Adored this book, especially as the Tudor era is not one I covered in school. Beautifully written, it gives another perspective to Elizabeth 1's reign, her strengths and weakness and how life was all those years ago. Highly recommended.

did not enjoy this book unfortunately I couldn't get into it. Such a shame as it is on a subject I really like.

I really enjoy reading about the Tudors and this book did not disappoint. The times they lived in were very hard for most Royal and otherwise. A great and interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys history.

This is the story of the Virgin Queen - Elizabeth Tudor. She reigned for over forty years and in this story of her life, you learn of her loves and enemies, her sorrows and joys.
She found love, but couldn’t have it public, for it would destroy her reputation and sovereignty.
The prople loved and hated Elizabeth.
She killed her sister Mary Stuart, Queen if Scotland, and this sent her down a troubled path through the rest of her life.
This book is filled with much info about the reign of Elizabeth i. The 1500’s.
Very enjoyable and I gained a lot of knowledge of a Tudor that I didn’t know much about.

The Tudor Heritage is a historical fiction novel that takes place during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. It revolves around a lot of infamous parts of this monarch's life - her complicated love affair with the only man she ever truly loved, her tumultuous relationship with her cousin Mary Stuart, Drake's voyages of discovery, and the rise of the royal Armada. The book blurb lead me to believe that the book would have a primary focus on the Allgrave family. While the members of this family did play a role in parts of Elizabeth's life featured in the book, I felt like they were a secondary thought to the monarch herself. Therefore, I really didn't get what I was expecting from reading it. Furthermore, the book crams a lot of historical events into a short book, which means that a lot of the details were glossed over. Overall, I found myself wanting more throughout the book for these reasons.

Alas it was archived before I got chance to read it.

The Tudor Heritage by Lynda M. Andrews
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 3/5 stars
My Mini-Review:

The Bottom Line: While I generally go for a full-blown review, The Tudor Heritage doesn’t warrant such extensive thoughts as it is, more or less, just a fictionalized accounting of the major events of the Virgin Queen’s life. History buffs will know the events described and many will appreciate the re-telling in such a quick and fast-paced manner. There’s no dawdling in this book, just quick movement from one major event to the next with a lot of tantrums on the part of the Queen and her stubborn nature on full display. While this is, ostensibly, an intertwining of stories, Elizabeth’s and the Allgrave family, there is little overlapping until the very end of the end of the book. In all, I can’t say I loved this book, but I also didn’t dislike it either. It’s a quick and easy read and will appeal to those who just want the quick, dirty version of Elizabeth’s life rather than the saga 😊

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it, its right up my street about the Tudors and the times and if you like that kind of book then you are going to really like this one - Just read it!

Easy to read, simply-written and a good overview of the Elizabethan period. It read in parts like a high school history book, tying events in Elizabeth's life with a family living within her sphere. Not in depth enough for me to get a real feel for the characters - and even Elizabeth seemed to reflect the mainstream view of herself. Humans are a bit more complicated than depicted in this novel, but it might spark an interest in younger readers on this topic.

Tried so hard to like this. Just couldn't get past the flat characters and juvenile writing

The Tudor Heritage opens in 1560, shortly after Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne of England. The novel follows Elizabeth throughout her entire reign, covering such topics as her love for Robert Dudley, her determination not to marry, the problems she faced in dealing with Mary, Queen of Scots, and her relationship with the Earl of Essex. For such a short book there’s a lot of history to include, so it’s inevitable that a lot has had to be left out. However, for a reader new to the period this would be a chance to gain a good overview of the key events and figures of Elizabeth’s reign.

