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The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
4.0

"I shall be the mother of a king. I shall be all but Queen of England."

As a future history major, historical fiction is one of my favorite, yet most feared genres. I view it as a fun way to learn, but you can't always believe what an author writes, hence the 'fiction' in historical fiction. Philippa Gregory isn't always accurate, so going into this book I was cautious about believing just about anything, but I still wanted to enjoy it.

The Red Queen is the story of Margaret Beaufort, the future mother of King Henry VII. This novel goes from when Margaret is nearly 12 years old to when she is in her 40s and follows her through her 3 marriages, her multiple campaigns and almost everything she when through in her life. 

Thankfully, I nearly loved this novel. There was one major factor that made me dock a star, but we'll get to that later. For now, let's talk about the accuracy. I fact checked everything, from births to marriages to deaths and I did find somethings that irked me. I, for one, didn't like how Gregory portrayed the Boys in the Towers situation and their end. I like the idea of leaving it a mystery, since that's how we see it today. It did bring up a possibility that I have never considered, but personally I like the mystery of who plotted against them. I did appreciate that we never know if the boys were killed or not, though. The other situation that bothered me, not as a romance loving reader, but as a history buff, was the romance between Jasper Tudor and Margaret Beaufort. I have so far found nothing saying that they had a romance, but I will continue my research. 

The main problem I had with this book, though, was Margaret herself. I found her to be very self-righteous and that she was God's Chosen One and she could not sin, even though almost every thought she had was a sin. She did not believe that she was vain, although she kept calling herself the Chosen One and she was ordained by God to bear the next King of England. She constantly blamed others for her misfortunes and overall turned everything wrong with herself back onto some else. 

Overall, this book was really good. The writing was simplistic enough that someone who isn't familiar with the history of England or the War of the Roses could understand, but it was still at an adult reading level. It was fast paced and never dropped my attention. I couldn't put this book down. It gave an interesting insight on a figure that I never personally had taken interest in or knew much about. 

I highly recommend this book to avid historical fiction fans and anyone who wants to dip their toes into this fantastic genre.