An interesting twist though, as in The White Queen, was the inclusion of violent battles. It did bug me when Gregory broke the first-person viewpoint of Margaret to shift to some third-person battles without warning, but it did add an interesting and unexpected facet to the story. I personally enjoyed the change, but some Gregory fans may have trouble with it.
Something Gregory fans may also have trouble with is the lack of virtually any romance in the novel, especially fans of The Boleyn Girl and historical romance. Other than a dash of very subtle spark between Margaret and brother-in-law Jasper Tudor, there is absolutely no romance between Margaret and any of her husbands and no romantic subplots between other characters. Seriously, I think this is the first Gregory novel I've read that has no romance in it at all.
The pacing in this novel also seemed a little off to me. In fact, I found the first 200-ish pages to be kind of boring, with Margaret doing little else than taking orders from others in charge of her life. Once Margaret takes charge of her own life though and starts to really play political games, things start to get really interesting, eventually culminating in a high-action climax with a highly satisfying, though abrupt, ending.
But as always, Gregory's storytelling skills shine through. The descriptions of Medivel England are well-constructed and enjoyable to read, and the characters are throughly developed, especially Margaret. Margaret's transformation throughout the novel from a somewhat spoiled, dramatic child to an intelligent, passionate and ambitious woman is believable and compelling. Fans of biographical fiction will embrace Gregory's portrait of Margaret Beaufort.
Though many readers and reviewers will disagree with me, I actually found The White Queen to be more enjoyable than The Red Queen. Something about the Lancaster side just didn't enthrall me as much as the York side. Though not a horrible book, not one of my favorites.
I'm interested to see what happens in the next Cousins' War novel which, according to Gregory's website, will be called The Rivers Woman and document the life of Elizabeth Woodville's mother Jaquetta Rivers, instead of the previously announced White Princess.
Article comments
1 - The Countess of Books
I for one is much obliged to state that the White Queen was much more enthralling and my political views in the wars of the roses are still prominent to the White Rose. One that reads the opposite book first would normally sustain the first pair of reasons.