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Mistress Of Mourning (2012)

by Karen Harper(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0451236904 (ISBN13: 9780451236906)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

NAL Trade

review 1: I was intrigued by the historical subject, as a focus on late-marriage Henry VII & Elizabeth of York time frame without getting heavily into the future Henry VIII is a relatively rare find. Not being a mystery fan, it took me a little while to get into this book, but I knew the author would make it worth my time. The dual narrative and the dual mysteries adds a different dimension to the typical commoner-queen storyline. While some of the plot and character actions were rather predictable, I enjoyed reading the early Tudor history from a different perspective. Another good read from Karen Harper!
review 2: I have now read several books by Karen Harper, and I find her to be, as another reviewer said, hit-or-miss. I first read The First Princess of Wales (about ... moreJoan of Kent, wife to the Black Prince and mother to Richard II) several years ago and quite enjoyed it...but then there seems to be so little about that period in comparison to the oft-mined Tudor era. I was fairly happy with The Last Boleyn (though not as much as with TFPOW), but again, Mary Boleyn typically gets short shrift compared to her more infamous (and much maligned) younger sister, so the historical ground while familiar, was traveled with a unique perspective. I have also read Mistress Shakespeare, and while that took a while to get into, it was once again a unique perspective on what I thought (as a Shakespeare fanatic) was familiar ground. Initially, this book promised to be a similar experience, but while that quality was delivered in the spaces where candle-making and embalming traditions entered the story, the creative spark didn't carry over to the characters themselves. This wasn't a -bad- story, but it was lightweight, at best. While I appreciated the absence of graphic sex scenes that so many historical fiction writers feel are necessary, the romantic interactions between Varina and Nick felt immature in places (think back to your high school romances) and then in others, invested with a familiarity between the pair that was unearned. The writing was on the wall as to the outcome of Varina's relationship with both Christopher Gage and Nick Sutton from her initial interlude with each, so there was certainly no mystery there, which made the lingering "question" of her status with each of them more tedious than interesting. I do applaud the author for seeking a new angle on some of the Tudor questions that are still unknown, but I wish she had given her characters greater depth, which would have lent more gravity and enjoyability to to the story. less

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