While we do spend a lot of time with Elizabeth, seeing things from her point of view, we also meet the family of Sir Richard Allgrave, a friend of the Queen’s secretary William Cecil. The Allgraves, who appear to be fictional, provide us with another perspective on Elizabethan life, being close to the court but also outside it. Occasionally there are parallels – such as when Sir Richard’s daughter Isabelle vows, like the Queen, to marry a man of her own choosing or not at all – but otherwise I felt that the main purpose of the Allgrave family in the novel was to allow us to see things which Elizabeth herself didn’t experience. For example, one of the Allgraves accompanies Sir Francis Drake on one of his voyages, while several others battle against the Spanish Armada.

The novel is written in a style which is generally clear and easy to read, but now and then the author puts words into Elizabeth’s mouth which sound as though they were drawn directly from 16th century historical documents. This makes a strange contrast with the rest of the dialogue and just didn’t feel right. On the whole, though, I found The Tudor Heritage quite an enjoyable read – but too short and slight to be completely satisfying.

From the start of her reign, Queen Elizabeth faced pressure to marry and beget an heir to secure the throne. Instead, she chose to guide her kingdom through the ups and downs of the time.

This was a difficult book to read. I've read books based on historical people and greatly enjoyed the history with a fictional telling. That was not the case with this book. It didn't seem to have a focus as it jumped from the Allgrave family to the queen and then to someone else. Perhaps if it had stayed specifically with the Allgrave family, as the book blurb indicated it would, the story would have been more enjoyable.

The pacing was all over the place, ranging from slow and tedious to fast paced and covering a great deal of time in too short a space. The style would change constantly, going from a modern telling to a verbatim speech Queen Elizabeth gave using words from her time period.

Those who enjoy a more history book telling might enjoy the book more than I did.

I am an avid fan of the Tudor Era, and devour any books that I can find on the subject. Therefore, I was really looking forward to reading The Tudor Heritage. However, I found myself a bit disappointed. While I mostly enjoyed the author's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I, I was distracted by the writing style. The writing seemed scattered in some places, lacking organization and flow. The characters, historical or otherwise, seemed to lack depth. The plot was great; it just didn't live up to it's potential.

I tend to absolutely love Historical Fiction. When I saw the title of this book, I knew I wanted to read it.
Do you remember the Royal Diaries series? I always picked a few up at the library and devoured them in one sitting. I loved getting to know these young elite in the form of personal diary entries. And I remember reading the one about Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is known as the Virgin Queen. She stood her ground and never let anyone convince herself to marry. And she became loved by her people, even without a King. Honestly, she was probably one of the best rulers of England. She did not have a man to distract her, so Elizabeth truly was married to her country.
The Tudor Heritage begins one year after Elizabeth has become Queen. It continues through the reign of Elizabeth and switches to the Allgrave family. We get a close up of wartime through the experience of the Allgrave sons. We see Elizabeth’s struggle with her cousin Mary, her dealings with Spain and France, a Sovereign doing what is best for her country.
There were a few things that I did not care for in this book. It read almost like a slow moving history book, then would speed up five, seven, or ten years. It seemed like the book couldn’t make up its mind. And the side story with the Allgraves was very confusing. I can see the connection at the very beginning and at the very end. But it really seemed a bit unnecessary for what the title of the book was trying to portray.
Overall a good historical fiction book for the beginning of the Tudor reign.
The Tudor Heritage by Lynda M. Matthews gets 3 stars.

I was very much looking forward to this but as with a lot of things lately, I found myself seriously wanting. I could be in a 'Tudor' slump; though I did enjoy Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen. I think the tome about Anne Boleyn has soured me slightly to this particular time period. However, I have done my best to be objective.   

So, as I said...I was disappointed. I'm a person who likes a smooth narrative; a clear voice even if the story is told from multiple view points. (Like George R.R. Martin's 'A Song of Fire and Ice' novels. Multiples POV's, but he is consistent in each one.) The narrative was jumpy--going from the Allgraves family to Queen Elizabeth and to the Earl of Leicester and I was befuddled. I'm not entirely certain the point of the Allgraves family being included. They didn't really add anything for me.

