is a Plantagenet. From what I can gather from this book, the Plantagents ruled before the Tudors took the throne from them. So all Plantagents had to hide, were executed or be married into Tudor blood so they will be safe.
This is what happened to Margaret. She was basically in line to rule before the Tudors came. She was raised as princess. In the beginning she was married to a low level knight. That is quite a downgrade. As the blurb says she becomes the chief lady in waiting for Katherine of Aragon, the first of King Henry VIII's wives. What follows is a tale of how the beloved boy king becomes a paranoid old man, a court where no one can trust anyone and the Plantagenets attempting to rise and set everything back to the way it was.
As I previously stated, I enjoyed this book. I have yet to dislike a Philippa Gregory book. What prevented me from giving this book a full 5 stars, like the rest of the them, is there was just so much filler. The book didn't have chapters, it had dates and places. Some of them would only be a paragraph long while others could be 4 pages. It depended on what happened during that season. I felt that this book could have been at least 200 pages shorter if there wasn't so much filler. Some of the "mini chapters" (for lack of better words) would be about Margaret running her manor and doing menial tasks like paperwork. Did that really need to be in there?
But overall, I really liked the book. I got to know who Katherine of Aragon really was, what the commoners thought of the infamous Anne Boleyn, how they reacted to Jane Seymour and their thoughts on their country being torn apart by a man who threw tantrums if he didn't get what he wanted.
Like all historical fiction books, I do not know how much of it is true but for those that doubt everything, there is a handy reference section where Philippa Gregory has every single one of her sources that she used to write this book.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes