The King's Curse

Excellent, this is Gregory doing what she does best. I haven't liked her more recent books but this is a shining example of her work when it's good. This novel wraps up the stories of several key characters from the Tudor books. Very well done. Amato is perfect as usual.

The Kings Curse is by far my favourite novel in this series. I’m a huge fan of Lady Margaret Pole. She is a woman of such strength, dignity and loyalty who’s life showed how the wheel of fortune can raise one so high and throw them so low. But no matter what happened in her life, she always retained her strength and her loyalty to her family. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for her son Geoffrey... It’s a beautiful, tragic story told so well that you literally feel as though your “in” the story. I could smell the scents of 1500’s England, see the richly decorated castles and see the exquisitely dressed royalty. I could hear their words echo from a time long ago. I love this book. I love it so much I’ve listened to it three times over the last few years. For any historical fiction fans, this is a must read. The story itself is captivating and is told in a way that you’ll have a hard time putting it down. King Henry turned into a vicious, evil and unpredictable man as the years went on, abandoning his first wife for Anne Boleyn, then resorting to beheading wives was awful enough. Not to mention the countless murders of innocent people who’d dared to speak out against the injustices King Henry inflicted upon his people. The murder of an old lady, a woman who had raised his own daughter Princess Mary (who also suffered greatly at the hands of her father) like her own daughter and so much more, was the absolute worst thing he could have done. He could have chosen to let her live her life quietly, being in her 60’s and having already murdered her sons, but instead he had her beheaded by a clumsy, stupid youth who botched the execution. She deserved so much better then that. Even after Henry died the bloodletting didn’t cease. Mary, poor little Mary, in this story, a sympathetic character, becomes “Bloody Mary” taking out her life of grief, loss and heartbreak on the country and burning people at the stake. And when Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn’s daughter, became Queen she was the least vicious of the Tudor’s but wasn’t without malice herself. Her cousin Margaret locked up her whole life out of fear and her other cousin Mary Queen of Scots beheaded. Fearfulness and paranoia seem to be common and dangerous Tudor traits. But the curse of the old York Queens, if there was one (and I believe there was) worked and their house ended and so did the Tudors. But their legacy lives on, that 500 years later we still are enthralled with them speaks volumes. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do!

Well written and researched. Thank you Ms. Gregory for reminding me that our modern time period is not the only "troubled times ".

Excellent story..very well written...and true Such cruelty in those days

A little bit long but so exiciting novel! I loved it.

Wonderful! This whole series has been incredible!

Unbelievable story, truly an incredible read! Best of the series!