Queen's Gambit

Prompt 25 from 2021 Popsugar Challenge: A book whose title starts with Q, X, or Z

Book: Queen's Gambit Author: Elizabeth Fremantle Genre: historical fiction Dates Read: 03/14/2021-03/20/2021 Format: audiobook - Hoopla Other prompts: a book set somewhere you would like to visit (England), a book about fresh starts Rating:

Katherine Parr was by far one of the luckier wives of Henry VIII. She outlived him! When she returned to court after the death of her husband, she was surprised to find that the King was interested in her! She could not understand why he would want her, when he could have any young thing at court.

The story of Katherine comes to us in a little bit of her telling the story and from the perspective of her maid. Her life was anything but picturesque. Although we do not know everything of her life from books, we can only guess at her innermost thoughts. What did she really think of being queen? Did she love either of her husbands before she married the king? Was she ambitious or was she truly demure??

Katherine is somewhat of an enigma in the royal court of Henry VIII, because she outlived a monarch who had gone through five wives before her. Whether she truly loved him or not is really immaterial. She survived the bloodbath that normally went along with being wife of the King that could never truly find love.

Katherine's tentative hold on life was truly remarkable. She managed to hang on in a court that was as thirsty for blood as they were for wine and feasting. Through the eyes of Dot, Katherine's maid, we see the guilt that Katherine and her daughter both carried around, as well as the insecurity that both of them felt.

Great read!!