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The King's Grace (2009)

by Anne Easter Smith(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1416550453 (ISBN13: 9781416550457)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Touchstone

review 1: Oh my God, I thought this book would never end. Sometimes I wish I was able to just put down a book if it's dull. However, I plug away, thinking that perhaps the book will improve if I just stick with it. The premise of this novel was promising - it told of the beginning of Henry VII's reign seen through the eyes of one of Edward IV's bastard children - a girl named Grace. In the book's forward, the author mentions that there is only one mention of Grace in history; that she was one of two official mourners at the dowager Queen Elizabeth's funeral. That's crazy! Why would Queen Elizabeth have anything to do with one of Edward's bastards? From what I have read of her, she was not to type to forgive and forget. I know Elizabeth loathed Jane Shore, Edward's favorite mistress.... more So why the connection with a child of one of his mistresses?Sadly, even with such a juicy basis for a novel, the author falls flat. She made Grace so boring and lame. Ugh, so, so boring. I couldn't stand her. I didn't really care for any of the characters. The supposed passionate love Grace felt for her cousin, John? BLAH. It made no sense why Grace liked him. I was thrilled when he was finally killed off so I could stop reading about Grace's love for him. "Yay! He's dead! maybe Grace will shut up about him!" I doubt that was the feeling the author hoped to elicit in the reader.The "passionate" fights between Grace and her husband also fell flat. And the sex scenes! So not sexy! I rolled my eyes a lot while reading this book. Her husband Tom and her first love John were both so blandly drawn that I could not for the life of me figure out why one was so amazing and the other she had to learn to love. And Grace's relationship with the simple groomsman - Lord! How hokey! I guess the author was attempting to insert some humor into the book. I wasn't smiling.As for the portrayals of actual historical figures, the author irritated me with her negative slant on Margaret Beaufort and her son Henry. Man, Margaret rocked! What a life she had! And she is Katherine Swynford's great-granddaughter! (Read Katherine by Anya Seton for a good historical novel) So it was irritating every time I read about how horrid Margaret was. And the author made Bess, Henry's wife and Elizabeth Woodville's oldest daughter super lame. Man, when historical fiction is good it is really good but when it is bad, it is oh so bad. Thumbs down for this bland, boring novel that portrays Margaret Beaufort as a jerk.
review 2: This one was much more difficult to get into for some reason. Grace simply was not a character I was eager to read about--although I wish there was more about her in the records of the time. (my personal guess is that she was probably a nun, not a wife).The author takes the stance that Perkin Warbeck was acually an illegitmate son of one of the York brothers, which I've always thought made sense. I'd not heard of Margaret's "secret boy" until I read Daughter of York--and that certainly adds to the plausibilty of his background in this book. I will say that Edward IV is a sneaky so-and-so for the way he managed to dodge his responsibilities in this case. less

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