In each of Weir’s creative nonfiction novels, she is careful to develop the primary character of each queen, to the facts of history. Her research is excellent, and her creative imagination develops each character in her books to be good and true, or devious and greedy, depending entirely upon the facts she has uncovered and the individuals involved ... Weir is a respected historian, an expert on the Tudor line, and she applies her creative imagination to present a novel that is hard to put down. The queens are not cookie-cutter characters, but lifelike, real persons with flaws that often dictated their downfall. The same holds true with her presentation of King Henry VIII as a man of great power, who wields that power to his benefit, but also as a man of human feelings and frailties ... Weir is exceptionally good at showing how a young woman, unfamiliar with life’s treacherous twists and turns, can be easily manipulated, even as she grows into a queen who, herself, wields power that she does not understand.
Alison Weir works wonders yet again. While there are no surprises in this story --- we all know what happens to Henry VIII’s wives --- she still makes it fresh and exciting. We meet Katheryn at a young age, being handed off to a string of relatives to be cared for. In her most formative years, she is left to her own devices and then led astray. While you may not feel too badly for her, considering the decisions she makes, you will be intrigued by her. If you are like me and cannot pass up an opportunity to read about the Tudor court, this one is for you.
Continuing a fictional chronicle of the Six Tudor Queens, Weir brings thorough research and spirited storytelling to her portrayal of Katheryn Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife ... Weir sees Katheryn as an impetuous, superficial young woman—far less sympathetic than Jane Seymour or Katherine of Aragon—dazzled by wealth and glamour ... A vivid re-creation of a Tudor tragedy.
On one level, this seems thin gruel to make into a meal of a 400-page novel. Weir excels at the task, often adding descriptive flourishes that ring true ... But there are limits to what even a practiced historian and novelist can do with this story. Katheryn Howard was not wronged, as Queen Catherine was; she was not devious, as Anne Boleyn was; she was not gracious, as Jane Seymour was, and unlike all three of those women, she never had any kind of personal relationship with King Henry. She was a lusty teenager before she met him, a lusty teenager while she was his queen, and a lusty teenager when her head was cut off ... prompts some of Weir’s laziest writing to date in this series.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
