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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Katherine's story is such a sad one. I knew it going in, but still, so sad. It's nice book, fast and easy. I hope mostly historical!
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway and was excited to crack it open as I am a bit of a Tudor geek. While I appreciate the research that is readily apparent in this novel, the book lacks life. Henry and Katherine were both larger than life, but they barely make an impression here. There are also scenes that just don't ring true - what 16 year old is going to feel an attraction to a 10 year old? That's icky. If you're looking for facts, this book has them in spades. If you're looking for a little spark, look elsewhere.
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Katherine of Aragon moves to a foreign country to be their queen when she is very young and quickly becomes enamored with her arranged husband, Henry VIII.
The low score on this novel is completely due to my own personal writing tastes. I will put those thoughts at the end of this review if you’ve read the book and want to know what bothered me. If you have not read it, do not avoid reading this book/series on my account.
Alison Weir does a great job weaving historical facts into the narrative. It’s clear that this novel is well researched. She set up the beginning of the marriage as almost magically happy, and the contrast between her optimism and what I knew happened to Katherine later kept me reading. The changes in Katherine and Henry’s attitudes toward each other were well described in my opinion.
I can see how this novel is a jigsaw piece in Weir’s series of the wives of Henry VIII. Almost all of Henry’s future wives are mentioned. She is planting the seeds for the marriages to come, which isn’t a spoiler. If you don’t know he had many wives by now then it’s your own fault.
The trouble with writing history as fiction is that authors can’t really skip the boring parts or they’ll be called inaccurate. The end of this book is mostly Katherine waiting, waiting for Henry to change his mind, for Henry to let her see Mary, waiting for word back from the Emporer or the Pope or Chapuys. She is literally locked up in 2 rooms at the end. It doesn’t really allow for action-packed storytelling. Personally, I could have done with fewer descriptions of Henry coming to her bed and then not getting it on with her leaving her in despair and fewer threats from Anne that never pan out. Not because they aren’t integral to her life, but because once or twice gets the point across.
Okay, personal writing pet peeves:
The only thing we know about Henry is his eyes (always piercingly blue) and his athletic frame (always strapping). At some point, IRL he gets middle-aged. IIRC he’s gangrenous and oozing for most of his marriage to poor Jane Seymour. So I thought Henry could be described in varying lights throughout their marriage.
Seemingly every dialogue tag had an unnecessary adverb: “Get out of my room!” Katherine yelled hotly. “Why won’t the Pope make a decision?” she asked quizzically. It read melodramatically to me.
There is much heartbreak, cry, and sob in this novel. People get heartbroken and people cry for sure. But, IMHO, good dialogue can convey that more elegantly than bluntly saying it at the end of every scene. Melodrama.
I get that Katherine is stubborn but her yearning to be with Henry after he does all this terrible shit to her is maddening. Like, Katherine does not change a bit from her marriage to the end of the book. I wanted her to start to get it. I wanted to shake her and say “Girl, the pope has no say over who Henry wants in his bed at night. If he wanted to go to Aragontown, He’d be here.” That might be historically accurate; Katherine might have been naive enough to think all things would go back to normal when the pope sided with her, but she never seemed dumb to me. The thought that her life was irreversible must have dawned on her as a possibility.
The low score on this novel is completely due to my own personal writing tastes. I will put those thoughts at the end of this review if you’ve read the book and want to know what bothered me. If you have not read it, do not avoid reading this book/series on my account.
Alison Weir does a great job weaving historical facts into the narrative. It’s clear that this novel is well researched. She set up the beginning of the marriage as almost magically happy, and the contrast between her optimism and what I knew happened to Katherine later kept me reading. The changes in Katherine and Henry’s attitudes toward each other were well described in my opinion.
I can see how this novel is a jigsaw piece in Weir’s series of the wives of Henry VIII. Almost all of Henry’s future wives are mentioned. She is planting the seeds for the marriages to come, which isn’t a spoiler. If you don’t know he had many wives by now then it’s your own fault.
