RELUCTANT QUEEN by Geraldine Evans: Review

Blurb:

Mary, the beautiful, younger sister of English king, Henry VIII, reluctantly agrees to marry the aged and sickly Louis XII of France for reasons of state. But before agreeing, she extracts Henry’s promise that she may please herself for her second marriage. Mary is deeply in love with the low-born Charles Brandon, her brother’s boon companion, and is determined to wed Brandon should King Louis die.

Unhappy at the French court, blonde Mary makes friends with the charming, but debauched, Francis, her aged husband’s heir and son-in-law. But Mary is dismayed when her friendly overtures are taken as encouragement for something more than friendship. Too late, Mary finds that, even at twenty, Francis is a practised seducer. He pursues her relentlessly. And with the death of her husband and Francis’s elevation to the French throne and absolute power, her situation becomes desperate. Unprotected, Mary is a captive prey to Francis’s lust for her.

Will she ever be free to go to her lost love? Because since Louis’s death, Mary has become increasingly anxious about the rumours she hears concerning her brother’s plans for her future. Did Henry intend to push her into another loveless marriage to suit himself and the State?

King Henry sends Charles Brandon to the French court on a diplomatic mission, Desperate, Mary persuades him to go through a secret marriage with her. Then they confess to Wolsey and ask him to intercede with King Henry.

Fearfully, they await King Henry’s reaction, aware that no one, not even his much-loved younger sister, defies him with impunity. 

My Review:

I’m a sucker for anything to do with the Tudors, and Reluctant Queen by Geraldine Evans was no exception. There are hundreds of novels on Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Tudor, Henry Tudor, Henry’s daughter Mary Tudor, etc., but one of the Tudors who I have read very little about is Henry’s little sister Mary Tudor. Of course she is almost always mentioned in books that I’ve read on that time period, and we know that she defied her brother, the King of England, to marry his best friend, but beyond that I knew very little about her. Her life definitely seems to have been too short, and it doesn’t seem to have been full of a great amount of happiness, but like her older sister and brother, when she wanted something she went after it even when it went against the wishes of others.

Geraldine Evans did a wonderful job of bringing Mary to life for me. I had no idea that she even had more than one child with Charles Brandon. Frances ended up becoming another semi-infamous Tudor, so she is known in history, but not much is heard of her other two children. I love how the author allows the reader to see what was possibly going on inside Mary’s head during her life. The reader is able to see the regrets that she possibly had over her marriage to Charles, as well as her mental and physical pain during the latter years of her life. It is apparent in the books that I read on Anne Boleyn, and also in this novel, that Mary did not like her and didn’t hide it very well. It was interesting to view the demise of Henry and Catherine’s marriage through his sister’s eyes in this novel.

The only complaint I have would be on how Anne Boleyn is portrayed in this novel. I cannot tell a lie, I am an Anne Boleyn supporter. Another issue I had is a factual inaccuracy. In the novel when Mary is Queen of France and Anne is one of her little lady’s in waiting there is a line which says, “Mary felt that she and Anne shared a special bond—had they not both lost their mothers around the same age? And although Anne still had a father, he was over-ambitious for his children […]” Anne’s mother did not die until around a year after Anne had been executed by Henry VIII.

Other than those two issues I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I learned a great deal about Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk. During a time when women did as they were told, Mary went against the grain and chose her own destiny, which always makes for an interesting Tudor Era read!

This novel gets 4 out of 5 stars from me!

BUY RELUCTANT QUEEN HERE!

ONE more day to enter my FIRST BOOK GIVEAWAY!

That's right! One more day before I choose the winner (via random.org) for my first book giveaway, THE LAST WIFE OF HENRY VIII. So, tell your blogger friends or your real life friends, lol, and make sure to sign up! I will announce the winner on my blog tomorrow, and I will also email the winner in order to get their snail mail address.
In other book news, I have about 50 pages left in TO BE QUEEN by Christy English. When I say I can't put the book down, I'm not lying. The only reason I haven't finished yet is because I worked doubles between substitute teaching and serving at applebees all last week. I have a good feeling I'll finish it by tomorrow and get my review up asap. Reading the book honestly takes me back to the time Eleanor of Aquitaine was alive, and put me right inside her head. While reading the book I get completely lost in Eleanor's thoughts and plans. I get anxious when she's anxious, and feel her excitement at times. It's easy to become completely immersed in this novel, so much so that the world around you ceases to exist...and THAT is the type of book I like! So, as soon as I finish it, the review will be up!

