The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory

Yikes, another not so great book from Gregory. I've liked a couple of her works but it seems to be either very good from her or not so good at all. And this was no so good at all.

Queen Elizabeth is newly come to the throne and she discovers with it that it is deeply indebted and she has enemies on all sides. The church does not agree with her and everyone of her advisors wishes her to marry and produce a heir. But she's fallen in love with Robert Dudley. A man who is already married and with a young strong wife whom he ignores, Dudley is in love with the Queen too. But he also sees her as a stepping stone to rise to the position of King. The Queen's main adviser William Cecil knows this can't happen or she'll lose her crown, but it is very hard to stop love.

The characters were rather weak in this novel. Especially the women characters. It was rather sad how they looked to a man for everything, especially Elizabeth who was supposed to have been a strong woman. She was a simpering ninny in this book and it was very disappointing. She was also ruthless when it came to some things. Robert Dudley was a hard man to like and I could feel myself resenting him for the way he treated his wife and for the way he controlled the Queen and manipulated her. William Cecil was about the most logical one in the book, but he too was not very likable.

I thought it was a pretty boring book. Like some of her others she gets lost in the details and conversations and not a lot actually happens in the book. It moves slowly and I kept wondering when the next scene of the Queen and Dudley would be over as they were pretty repetitive and similar. There are some mentions of sex in this book and they are a little more descriptive than they are in some of the other books. I'm no historian so I can't say anything on how accurate the book is, but this one isn't very much fun to read. It was well written with clear writing, but that's about the only thing it had going for it.

Another not so good book from Gregory. It makes me a little apprehensive to read anything else by her.

The Virgin's Lover
Copyright 2004
438 pages

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

I found the Other Queen quite tedious. It was not near as good as some of Gregory's other works and I couldn't wait for it to be done so I could move on to a different book.

Mary Queen of Scots is being held prisoner in England after she flees Scotland. She longs to return to her throne, but at the time, is held by Queen Elizabeth. Her jailers/companions are Bess and George Shrewsbury, a count and countess. Bess is a self made woman who's most important wishes are to maintain her home and wealth. George cares mostly about his honor but comes to like this unfortunate Queen. As Mary surrounds herself with plot and intrigue, none of them are safe though.

I didn't really like any of the characters in this novel. They were all pretty self absorbed. Bess was at least interesting, but still not very easy to warm too. Her husband was a fool and a pretty big one at that. And Queen Mary I just did not find charming like she was supposed to be in the book. Since these were the main three characters in the book and the narration told from all of their points of views, it was rather disappointing to not enjoy reading about any of them. Even the side characters didn't have a lot of depth and weren't really needed.

Gregory in this one again selects three characters and has the narration told by each of the three in different chapters. This serves to make the book very choppy and hard to sink into. The book was also quite boring as we are told about a lot that happens, but none of it actually happens in the book, it is just passed on my word of mouth and so we see three people laze about a home for most of the book. I'm not a historian, so I can't comment on whether or not this book was historically accurate, but this one didn't even have the saving grace of being interesting. I think the only thing I did like about this book was that it served as a continuance for the rest of the series.

Not a very good book by Gregory. She has done much better than this. I can only hope that as I continue reading her books, that they are much better than this one.

The Other Queen
Copyright 2008
438 pages

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

This book is best read after The Other Boleyn Girl. It takes up only a few years after that book. It could be read as a standalone, but I think you get a better introduction to some of the characters by reading the other first.

Three very different women come together in this book. Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife. Jane Boleyn, disgraced wife of George Boleyn who was Henry's 2nd wife's brother. Lastly, Katherine Howard, a cousin of the Boleyn's who was Henry VIII's fifth wife. With a troubled homelife, Anne is eager to start anew as Queen of England but soon finds herself at the wrong side of Henry's temper. Grown to a miserable old man, he doesn't like to realize he is gross and unattractive and Anne makes him feel this way. Meanwhile, Katherine loves court and all its intrigues and will do anything to have more pretty things. If this means flirting with a King old enough to be her grandfather, so be it, it can only lead to her advantage. And Jane will guide them both stopping only to think of herself and how it will effect her.

I really like how Gregory wrote Anne. I thought it was a very sympathetic description and she was one of the nicest characters I've ever seen in one of Gregory's books. She was just very likable. Katherine on the other hand was a ninny, harmless, but somewhat boring at times. Jane was a bit strange and its hard to like her because of the other books and her actions, but you can pity her easily. By far the most outrageous character of the book was the Duke who played all the Boleyns like pawns; he is truly evil in this series.

