My Tudor Queen is the diary of a young woman who is a close friend of Catherine of Aragon. She functions as her translator, so she speaks both Spanish and English, amongst other things.
The diary is not the most exciting thing, because honestly, Catherine's story isn't that exciting. I liked the beginning, but after Arthur's death, it's just the Spanish people being broke until Henry VII dies and Henry VIII finally can marry Catherine. Then it gets interesting again, because they cover the part where he goes off to France and leaves her to fight the Scots. And then it ends.
The second book has Eva's daughter Elinor at court, first working for Catherine of Aragon, then getting moved into the household of the upstart Anne Boleyn. The author is really clear that she does not like Anne. I don't think I've ever read a nastier portrayal of her. She doing death threats and plots left and right and it's only at the very end when she's going to be executed that she's given some more humanity. Definitely not the best Anne Boleyn book, that's for sure. If you happen to not like her, you'll enjoy it. I like Catherine of Aragon probably secondmost of the wives, but I don't think Anne needs quite this bad a portrayal.
This third and much longer book finishes the remaining four wives. Beatrice, the girl writing the diary, is a neighbor of Eva and Elinor's, the latter two having left court and moved out into the countryside more.
You can also see Alison Prince's dislike of the nobility, because every one of her main characters has married commoners. Eva marries the court jester, Elinor a blacksmith and Bee ends up with a cook (Elinor's brother).
The beginning of this book is Bee reading both Eva and Elinor's diaries, so it's quite boring, because many passages are just copy and paste from those books. It functions to make this a standalone about all six wives, but it doesn't do them justice, so I don't see the point in it.
Bee is on the outskirts of things for Jane Seymour. Prince also seems to not like her, because this is the only semi-negative portrayal of Jane. Elinor painted her as almost as scheming as Anne Boleyn in her diary and now in Bee's she's more demanding and shrewish during her pregnancy.
Anne of Cleves gets a good run. The quality you see most in her is cleverness and her only negative points are knowing nothing about sex, which the court ladies fix quickly, and perhaps being a bit too nice. Anne is my favorite wife, so I was satisfied with this. Although there is this whole bit about one of the guys saying she smells and that's kind of never resolved. Bee worked for her and never said anything the opposite. Like seriously, you people barely bathe and you piss on floors. How good can any of you smell?
Katherine Howard is given the stupid, common slut angle. More stupid than anything else really, but then the slut part comes out. Culpepper is really glossed over though, which I thought was odd. Most books about her have it a bit more obvious what went on there before everyone's on trial.
And Katherine Parr gets a decent portrayal, although definitely commenting on her bad taste in men. Stupid Thomas Seymour.
The book is quite long and it gets a bit boring in several places, but it gets the story told. Albeit with some pretty obvious bias against some of the wives.
And now I'm taking a break from My Story, because I need Lady Jane Grey's book before I continue. Great. That's gonna end well.
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