Instead of the author using her imagination to build Katherine's character, we get more secondhand reports: That's five years that could've been dramatized instead of including overlong sections of reporting on other people whom Katherine has no direct involvement. Katherine's life is covered from age ten to eleven, then skips to fifteen, and subsequently to eighteen. 'We were at Hampton Court-one of the King’s favorite palaces, presented to him by Cardinal Wolsey in an attempt to regain his favour.'įor Katherine's narrative, the reader doesn't need to know about Wolsey's attempts to regain favour.

Unneccesary info on Wolsey, who again was part of Anne's story, not Katherine's, is included: Anything like this should've been edited out. Why mention Wyatt? He's part of Anne's story, not Katherine's. 'What was particularly shocking in the case of Anne and her brother was that it was due to Lady Rochford’s evidence that the case against her husband and sister-in-law was brought.'īelow is a reference to Wyatt, who until this point receives no mention in the story: Presenting dry facts, like the quote below, that have nothing to do with Katherine's story are off-topic and should have been cut: In other words, there's not much character development and we arguably know more about a character who doesn't appear in any scenes (Anne) that we know about Katherine who's narrating. We hear reports that come to Katherine, rather than the matters that she did give a great deal of thought about. The above quote sums up a key problem with the whole story. 'I suppose I did not give a great deal of thought to these matters then.' The King was glum, while the Queen put on an air of false gaiety in an effort to maintain the pretense of harmony.'įollowing another dry and detailed paragraph about Jane taking Anne's place as queen, including remarks on how the king was feeling, we get this sentence: The King did not speak to the Queen, and it was clear to everyone that all was not well between them. 'The King and Queen had been together at the May Day joust, seated side by side in the royal box. This quote, for example, is one of Katherine's dry second-hand reports about Anne that sounds like part of a textbook, not a novel: Too much second-hand reporting of Anne proved to be an irritating element. Anne is referred to many times throughout the novel, yet at no point does she feature in a scene with Katherine. That said, Katherine technically shares this one with Anne. In TQOE series, she gave them a book each.

Originally, this author wrote about Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard in one novel. The difference being the earlier novels are in the third person TQOE books are in first person. The Queens of England series is Jean Plaidy's retelling of novels she's already written.

The Rose Without a Thorn by Jean Plaidy