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A review by punkinmuffin
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
4.0
I'm a bit of a sucker for historical fiction and have been meaning to read Philippa Gregory for a while now. The book is clearly very well-researched and I learned a lot about 16th century Spain from it.
As a character, Katherine drew me in despite knowing how it would ultimately end for her, alone and poor, disregarded. The book doesn't take us there thankfully, it ends as she is about to give her testimony before the Papal Legate court convened to hear "The King's Great Matter". What we do experience is her years of widowhood before marriage to Henry. I had no idea how it had been for her. This, coupled with her early life as Catalina, Infanta of Spain, fascinated me.
The only criticism I have is that reading the long passages in italics (for Katherine's internal monologues) got a little wearisome. Other than that, if you like historical fiction then you will probably enjoy this novel.
As a character, Katherine drew me in despite knowing how it would ultimately end for her, alone and poor, disregarded. The book doesn't take us there thankfully, it ends as she is about to give her testimony before the Papal Legate court convened to hear "The King's Great Matter". What we do experience is her years of widowhood before marriage to Henry. I had no idea how it had been for her. This, coupled with her early life as Catalina, Infanta of Spain, fascinated me.
The only criticism I have is that reading the long passages in italics (for Katherine's internal monologues) got a little wearisome. Other than that, if you like historical fiction then you will probably enjoy this novel.