Review Detail

I was really going through a historical fiction kick for a minute there so when I heard about this book, I jumped at the chance to read it. Tudor history is always interesting and filled with drama and deceit, of which, this book did not disappoint. However, I wasn’t too drawn into the book as a whole.
I felt that everything was a bit too drawn out, possibly too much detail went into the setting and time that I could’ve done without. I understand Katherine Longshore wanted to establish a setting and clue those in who aren’t too familiar with history, but it got to the point where I found myself skipping over paragraphs and basically only reading the dialogue, which I tend to do when a book bores me.

I’d have to say probably the only thing that kept me going was the drama that Catherine Howard created and I wanted to know how and when she would meet her ultimate demise. True to her character, I knew exactly how her life would go and where it would end up and found her to be more interesting than Kitty, the narrator of the story. Even though Kitty is a sweet, innocent character, utterly loyal to Catherine until the end, I wasn’t really drawn to her character. The ending was a bit predictable, since it is learned history, and nothing in the book really stood out to me in any way.

Overall, Longshore does a great job in staying true to historical facts, painting a vivid picture of history, and inciting intrigue, but the story as a whole failed to capture my attention and I basically skimming it until the end.