REVIEW: The King's Curse (Philippa Gregory)

Book: The King's Curse

Author: Philippa Gregory

My rating: 3/5.

Premise: Heir to the Plantagenets, Margaret Pole is a rival claimant to the Tudor throne. Buried in marriage to a loyal Tudor supporter, she becomes guardian to Prince Author and his bride Katherine of Aragon. But her destiny is not for a life in the shadows. Tragedy throws Margaret into poverty, but a new king restores her. As the Tudor Court sours, Margaret's loyalties are tested under the increasingly tyrannical Henry VIII.

Yet another good book by Philippa Gregory. This story overlaps a bit with The Constant Princess, and follows the life of Margaret Pole. Her life is rather interesting and I love the fact she had a title in her own right! I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the rest as it covered the end of Henry VII's reign and the build up to Henry VIII divorcing Katherine of Aragon. Whilst we covered the Tudor's a lot at school, we didn't learn much from before Henry's break with Rome, and even then, not covered in much detail. I found the second half dragged a bit and I didn't enjoy the "rat pile" that was the Tudor court. What was bittersweet was knowing what happened in the end (I should stop reading Wikipedia as I go along!). But overall, a good book and an interesting life.