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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Gregory is the queen of romantic historical fictions (pun intended) and weaves a delicious story of royal intrigue, warfare, romance and magic. Her Elizabeth Woodville is a flawed and complex heroine. The novel is only bogged down with pages of dull battle scenes, descriptive and long.
I know that one should not apologize for one's reading habits - but I always feel slightly guilty when I get lost in this type of book - historical fiction featuring a female protagonist, with perhaps more emphasis on the domestic and interpersonal (read: romantic) than might be present in a novel with a male main character. I wonder if I'd feel the same way about the same novel written from a male perspective? I don't know.
My own biases aside, I enjoyed The White Queen, as I enjoy all of [a:Philippa Gregory|9987|Philippa Gregory|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1279316586p2/9987.jpg]'s work. I'm not at all familiar with the War of the Roses or, for that matter, much of British history between the Norman Conquest and the reign of Henry VIII, so it was fun to encounter a new historical period filled with vivid characters, vicious in-fighting, and at least one unsolved mystery.
I'm looking forward to reading [title:The Red Queen] as soon as the library lets me!
My own biases aside, I enjoyed The White Queen, as I enjoy all of [a:Philippa Gregory|9987|Philippa Gregory|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1279316586p2/9987.jpg]'s work. I'm not at all familiar with the War of the Roses or, for that matter, much of British history between the Norman Conquest and the reign of Henry VIII, so it was fun to encounter a new historical period filled with vivid characters, vicious in-fighting, and at least one unsolved mystery.
I'm looking forward to reading [title:The Red Queen] as soon as the library lets me!
Gregory really plays fast and loose with historical facts, but I enjoyed it in spite of myself.
Overall I liked this one but (and this is the first time I've said this about historical fiction, muchless Philippa Gregory) there were a few points where I was downright antsy and ready for the story to move on already.
The narrator was great - she had the perfect voice for a royal queen. The story moved along ok most of the time, save for a few slow parts. The backstabbing and ever-changing allegiances got to be a bit confusing at times (the Queen knows that Richard is after the crown but he doesn't know about her secret plan to foil him and Henry Tudor's mother is pretending to be on one side even though everyone pretends not to realize this and on and on). I know it was historically accurate, but I took issue with all the Edwards, Richards, and Georges. It nearly made my head spin! The addition of Melusena was a bit odd at first, but Gregory did a nice job weaving it seamlessly into the plot.
As usual, I ended up a Wikipedia a lot, following family lines and getting more historical detail, though as usual, Gregory was spot on with her facts. Not sure if I'll pick up the rest of the books in this three-part series (at least, I think it was a series) but will definitely still pick up more of Gregory's works.
The narrator was great - she had the perfect voice for a royal queen. The story moved along ok most of the time, save for a few slow parts. The backstabbing and ever-changing allegiances got to be a bit confusing at times (the Queen knows that Richard is after the crown but he doesn't know about her secret plan to foil him and Henry Tudor's mother is pretending to be on one side even though everyone pretends not to realize this and on and on). I know it was historically accurate, but I took issue with all the Edwards, Richards, and Georges. It nearly made my head spin! The addition of Melusena was a bit odd at first, but Gregory did a nice job weaving it seamlessly into the plot.
As usual, I ended up a Wikipedia a lot, following family lines and getting more historical detail, though as usual, Gregory was spot on with her facts. Not sure if I'll pick up the rest of the books in this three-part series (at least, I think it was a series) but will definitely still pick up more of Gregory's works.
2.5 stars
Let me start by saying its not the author’s fault that every second person in the book is either called Edward or Richard but it made the listening experience a bit confusing at times.
In the past few years I have come around to her Tudor series by listening rather than reading them and they were all without fail very entertaining and educational.
But this one did not grip me until the last 1/4 when the story focused on the mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London.
There was a lot that felt repetitive. Elizabeth gets pregnant, hopefully a son, Edward goes to battle for his crown. Then Elizabeth gets pregnant again, hopefully a son, and Edwards goes to battle for his crown again…… rinse and repeat.
I found Elizabeth Woodville quite bland and her diary style narrative made it difficult to paint a proper picture of the characters.
The facts of history is something the author could do nothing about, her job is to colour in the gaps and in this case the colours she chose were just too dull for my liking even with the bit of magic thrown in.
Let me start by saying its not the author’s fault that every second person in the book is either called Edward or Richard but it made the listening experience a bit confusing at times.
In the past few years I have come around to her Tudor series by listening rather than reading them and they were all without fail very entertaining and educational.
But this one did not grip me until the last 1/4 when the story focused on the mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London.
There was a lot that felt repetitive. Elizabeth gets pregnant, hopefully a son, Edward goes to battle for his crown. Then Elizabeth gets pregnant again, hopefully a son, and Edwards goes to battle for his crown again…… rinse and repeat.
I found Elizabeth Woodville quite bland and her diary style narrative made it difficult to paint a proper picture of the characters.
The facts of history is something the author could do nothing about, her job is to colour in the gaps and in this case the colours she chose were just too dull for my liking even with the bit of magic thrown in.
The War of the Roses has long interested me, and this novel provided a very good, accessible, sweeping view of the history. Well researched, the first person narrative and fictional elements worked reasonably well. I feel rather mean spirited with my 3 star rating, because Philippa Gregory truly did a great job synthesizing a chaotic and complicated time period into the voice of Elizabeth Woodville, the beautiful and unpopular Queen of Edward IV. The writing was sometimes distracting with heavy handed foreshadowing and a slight sense of the author's fatigue in managing all the Edwards, Richards and changing alliances.
I am still a big fan of Gregory for historical fiction and am looking forward to more titles in this series.
I am still a big fan of Gregory for historical fiction and am looking forward to more titles in this series.
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I normally love Philippa Gregory's books, and did enjoy reading this one. However I didn't like the bits about the use of witchcraft and magic - I think because one of the things I love about historical fiction is being able to visualise how things really were at that particular time. The addition of fantasy meant I couldn't then see the rest of it as real. Having said that, the rest of the book is very well written with believable characters and an interesting story.