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Tudor Rose (2009)

by Margaret Campbell Barnes(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1402249195 (ISBN13: 9781402249198)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Sourcebooks Landmark

review 1: My biggest complaint with this book is the writing style. According to other reviews, it was originally published over 50 years ago, so that might have something to do with it. But the dialogue itself, and more than that, the dialogue tags? Clumsy and incredibly distracting at times. All the characters are running around temporizing and expostulating and bewailing everything in sight… left me feeling like I was watching some melodramatic silent film rather than reading a simple conversation.Beyond that, the adverb abuse is rampant, to the point that the author actually invents quite a few. And with the prose in general, I had more than a few Inigo Montoya moments (I do not think that word means what you think it means).As for the story itself, there were aspects I loved ... moreand others that left me cringing. I definitely liked that Elizabeth was less docile – much preferred this characterization to Philippa Gregory's "White Princess" for that reason. I also enjoyed the Perkin Warbeck storyline; loved Elizabeth's involvement in emotional reactions, which are usually glossed over or ignored in books about her life. That was well done.Some of the other characterizations, however, left me cold. It's hard for me to envision Elizabeth Woodville as a fragile drama queen, and Anne Neville as shallow and simpleminded? That was a bit baffling, as was Richard III's villainy. Even though I'm a Ricardian, I can handle novels that make him out to be the bad guy if the characterization is solid and makes sense. Here, it didn't.In summation, definitely not the worst book I've ever read related to this era, but it left a lot to be desired.
review 2: I was not a fan of how flakey the main character came across. The War of the Roses was a trying time in the York and Lancaster families; Elizabeth of York lost her home, both of her brothers and her father over the course of the book. Even though she was pulled between her loyalty to her family and her loyalty to her new husband, I saw no inner turmoil displayed by her based on the level of drama that occurred in her young life. less

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