Thanks to Headline Publishing for sending me a copy for review.
An interesting addition for sure to the Six Wives series. Hearing the stories told in more detail by the six wives now told by Henry VIII was interesting. Weir presents a view of Henry where he is attempting what is probably an impossible task by the end of the novel – to balance the conservative faction against the reformers in preparation for the minority rule of his son.
However, the book started incredibly slowly, and it took ages to get into the story. Too long, perhaps spent on the reign of Katherine of Aragon and then Anne Boleyn, and less time on Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr. The last 3 wives were covered in about 100 pages of the 600 pages in the book. The pace could have been better balanced had the years of Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon been condensed a little, and more space was given to Katherine Parr who had quite an eventful reign.
It was a very positive part that Alison Weir made use of so many primary sources and confirmed speeches from letters and such like. She always seems to do her research and make use of the surviving sources in her novels as well as her non-fiction works, which is a definite positive in her writing, though she sometimes takes a few too many liberties I feel in her novels, probably for the sake of drama. This was an interesting take on Henry VIII, though, and how he might have been feeling at various points.
Often this reads more like a biography which perhaps is why sometimes the novel seems to get stuck. There are so many characters that unless you were familiar with the period, it would be easy to get confused. But towards the end the novel becomes a very engaging and fast-paced read.
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