I like the premise of this book and how it tells the tales of some of the lesser known Queens of Henry. However, I am no historian so that doesn't have any bearing on my enjoyment of the books. This could be different for someone who actually does know European history better than I. I wasn't a big fan of how the book jumped around between the three women's points of view. It just made it so choppy and to be honest, I could have done without Jane's input at all. I liked Anne's input the best and think she should have been the voice of the whole novel. A word of warning to some is that this book doesn't shy away from descriptions of sex, rotting wounds, and other things that may not agree with some. But it does make it very realistic.

A good continuance of the series. I look forward to reading more by Gregory.

The Boleyn Inheritance
Copyright 2006
516 pages

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

I guess I should first put out a disclaimer that I know barely anything about English history. Therefore I don't look at this book from a historical perspective, but rather just read it as I would any fiction book. Out of all the ones I've read from Gregory, I do have to say that this is probably my favorite.

Mary Boleyn is the younger daughter of a great house. Already married, that doesn't stop her when her family decides to use her to seduce King Henry VIII as he has shown interest in her. She bears him two children and while she is doing so, her older sister Anne then catches his attention. Anne has bigger plans though, plans that include the crown if she can manage to convince Henry to quietly remove the current Queen who has produced no heir for him. Mary has to help her sister despite being heartbroken herself, and the game becomes dangerous with intrigue as each step must be played right or they will face the hangman.

I liked Mary as a character. She may have been too sweet and good at times, but as the narrator there is a certain charm about her. She just seems down to earth when compared with the rest of the characters and she wants the same things I do from my life. Anne was a snippy thing and I think Gregory made it hard for any reader to like her as she was full of ambition without a care for hurting anyone. King Henry was as selfish a King as he was in Gregory's other book, The Constant Princess. He is also another hard to like figure in history. Mary and Anne's brother George was an interesting character. He had a bright personality despite all his troubles in the court.

Since this is based on history I thought that it flowed pretty well. There was enough of a draw that I had to keep reading and didn't want to put it down. It did move slowly in some parts but luckily that never lasted to long. I would have much preferred to hear more about Mary's life but she is slowly taken over by Anne in the book, even though she is the narrator. For those faint of heart there are some somewhat graphic scenes about childbirth, miscarriages, and sex in this book. They aren't horrendous descriptions but still enough that if you picture it in your head you might be queasy.

An interesting tale. I found it engaging and will definitely read more by Gregory.

The Other Boleyn Girl
Copyright 2001
661 pages

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

I've read some of Philippa Gregory's other works and enjoyed them. That being said, this is not one of my favorites of hers.

Catalina, the Infanta of Spain, was born to be Princess of Wales and Queen of England. She believes it is her duty and right by birth. When she finally reaches of age, she makes the journey to England where she is married to Arthur, future King of England. After Arthur's untimely death however, she has to find a way to reclaim her place and try to betroth herself to his younger brother, King Henry VIII. Through this she has to stand courageous and face down her opposers and those in the royal family who do not wish her to become a part of it, namely the King's mother.

Since these characters are all based on real people it is hard to say whether or not they are accurate. We have accounts in history but the vast majority of this book is speculation on what they may have thought or did. Catalina is pretty full of herself despite being the protagonist to choose for and you can't help but wonder if she could have had an easier happier life if she would have just put down her ambition. Arthur, her first husband, seemed to be a nice thoughtful man and it makes for a not so nice comparison to his brother Henry. Henry is described as a very selfish person and while history leads us to believe it is true, it is still hard to conceive that his brother could be so different.

Since most of this book did happen in history it stands to reason that it is a very accurate representation of the historical events. I don't know too much about English history, but I would imagine that if it were too different from what actually happened, there would be more criticisms of the books. For the parts that can't be verified, I thought Gregory did a great job at expressing what these characters wanted or needed in their life. I do have to say that I wasn't thrilled with the way she bounced around in viewpoints though. The whole book is filled with italicized sections that are supposed to be Catalina's personal thoughts and I found them hard to read and they disrupted the flow of the book. The book too moved very slowly and considering that a large part of Catalina's time was spent with Henry, it was only reflected as less than half of the book while the main parts were dedicated to her childhood and her time with Arthur. While these are important parts it just felt like it took forever to get to the main premise of the book.

Not the best but not terrible. I much prefer some of Gregory's other books over this one.

The Constant Princess
copyright 2005
390 pages