Book Review: Old Magic

Title: Old Magic
Author: Marianne Curley
Published: 2000, Simon Impulse, Imprint of Simon & Schuster
Rating: 4.5/5

I first read this book eleven years ago when I found it at my local library. I found a paperback copy at the bookstore a month ago and was so excited it was still in publication! Since this is one of the novels that introduced me to the world of young adult fantasy I picked up a copy. One of my greatest pleasures is rereading novels that influenced my early writing days.

Kate Warren has no history and is a social outcast. Abandoned by her mother, she has been raised by her grandmother who practices the "old magic". In the small town where she lives, she is accepted only by her best friend and grandmother. Not much changes or happens where she lives until the day Jarrod shows up.

Jarrod is cursed. Kate probes his mind and discovers he has immense powers. Jarrod doesn't believe in anything that doesn't follow his "rules". However, as more misfortune befalls his family, he opens up to the idea, perhaps, there is a curse. Even when he is transported back in time with Kate he still can't accept the fact he has a gift himself. What will it take to make Jarrod accept his gift?

Curley has created likable characters whom the readers can inhabit, as she crafted the novel from both Jarrod's and Kate's POV. Readers will feel Kate's frustrations and Jarrod's reluctance to open up. Her plot is well done, entertaining, and will make the reader wanting to know more and more. So much so, I still wish there was a sequel!

Book Review: The Constant Princess

Title: The Constant Princess
Author: Philippa Gregory
Published: 2005, Touchstone
Rating: 5/5

What if you told a lie so great it altered the course of history? Catalina is sent to England to marry Arthur, Prince of Whales, to seal the alliance between England and Spain. Alone in a foreign country she is blessed to find a lover in her husband. Blessings do not last long. A widow at 16, she makes a promise on the Prince's deathbed that she will marry his younger brother, Prince Henry. Here, Gregory brings in the twist of what could have happened in history or actually did happen.

What if Catherine of Aragon did indeed lie about her virginity? It makes one wonder how much of our history could be a lie. Gregory will invoke her readers to think beyond the pages of her stories into the psyche of humans. What would you do if you were an ever constant princess?

Book Reviews: The White Queen & The Red Queen

Title: The White Queen
Author: Philippa Gregory
Published: 2009, Touchstone
Rating: 4/5

Elizabeth Woodville catches the eye of Edward IV, a King who is not yet secure on his throne, and never will be. The War of the Roses rages throughout their reign. Family betrayal and forgiveness makes the white roses of York red with blood. Elizabeth is desperate for peace but also wants revenge against those that have taken her family and her sons' inheritances. Elizabeth's strong and haunting voice tells the story of her greatest joy and tragedy as the mother of the lost Princes in the Tower. Gregory's descriptive and grounding scenes will bring her readers to court, the battlefield, sanctuary, and the reunion of a mother and her son.

Title: The Red Queen
Author: Philippa Gregory
Published: 2010, Touchstone
Rating: 5/5

At the age of 9, Margaret Beaufort had a "saint's knees" from praying too much and wanted nothing more than to be like her idol, Joan of Arc. At the age of 12, she is married to Edmund Tudor and soon finds herself a pregnant widow. Her only child becomes her greatest love. She will do anything to keep him safe. She will do anything to give her son his true inheritance: the throne of England. From the voice of small child to that of a wise and cunning adult, Gregory brings Margaret to life. With England in discord between the warring houses, Margaret has everything to gain for herself and her child from God, or perhaps, veiled ambition.

Being Released in October 2011!

"The Lady of the Rivers", a novel about Elizabeth Woodville's mother, Jacquetta.

Available at Amazon.com

Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

Title: The Other Boleyn Girl

Author: Philippa Gregory

Published: Touchstone, 2004

Rating: 3.5/5

Gregory has fully mastered giving a voice to her character and pulling her readers into the Tudor time era, the enormous liberties she has taken with historical events did her novel no credit. If a reader was to approach “The Other Boleyn Girl” purely has a work of fiction, they might readily enjoy this novel. Those that have prior education on the Tudor era might have a harder time enjoying this book.

Mary Boleyn, at the tender age of 15, is forced to cuckold her husband, William Carey, by becoming the mistress of Henry VIII. Forced to accept her fate for the advancement of her family, she bears the King a daughter and then a son. While she labors in childbirth her sister, Anne, steals the attentions of the King. Weak with lust and love the King breaks away from the Church of Rome in his will to marry Anne.

While I applaud Gregory for telling her interpretation of the life of Mary Boleyn, her distorted representation of Anne Boleyn is slanderous. While Anne Boleyn did indeed wish for Katherine of Aragon’s death and treated Mary Tudor in a horrendous manner, she never did seek custody of her sister’s son. For that matter, Henry Carey, the son of Mary Boleyn, was more than likely not the son of Henry VIII. Nor did she commit incest with her brother, which is implied in several scenes throughout the novel.

I admire Gregory’s ability to weave the “what if?” into her novels but I have enjoyed this work less than her others. I am not saying this is a poorly written novel; on the contrary, it is a well written story if you only approach as a story. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend a historical fiction novel about Mary Boleyn that follows historical events more accurately, because there is none.

Little is known about the life of Mary Boleyn. It is true she was raised in France, married Will Carey, and was mistress to the King, had a daughter and son, and married a man named William Stafford for love. Most of her life is a gap lost in history. That is why I applaud Gregory for choosing Mary Boleyn as the subject for this novel. It is the extensive liberties she took to tell Mary’s story that bothers this reader.