OHHH...and P.S. I asked for a KINDLE 4G for my birthday (April 16th I'll be 30!) And as a first time Kindle user, I hope I can figure it all out. I also hope I'm not disappointed with it, and miss my paperback books, but it's the "new" thing, and moving back an forth across the country means losing books along the way and that I cannot do! 

MY FIRST GIVEAWAY: THE LAST WIFE OF HENRY VIII by Carolly Erickson

I guess we'll see how this goes! I've been wanting to post a giveaway, because I know how much I love entering (and winning) book giveaways! I've decided to stick with my favorite genre of novels, which of course is historical fiction. Also, the majority of historical fiction novels I've read over the years take place during the TUDOR time period. The Tudor's were absolutely fascinating, and their family continues to intrigue people to this day! The book I chose for my first giveaway is a novel that I read about one year ago. It is not included in my reviews, because my blog is fairly  new, so I was not blogging at the time of my reading this. I know that I enjoyed the book immensely, and that I would love to share it with a fellow lover of historical fiction!
I am posting the goodreads.com blurb about THE LAST WIFE OF HENRY VIII, so that readers will have an idea of what book they are signing up to win!

Courageous, attractive, romantic, intelligent, Catherine Parr became the sixth wife of Henry VIII. Her story, as Carolly Erickson re-creates it, is page-turning drama: from the splendors of the Field of the Cloth of Gold to the gory last years of the outsize King Henry, when heads rolled and England trembled, Catherine bestrode her destiny and survived to marry her true love.

Catherine Parr attracted the king's lust and, though much in love with the handsome Thomas Seymour, was thrown into the intrigue-filled snake pit of the royal court. While victims of the king's wrath suffered torture and execution, Catherine persevered until, at last, she came within the orbit of the royal fury. King Henry toyed with her, first ordering her arrested, then granting her clemency. She managed to evade execution, but she knew that the king had his wandering eye fixed on wife number seven.

**You MUST be a follower of this BLOG in order to win, and you also MUST leave your name and email address in order to contact the winner!

For extra entries:

+1 FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER 


+1 TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY ON YOUR TWITTER or BLOG (please provide link for me to verify)

+1 ADD ME AS A FRIEND ON GOODREADS.COM

+2 ADD ME AS A FRIEND ON BOOKBLOGS.COM

The winner will be drawn at random on April 8, 2011!

I guess we shall see how this giveaway goes! 

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

I'm stuck in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport for the next three hours, so what better to do than review a book that I absolutely loved reading!
It's pretty hard to go wrong with a novel by Alison Weir. She's a pro when it comes to anything Tudor related, not to mention her writing style is outstanding. Her descriptions allow the reader to imagine themselves right in the middle of what is going on in the story. I became completely lost (in a good way) in this novel.
Innocent Traitor was actually one of the first novels dealing with historical fiction that I had read, outside of Philippa Gregory or historical romance novels. I had no idea who Lady Jane Grey was, but I thought the book sounded good, so I ordered it. It's a book that will definitely stay in my permanent library.
Jane Grey was a young and very intelligent girl, who was related to the King of England, who at the time was Edward VI, son of King Henry VIII. There were plots to wed Edward VI to Lady Jane Grey, but Edward VI died at a young age, and Jane's ambitious family as well as Edward VI's Protestant advisors decided to push her forward onto the throne anyway (because she was somewhat in line for the crown.) The plan was to keep Mary I (Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon) off the throne. Edward had been Protestant, and on his death bed his will was changed naming Jane his successor to the throne, rather than his Catholic sister Mary I. Edward VI and his advisors strove to keep Mary I off the throne in order to keep the current religion intact.
Jane had no ambitions herself to the throne, but as a young girl she was at the mercy of her parents as well as other adults in power. Jane was forced to marry Guildford Dudley, and then forced to take the Crown of England, even though she believed that Mary I was the rightful heir to the crown, and that it was completely wrong for herself to be named Queen of England.
As I've said, I really didn't know anything about Lady Jane Grey, so I found myself rooting for her throughout the story. That said, the ending of the novel really got to me. I knew that King Henry VIII's daughter Mary became Queen, but I didn't realize under what circumstances, or the sad story of Jane until I finished the novel.
Although this novel tore at my heart strings, and bummed me out, it was still an amazing book. Jane may have only been Queen for nine days, but her story is one that will endure forever. Even though she was such a small part of history, the circumstances of her rise and fall are sad, but yet completely interesting. Anyone who is a lover of Tudor literature should definitely pick this book up.
Jane seems to be forgotten in the novel's that focus on the Tudor's, and I think it's awesome that Alison Weir chose to research and write about her life and death. There are hundreds of books about the other Tudor monarchs and also King Henry VIII's wives, but how many are there on Lady Jane Grey?
The decision that Mary I made in the end regarding Jane's life is heart wrenching (I actually teared up), and was one of the many events during Mary's reign which gave her the nickname "Bloody Mary." However, Jane alive would have continued to be used as a figurehead for people who opposed Mary I, in order to get people to rise up against Mary I's rule.
I find that I often have trouble getting into Alison Weir's novels that are strictly historical. I enjoy learning about important people in history, especially the Tudors, but I can't seem to get engrossed in her historical novels. However, her historical fiction novels are some of the best I've read, and her writing style and knowledge of the events of the time are the best out there!

