Blog Tour Review: Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

From the Back Cover:

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, obliged to return to court, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII, who dispatches his love rival, Seymour, to the Continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry and become his sixth queen.

Katherine has to employ all her instincts to navigate the treachery of the court, drawing a tight circle of women around her, including her stepdaughter, Meg, traumatized by events from their past that are shrouded in secrecy, and their loyal servant Dot, who knows and sees more than she understands. With the Catholic faction on the rise once more, reformers being burned for heresy, and those close to the king vying for position, Katherine’s survival seems unlikely. Yet as she treads the razor’s edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love.

My Thoughts:

After finishing Elizabeth Fremantle's debut novel, Queen's Gambit, I'm feeling quite sad, as I always do after reading about Katherine Parr. She is my favorite of Henry's queens, and not just because she's the one who got away, but because she was such a grand lady, so smart, so poised, and so tragic. I go into each novel knowing how it's going to end, but I still get swept away, much as Katherine does; I still hope for that happy ending, and then I get so angry when the people she cared about most end up ruining the last months of what should have been the happiest time in her life. (Two other solid 4-star reads about Katherine: The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd and Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir.)

Fremantle begins the novel with the death of Katherine's second husband, Latymer, and captivates the reader with her poetic narrative and fantastic description as she touches on the key points in Katherine's life: her infatuation with the dashing Thomas Seymour, her marriage to an aging and ailing Henry VIII, her relationships with her stepdaughters Meg, Elisabeth, and Mary, her relationships with the reformists and the martyr Anne Askew, and her own close call with Henry's desire to be rid of yet another wife. Katherine manages to accomplish quite a bit in her thirty-five years, not the least of which includes bringing Henry VIII's children together in the only semblance of family they've ever known, serving as regent of England, and publishing two books of her own writings. And Fremantle portrays all of this mostly through the eyes of Katherine herself and through her devoted servant Dot Fownten, and in doing so she has created two rich and compelling heroines for the reader to get attached to as they navigate the perils of the court and of the heart. I was hooked from the first page and could not put the book down as Henry's Catholic cronies cast their net around Katherine.

There's not much to complain about in this novel, other than some awkward sex scenes, but I can't justify a higher rating because this novel really doesn't contribute anything new to my understanding of Katherine Parr. I was very intrigued early on by a couple of things that were definitely new to me, but then the author admitted they were fictions in her note. (Nothing wrong with that--I can appreciate dramatic license with the facts when it's acknowledged.) For me, the best aspect of this novel, and the one that I will remember most, is the way Fremantle brought the underworkings of the court to life. Because Dot was an actual servant and Katherine was such a hands-on queen, the enormity of what it took to keep Henry's court running, from the lowliest kitchen boy to the noblest lady-in-waiting, comes into exquisite focus. I was fascinated by the behind-the-scenes glimpses of feasts and festivals, occasions of state, the court on the move, and the day-to-day duties of the army of servants required to make everything seem so effortless and easy in Henry VIII's court. It's little details like that, coupled with giving voice to the people who worked so hard to make it happen but who have been forgotten by history, that really bring a time period to life and remind me why I love historical fiction so much.

My Rating:  4 Stars out of 5

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Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, September 22, 2013. Winner will be selected at random. Thanks, and good luck!


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About the Author:

Elizabeth Fremantle holds a first class degree in English and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck College London. She has contributed as a fashion editor to various publications including Vogue, Elle and The Sunday Times. QUEEN'S GAMBIT is her debut novel and is the first in a Tudor trilogy. The second novel, SISTERS OF TREASON, will be released in 2014. She lives in London. For more about Elizabeth and her future projects, visit Elizabeth's website.