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Review: "Pale Rose of England" by Sandra Worth

From Goodreads:  From the award-winning author of The King's Daughter comes a story of love and defiance during the War of the Roses.

It is 1497. The news of the survival of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, has set royal houses ablaze with intrigue and rocked the fledgling Tudor dynasty. With the support of Scotland's King James IV, Richard-known to most of England as Perkin Warbeck-has come to reclaim his rightful crown from Henry Tudor. Stepping finally onto English soil, Lady Catherine Gordon has no doubt that her husband will succeed in his quest.

But rather than assuming the throne, Catherine would soon be prisoner of King Henry VII, and her beloved husband would be stamped as an imposter. With Richard facing execution for treason, Catherine, alone in the glittering but deadly Tudor Court, must find the courage to spurn a cruel monarch, shape her own destiny, and win the admiration of a nation.


My Thoughts:  I know that I said I want to see less Tudor novels but I must say that I really enjoyed this book.  I have read some negative reviews of this book but I think if you pick up this book looking to be entertained, rather than educated, by the story then you will enjoy it.  I think it was appealing to me because while it dealt heavily with pertaining to Henry VII and Henry VIII, the main focus of the book was a completely new character who I never heard of before.  I enjoyed the idea, created by Ms. Worth, that Perkin Warbeck really was one of the princes in the tower who survived and tried to regain his throne.  I also liked that the story provided a view of the Tudors from the outside and painted them in a negative light; the story was told more from the York, i.e. the loser's,perspective which is different than a lot of Tudor novels out there. It was interesting to see how the Yorkists might have felt, and the difficulties they might have dealt with, living under the reign of the Tudors.  I also appreciated the author's note at the end of the book; she explained her research extensively and was very clear about the fictional and non-fictional aspects of the book.  Overall this was a nice piece of light fluffy historical fiction. 4 stars.

Comments

  1. This one sounds good, and like something I might enjoy! Great review!

    Molli
    http://www.onceuponaprologue.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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