49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elizabeth the Beloved! Elizabeth, the Invisible Queen., December 3, 2008
This review is from: The King's Daughter. A Novel of the First Tudor Queen (Rose of York) (Mass Market Paperback)
Elizabeth of York was the only woman to be a daughter, niece, sister, wife, and mother to English kings. Her wide connection to royalty did not prove to grant her a charmed life, quite the opposite.
Her life began as a charmed one, the daughter of Edward IV, she was loved by her father and lived a brief life of joy and contentment as the apple of his eye. When war struck their country again at the tender age of five, she and her family were forced into sanctuary, and thus the first hints of tragedy started to enter her life.
Her father survived the battle and lived until she was seventeen, but with his death came the beginning of a series of events that led this hopeful princess into a life filled with death and sorrow. Losing her father, her brothers, her nephew, her queen and friend, and then her beloved uncle (the man she also loved), she never lost her faith. When given an opportunity to run, she stayed behind, determined to let a royal marriage to a man who claimed the crown end years and years of battle.
From the moment you open this book, drawn into a game of revelry, to the end you are hooked into Elizabeth's life as she tells it. Sandra skillfully relays a heartwrenching tale that pulls you into the heart of a queen. You find yourself enjoying each brief moment of happiness, and sharing each lonely moment of pain and fear.
"Elizabeth, the Good! Elizabeth, the Beloved! Elizabeth, the King's Daughter!" You will want to know her. You will want to see her find peace. She will be made a part of you.
Thoroughly researched, you can see that Sandra loves her subjects in all of her novels. You are given a touching tale that will leave you with real tears...and you will learn of a period of history through a historical figure often forgotten - but certainly no less important.
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48 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A less than interesting novel about Elizabeth of York, February 19, 2009
This review is from: The King's Daughter. A Novel of the First Tudor Queen (Rose of York) (Mass Market Paperback)
It seems of late that every time I hear of an author writing yet another novel set in the Tudor period of English history -- from 1485 to 1603, I mentally cringe and try my best to ignore it. It isn't so much that I know that they will be a horrible book, but rather that I've read and studied enough of the historical period that I know I am bound to be disappointed by whatever a fictional novel can cook up.
Having read one of Sandra Worth's previous novels, set in the turbulent era of the Wars of the Roses, I was pretty leery of taking on this account of Edward IV's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who would marry Henry VII and become the mother of Henry VIII.
Told in first-person narrative -- a style that I am not fond to begin with -- this is an account of Elizabeth's life from young childhood to the grave. Elizabeth is the eldest child of King Edward IV and his queen, Elizabeth Wideville, and along with her younger sisters, she hopes that soon there will be a male heir born soon. She knows that even at a young age her parents are not exactly happy -- her father is eaten up with the worries of running a kingdom ruined by civil war, and her mother is shrewish and constantly seeking out favours and wealth for her numerous relatives. More than once Elizabeth overhears their sparring. During one uprising, her pregnant mother takes her children and flees for sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, and Elizabeth turns into a target for her mother's temper -- along with a display of what might be witchcraft. But the child that is born while they are in sanctuary is that longed for boy, and named for his father, Edward.
For a time, things go well for Elizabeth and her family, with younger sisters and another brother, Dickon, added to the ever-growing brood. But when her father dies suddenly, Elizabeth's world is turned upside down as it is judged that her young brothers are too immature to rule, and their uncle, Richard III, becomes king. Again in sanctuary, Elizabeth loses contact with her brothers, and rumours abound that her uncle Richard has had them murdered. Soon, Elizabeth, just eighteen, is sent for as one of the new queen's ladies in waiting, and she soon is caught between loyalty to her brothers and the charm and rich lifestyle of a royal court. She also indulges in flirtation, with Thomas Stafford, a knight of the king's and daydreams about having a peaceful and quiet life before her.
But Richard III's reign is a short one, and there is plenty of controversy for Elizabeth. First Richard's queen, Anne, is ailing, and before her death she encourages Elizabeth to care for her uncle, and Elizabeth finds herself falling for him, in a love that is hardly suitable for a niece. But there are more rebellions, especially by a rival claimant to the crown, Henry Tudor, and the specter of civil war rises again. Again there is war, and Elizabeth finds herself truly alone when the victor of Bosworth comes to claim her.
With Richard dead, Elizabeth finds herself wed to Henry Tudor, a cold, calculating man that listens far more to his mother, Margaret Beaufort, than he will to his queen. Even Elizabeth's coronation is delayed until she has proven her worth by bearing a son, Arthur, on whom she lavishes all of her love and attention. Can she manage to survive a loveless, agonizing marriage to bring peace to England?
And so is this rather turgid, overdone novel about Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister of the Princes in the Tower. This time Sandra Worth casts her into the mold of Heroine as Martyr, being so good and giving that she sweats sugar when it gets warm. And to counter that, the author makes nearly everyone else in the story wicked and selfish, from her mother and mother-in-law, to her husband, and her sisters, while Elizabeth goes on suffering nobly. The only exception to this are the characters of Richard III, here cast as a saintly, doomed man, with his equally sainted queen, Anne Neville. Once again it's an example of the author falling in love with her characters, for she creates an impossible situation by trying to make everyone either very good or very bad.