But back to the inconsistent voice. I guess you can tell that it drives me crazy, haha! I felt like there were three different authors; that's how different they felt to me. It didn't help that she would have certain things be long --things that wouldn't help  the plot along at all and then she'd go from 20th century writing (the book was written in 1977) back into 17th century writing. And it would be long passages too, not just a paragraph or two. Thou hast nary an idea of how confusing it was and I think ye a wonder if ye dinna find this switch to be a trifle on your mindset! God's teeth! 

Was that weird? Yes? Well, that's what it felt like when I'd turn the page and we'd go from modern lingo to pure 16th century writing.

It was also like the author copied (no pasting--there was not internet!) things verbatim into the book; that she didn't make the attempt to make it her own or at least modernize Elizabeth's speeches to be even toned. It made it an unpleasant experience. In fiction, I think that it's important to keep the tone consistent because it's easy to lose your reader if you don't stay with it. I found myself wanting to skip ahead through those sections. It was a short book, 250 pages or so, but I forced myself to stick with it. I figured that maybe I was being sightly dramatic but it was pretty...unusual. 

The author didn't seem keen to go into description of things either. I like a good description; it helps me to visualise the world I'm supposed to be seeing in my mind's eye. You know, thinking upon it, if I didn't already have an idea of what Elizabeth looked like, I would still have no idea. They made mention of her red-gold hair, long thin hands and her 'dark blue' eyes, though most agree her eyes were dark brown/black the same as Anne, her mother's. The only thing I felt was the most described well was Elizabeth's temper and she was Henry VIII's clone when it came to that!

Since this is being republished along with the author's other previous works, I do wonder if she evolved in her style. I'll have to look and see. There was potential for this book, it just never quite reached it for me. 

It never drew me in like I hoped that I would and that is a pity, considering how fascinating the Tudors were. It was very disappointing. I wish I could say more than that; but that is the only way to sum it up.

The book didn't draw me in, and to be honest, it was nothing special when it comes to Tudors. Perhaps it is hard to write something really original about the topic that was explored as much as the Tudors.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It follows the reign of Queen Elizabeth, her struggles with her love for the Earl of Leicester, her troubles with her cousin Queen Mary, and the usual courtly intrigues found in books like this. I didn't find anything that particularly stood out to me, or made this book unique in it's genre. One thing I did find a bit strange is that the book seemed to be divided into 3 distinct writing
styles. There were poignant moments in the Queen's private life, and
interludes of familial happiness with the Allgraves, then the writer would switch to page long descriptions of battles, then the writer would have the Queen and her councilors engage in dialogue that seems to have been ripped
directly from historical documents. The style of speaking English at the time would be used, which made those exchanges often difficult to follow, while on the same page the dialogue would then switch back to traditional modern English. I wasn't sure if this was deliberate on the part of the author, or an attempt to inject more historical accuracy but it made the reading somewhat cumbersome at times.

This book was originally published in 1977. As it begins, it focuses on a family called the Allgraves which is favored at the court of young Queen Elizabeth I. Unexpectedly, the moments that this book concentrated on this lovely family were my favorite sections of the book. I don't know if they actually existed in British history, but it was quite pleasant reading about their love for each other over the decades, family strife and tragedy, and the free-spirited nature for exploration exhibited by some of the characters.

The book primarily centers upon the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I...her loves and challenges to cling to the throne. It deals with her struggle to decide to sign the death warrants of cousin Mary, Queen of Scots as well as the second Earl of Essex, and her resultant emotional torture over those decisions. It also speaks of Elizabeth's true love for Robert Dudley (who was unacceptable to marry), and her determination to remain a "Virgin Queen."

There were large passages of war scenes with ships, and these I found a bit tedious to read. Overall, the writing style flows nicely and evokes that Tudor era very well. This historical fiction offering does not rise to the level of authorship of the immensely gifted Philippa Gregory, but it was a decent read.

Great historical fiction! For anyone who loves English history