evieslibrary 's review for:

Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen by Alison Weir

4.0

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 I will start by saying that this book is phenomenally researched and I would really recommend it to anybody that is interested in history because wow, it really is a learning journey. I don't actually know tons about this era outside of my primary school history lessons so I found it really intriguing to learn more context behind the surface level information I recognised from being a child. I felt as though It really brought the names I knew to life and made them real people as appose to pieces of history to learn about and I really enjoyed the perspective of Katherine and the way that it really humanised the history. 

 

I really loved learning more about Katherine and her relationship with Henry, I think she is one of the least spoken about queens so it was nice to understand her life and the dynamics a little more as well as getting some insight into Henry in his early life to understand what led him down the pathway we all know very well.

 

One thing I would say with this one, is it did at time feel very heavy on information and a little like a history textbook. Although historical fiction is a genre I gravitate towards I would say this book was a lot more history leaning than any book I have read previously so definitely worth keeping in mind if like me history isn't your normal genre. 

 

I went into this one expecting it to be quite slow and I would say in the most part it definitely was that but in a way that felt right to the amount of information being shared and what was going on. However there were parts of this story that did feel a little rushed over. I think its hard writing a story that is so close to history as this one, in the sense that it removes some of the artistic licence of the author I suppose to flesh out the characters and dynamics (or at least I am making the assumption that this is why) in ways I would expect from a book that was more fiction leaning and for me it just left parts of the story a bit unsatisfying and a little bit dull. 

 

Overall I think this book was really interesting and I am definitely intrigued by the rest of the series but at times it was a little slow going and is definitely meant for those with a keen interest in history as I imagine it would be a little tedious to get through if you weren't interested in that.