The mystery of just what happened to the sons of Edward IV will always be a riddle, as there are quite a few suspects who would have gained greatly by their murder. While Richard III probably did not do away with the children, neither was he a completely ambitionless man either. Ms. Worth has pretty much written herself into a corner, for by making Richard the subject of Elizabeth's undying devotion and love, it's pretty hard to have her turn around after his death to caring at all for his murderer, Henry VII, and to make sure that her audience gets the point, she has him be brutal and unloving to her. Only as a mother can Elizabeth come across as Queen-Martyr.
Again and again, we get to read of the various nastiness of the Tudors, and one note that really rubbed me the wrong way was the depiction of Elizabeth's second son, Henry, who is a overweight, pompous, sadistic brat of a child who obeys no-one and delights in cruelty. From everything that I have read of the actual man who became Henry VIII, he was well-educated, chivalrous and saw himself as a Renaissance king -- only much later in life did he turn into the monster that popular history paints him as.
Indeed, the only part of the book that was at all interesting for me was when Ms. Worth introduces Lady Catherine Gordon, the young Scottish woman that marries Perkin Warbeck, a young man that claimed to be the younger of Elizabeth's brothers, Richard of York, and who led a nearly successful rebellion against Henry VII. In the character of Catherine there was quite a bit of potential, but by focusing everything in Elizabeth, the writer squandered this opportunity.
Summing up, this was a dreadful novel. While I do admire authors who put plenty of history in their novels and bother to do the research -- besides the genealogical chart showing the tangled families of the York-Lancaster-Tudor claims -- there are notes and a bibliography to help further research. But Ms. Worth has turned this into a dull, sloppy melodrama with a sad-sack heroine and implausible twists that didn't really reveal anything new, nor bring new insights.
Three stars at best. Somewhat recommended.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Motto: Without Changing!, December 6, 2008
This review is from: The King's Daughter. A Novel of the First Tudor Queen (Rose of York) (Mass Market Paperback)
"Love drew her heart toward him, and shame drover her eyes away." Such are the words shared by Tristan and Iseult in a volume treasured by King Richard of Gloucester and Elizabeth of York, the daughter of King Edward V, Richard's brother. Simple, clear words perhaps but in reality portraying a mesmerizing, complex life of a woman seeking her own role in history!
The story begins with understanding the totally dissimilar nature of Elizabeth's parents, her life intertwined with a loving but unwise father, King Edward, and her overbearingly meddling mother, Bess Woodville, a notorious woman feared by everyone in the kingdom. The latter is a woman like so many other tyrants, possessing an inordinate amount of greed stemming from fear of being deposed and having to return to an insignificant, impoverished status. The description sounds historically objective, but Sandra Worth fully captures the essence of Elizabeth's confused plight in the middle of this calculating shrew who calls herself mother and siblings who eventually will disappear or turn against Elizabeth for a very long time. Who will prevail and what personality will evolve from such chaotic parenting? Imagine such a childhood!
Bess Woodville's plans following the death of King Edward are thwarted by Richard seizing the throne as Protector and then King, and all seems well for a while as he and his beloved Queen Anne rule England. Justice becomes the norm rather than the exception, until Richard's rivals begin to make war to seize the Crown. Times of joy and tragedy follow the royal couple. Will Richard's mercy free Bess and allow Elizabeth a place in his court? For there we read of the intimate bond between this King and Queen about to be tested in the furnace of adversity.
During this time, Elizabeth realizes her mother's lies have distorted the truth. As Elizabeth begins to see Richard with new eyes, how will she be treated by the Queen and by Richard who previously sees Elizabeth only as a despised Woodville?
Destiny seemingly has other plans as Henry VII invades England and Elizabeth agrees to marry the usurper, a union tortured again, this time by Henry's own mother, Margaret Beaufort, a woman even more diabolical than Elizabeth's own mother. Will Elizabeth find honor or regret in her choice made for what she believes is England's good? What can she do against her mother-in-law's influence over her two very different sons, Arthur and Henry?
Again, the author allows clarity and accuracy to prevail as she presents Elizabeth's debacle and evolution over years. Elizabeth of York's account opens a window for the reader to view the benign and treacherous court dialogues, romances and planned unions, as well as important plans and actions of those who serve the Crown for different reasons. Questions regarding the disappearance of Elizabeth's brothers and the identity of the mysterious Pretender haunt Elizabeth through the remainder of her life. Were there other unseen, unrealized possibilities?
Sandra Worth's writing elicits confusing, loving and hateful thoughts, feelings and responses resulting from the reader's total immersion in these carefully crafted historical characters' lives, reactions paralleling Elizabeth's own. The author's creative writing skills are honed with excellent research and insight into personality.
Ms. Worth, superbly done! Readers, prepare yourself for an amazing, wonderful read herein as you sit down to enjoy the life of Good Elizabeth, the first Tudor Queen!
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on December 6, 2008
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