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robotnik 's review for:
Three Sisters, Three Queens
by Philippa Gregory
slow-paced
Listen, I've read a lot of Gregory's books in this series and I've always enjoyed them. Sure, there's a few moments in some of them where it gets a little boring, but they always pick up by the end and I leave the book feeling satisfied. That did not happen in this book. From the get go, Three Sisters, Three Queens, was a disappointment.
The first thing that was jarring to me was the misleading nature of the title. I incorrectly assumed that there was going to be some focus on the three queens individually. It wouldn't be unprecedented in my experience with Gregory's series. After all, while it was written afterward, I had read The Last Tudor first and it separated the book into three parts so you get time with all three of the sisters. That doesn't happen in this book. The book is entirely about Margaret with the other two being extras in her story, barely appearing physically and are only an asset because Margaret spends most of her time bitching about them.
Which brings us to Margaret. Every main character in this series has some weird entitlement issue because they're often noble or royal born and think they deserve everything, but Margaret is on a whole other level on her own. Starting from the age of twelve, she's insufferably jealous and greedy. She was born into a stellar birthright and will proceed to spend every waking moment of every day letting you know she deserves to have everything. When people don't do things her way, she's pretty much a screeching banshee in the narrative. And, she never grows out of this. While it's toned down in the late part of the book, she's still just the same jealous woman and has been her whole life. It takes exactly zero seconds for the complaining to get old, tired and annoying. Let's not forget to mention that she's, by admission at one point, a shitty parent as she abandoned her child because she snagged herself a hot husband. Everything about her second marriage just made me want her to spontaneously combust.
If none of that was enough, the book was just boring. I'm normally super into all the silly court stuff these books bring, but this one was nothing but a bore. At most, there were a few things that were kind of interesting but they often ended too quickly and returned the story to be a slog fest.
Out of all of Gregory's books I've read to this point, this one is by far my least favourite. I feel like it's safe to skip this one since you don't necessarily have to read every book in this series. I would, 100%, recommend skipping it.
The first thing that was jarring to me was the misleading nature of the title. I incorrectly assumed that there was going to be some focus on the three queens individually. It wouldn't be unprecedented in my experience with Gregory's series. After all, while it was written afterward, I had read The Last Tudor first and it separated the book into three parts so you get time with all three of the sisters. That doesn't happen in this book. The book is entirely about Margaret with the other two being extras in her story, barely appearing physically and are only an asset because Margaret spends most of her time bitching about them.
Which brings us to Margaret. Every main character in this series has some weird entitlement issue because they're often noble or royal born and think they deserve everything, but Margaret is on a whole other level on her own. Starting from the age of twelve, she's insufferably jealous and greedy. She was born into a stellar birthright and will proceed to spend every waking moment of every day letting you know she deserves to have everything. When people don't do things her way, she's pretty much a screeching banshee in the narrative. And, she never grows out of this. While it's toned down in the late part of the book, she's still just the same jealous woman and has been her whole life. It takes exactly zero seconds for the complaining to get old, tired and annoying. Let's not forget to mention that she's, by admission at one point, a shitty parent as she abandoned her child because she snagged herself a hot husband. Everything about her second marriage just made me want her to spontaneously combust.
If none of that was enough, the book was just boring. I'm normally super into all the silly court stuff these books bring, but this one was nothing but a bore. At most, there were a few things that were kind of interesting but they often ended too quickly and returned the story to be a slog fest.
Out of all of Gregory's books I've read to this point, this one is by far my least favourite. I feel like it's safe to skip this one since you don't necessarily have to read every book in this series. I would, 100%, recommend skipping it.