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Much like Gregory's book "The Red Queen," I liked it but didn't love it. I enjoyed learning more about Elizabeth Woodville, because it seems the majority of books mention her, but don't really get into much detail about her life. She's pretty much known as the mother of the "princes in the tower," and the mother of the future Queen of England, Elizabeth, who marries Henry VII and unites the Yorks and Plantagenets. She was also known to be absolutely beautiful, and her beauty caused Edward IV to fall in love with her almost at first sight, and marry her soon after, even though she wasn't royalty, and she was a widow who already had two children and was several years older than Edward IV.
I like that Gregory gave an in depth understanding of Elizabeth Woodville, because like I said, I didn't really know that much about her from other books she has been mentioned in. "The White Queen" was well written of course, and I think it was overall historically correct, but there were a couple of things that annoyed me. The first thing that was a little over the top for me, was the frequent references to Melusina. I guess she descended in some way from Melusina, who was some type of water goddess? Anyways, this brought kind of a fantasy element to the book, and it made it seem as though Elizabeth Woodville dabbled in witchcraft. I'm not exactly sure whether she did or didn't, but I'm thinking that people, especially women who were in the public eye, probably tried to stay away from witchcraft and the worshipping of a pagan goddess. I could be wrong on this one, but it was just a little annoying that she was casting spells and crazy stuff in this book! Another thing that bothered me, was the light in which Richard III was shown in. He is portrayed as an evil man who is overly ambitious and a murderer. I understand that there has been much debate on whether or not he killed the princes in the tower, but he really had no reason to do so, the boys had been declared bastards, so killing them wouldn't do anything to benefit him. However, I realize that there is still a huge debate over who would have had the best motive to kill the princes, and it is something that will never be figured out, so while I might be biased in the direction of it NOT being Richard III, there are many others who believe that it WAS him.
She comes across as kind of unlikable in this book, and sometimes it's hard for me to get into a book when I don't really like the main character. That wasn't really the case with this book though, because it was interesting to see who Elizabeth Woodville might have really been, and what she might have really been like. She's a fascinating woman, who obviously was ambitious and charismatic to have won Edward IV's heart, and to have kept it up until his death. Also, the fact that the royalty of England descended partly from her for over a hundred years to come is pretty fascinating.
This wasn't a book that I couldn't put down, but I did want to keep reading it, and to keep learning more about who Philippa Gregory believed she was as a person. I read "The White Queen" and "The Red Queen" back to back, and of the two books, I'd have to say I enjoyed "The Red Queen" more. I feel like Margaret Beaufort's life was more fascinating, and that she was a more cunning woman, who could match wits with any man of her time. I haven't done much research on either of the women these two books are written about, so I don't know how historically correct they are, but from Gregory's other books it seems like she does like to keep things more on the side of historical correctness than not. And although this book wasn't completely riveting, it did pique my interest about Elizabeth Woodville's life, and I have been looking into more books about her.