I began my journey of reading history with Tudors. ‘The Tudor Wife’ by Emily Purdy is where I began. From then on, my fascination with Tudor historical fiction only grew, for better or for worse. I seem to get back on the wagon and I just realised why I quit reading the genre in the first place.
Unfortunately, I have a collection of all possible Tudor historical fiction.
Cover page
I absolutely loved the cover page. It’s not very different from the ones I have read before but it’s elegant nonetheless. The queen in the focus and tassels all around. It’s pretty. The font compliments the graphic. The cover works, and well too.
Characters
The book is primarily about the sixth queen of Henry VIII or that’s what it says on the cover. However, when one reads further it just looks like the whole story is about Catherine, her childhood friend. Catherine was the duchess of Suffolk. She had a life with Katherine Parr. But it does look like the author lacked material to write about the queen and therefore she chose to write from Catherine’s point of view only talking about herself.
In terms of character development there is not much. In fact, all the characters are pretty flat, monotonous throughout.
Content
The book begins with a funeral. It was a strange beginning when I just got to know that Katherine Parr, the sixth queen of Henry VIII was dead. Hovering around was her then husband, Edward Seymour.
Catherine recollects the life with her friend right after the death of Henry VIII. She was reduced to garbs but she was finally happy. She was in love with Edward Seymour and they were finally getting married.
The marriage was scandalous. More so because Edward was rumoured to be courting Elizabeth, the future queen of England. This was assumed to be another move by him to get closer to the throne.
The couple overcame the scandals but they couldn’t survive it all. Katherine was losing faith in their marriage.
Catherine, duchess of Suffolk, recites the entire story with a a distaste. There are no crests or troughs in the story. It is rather flat. I did not find myself looking forward to it. I just kept going on to learn a bit more about the queen but it never really happens. I did not really learn anything I didn’t know earlier.
Language
The language is very simple and boring. There is no depth in the narration.
Good points
I liked the cover. It’s very elegant.
Bad points
Even though I liked the characters in the book, I did not like the development. They didn’t seem to progress. The queen was a subtle throughout. Edward was smug throughout and Catherine was simple boring throughout. The content disappointed me too. The flow is flat. The narration is very uninteresting.
Overall
This is nothing I expected. I have read the author behing I expected. I have read the author before but it never was this bad. I will pick u another book my her, after a while through.hing I expected. I have read the author before but it never was this bad. I will pick u another book my her, after a while through.
Whom do I recommend this to
Nobody at the moment. Historical fiction is not meant to be like this. This one is more like a memoir.
Go ahead, grab yourself a copy of The Sixth Wife and tell us what you think about the book! If you are a Kindle person, ensure to select the Kindle edition of the book.
Looking to buy a Kindle?
The frontlit, high-resolution Kindle Paperwhite seems to be the officially preferred Kindle at Meraki Post; Veena, Gazala and Ram have one each. And while Pooja may claim she is more of the “Love the new book smell” kind of person, she may be secretly deciding between the premium Kindle Oasis and the simple and efficient Good Ol’ Kindle.
Kindle Kindle Paperwhite Kindle Oasis
Meraki Post is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.in. Learn more.