FIR 2012: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Well, one book down...

I've followed the Boleyn books from Philippa Gregory a couple years ago. She has gone on to write over two dozen historically based novels primarily about the British monarchy.

Somewhere along the line, I had added "The White Queen" to my reading wish list at paperbackswap.com. My wish was granted about a week before Katrina's reading challenge started so I started with that one.

I didn't find it as absorbing at "The Other Boleyn Girl" - too dry, too much telling and not enough showing, and (ultimately, through no fault of Gregory) too many characters with the same names and similar titles. A family tree is provided at the beginning of the book illustrating the beginnings of The Cousins' War and the War of the Roses but it ended with the characters at the beginning of the book. It would have been helpful to continue it to include all the marriages and births that followed over the course of the 411 page book.

I was caught up in the beginning, the love story, and their ascension to the English monarchy. But, their stumblings  the politics, and their fall didn't keep me interested. I stopped liking the main character. I didn't care if she succeeded  Didn't care who came out on top of the three-pronged fight between the Lancasters, Yorks, and budding house of Tudor. The "drama" was not enough to keep me interested.

However, the whole "princes in the tower" mystery sparked enough interest in more information that I ordered two books through interlibrary loan to read next: "The War of the Roses" and "The Princes in the Tower" by Alison Weir - a noted and celebrated monarchy historian.

i would recommend this book for a summer read but probably will skip the rest of Gregory's books in this series to tackle Weir's.