The trouble with writing history as fiction is that authors can’t really skip the boring parts or they’ll be called inaccurate. The end of this book is mostly Katherine waiting, waiting for Henry to change his mind, for Henry to let her see Mary, waiting for word back from the Emporer or the Pope or Chapuys. She is literally locked up in 2 rooms at the end. It doesn’t really allow for action-packed storytelling. Personally, I could have done with fewer descriptions of Henry coming to her bed and then not getting it on with her leaving her in despair and fewer threats from Anne that never pan out. Not because they aren’t integral to her life, but because once or twice gets the point across.
Okay, personal writing pet peeves:
The only thing we know about Henry is his eyes (always piercingly blue) and his athletic frame (always strapping). At some point, IRL he gets middle-aged. IIRC he’s gangrenous and oozing for most of his marriage to poor Jane Seymour. So I thought Henry could be described in varying lights throughout their marriage.
Seemingly every dialogue tag had an unnecessary adverb: “Get out of my room!” Katherine yelled hotly. “Why won’t the Pope make a decision?” she asked quizzically. It read melodramatically to me.
There is much heartbreak, cry, and sob in this novel. People get heartbroken and people cry for sure. But, IMHO, good dialogue can convey that more elegantly than bluntly saying it at the end of every scene. Melodrama.
I get that Katherine is stubborn but her yearning to be with Henry after he does all this terrible shit to her is maddening. Like, Katherine does not change a bit from her marriage to the end of the book. I wanted her to start to get it. I wanted to shake her and say “Girl, the pope has no say over who Henry wants in his bed at night. If he wanted to go to Aragontown, He’d be here.” That might be historically accurate; Katherine might have been naive enough to think all things would go back to normal when the pope sided with her, but she never seemed dumb to me. The thought that her life was irreversible must have dawned on her as a possibility.
I was really excited for this when I picked it up, because I'm fascinated by the story of Henry VIII's queens and have been for half my life or more. I figured something blending the historical with fiction would be a winner for me, so I had really high hopes for it. And it's definitely not bad in any way, just that it didn't really bring me anything new at all? I think part of it is that it felt like it both dragged in places, and was also exceptionally sparse in others, and I realize that's likely more to do with the nature of having to tell the story of someone who ruled for as long as Katherine did, but where the bulk of the story falls in the latter half of her reign, and even then still happens in fits and bursts over several years.
Add to that that I started reading this shortly after a recent re-binge of The Tudors, and perhaps I fell victim to a bit of deja vu on pieces? That show was certainly not historically accurate in many, many ways (though it did use just enough historical references that I was reading quite a few quoted letters and lines in this book in the actor's voices from the show), but it does the blend of the historical story with fiction reasonably well for what it is. And by comparison this felt just a little flat, I guess? It gives context and insight into Katherine's behavior and choices, especially during the tail end of her life and marriage to Henry, but there is little beyond those events. It felt more like a highlights reel for Katherine's life than anything, and I guess I was expecting something that built a little more of a story around the facts than that?
I feel like the Amazon page misrepresented it a little, since it leans on the line that this "takes on what no fiction writer has done before", which implied to me that the fiction piece of this was going to go a fair bit harder than it did in rounding out the story, rather than just lightly stringing events together. Like I said, not bad, just perhaps I stepped into it with the wrong expectations. I'm invested enough in the historical side of it to at least give the next one a read, and maybe will just expect something bordering closer to non-fiction this time and see if it sits better.
Add to that that I started reading this shortly after a recent re-binge of The Tudors, and perhaps I fell victim to a bit of deja vu on pieces? That show was certainly not historically accurate in many, many ways (though it did use just enough historical references that I was reading quite a few quoted letters and lines in this book in the actor's voices from the show), but it does the blend of the historical story with fiction reasonably well for what it is. And by comparison this felt just a little flat, I guess? It gives context and insight into Katherine's behavior and choices, especially during the tail end of her life and marriage to Henry, but there is little beyond those events. It felt more like a highlights reel for Katherine's life than anything, and I guess I was expecting something that built a little more of a story around the facts than that?
I feel like the Amazon page misrepresented it a little, since it leans on the line that this "takes on what no fiction writer has done before", which implied to me that the fiction piece of this was going to go a fair bit harder than it did in rounding out the story, rather than just lightly stringing events together. Like I said, not bad, just perhaps I stepped into it with the wrong expectations. I'm invested enough in the historical side of it to at least give the next one a read, and maybe will just expect something bordering closer to non-fiction this time and see if it sits better.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced