I love this series- which is both engaging and entertaining while being incredibly educational. Weir has a way of bringing the characters to life in an atmospheric swirl. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Great read.

I started this book several times, but now I decided I must get it off my shelf. I love history, but this 577 page story became tedious. So full of intrigue and wicked people. It was well written but so many characters it was difficult to follow. From childhood I remember Hermans Hermits singing song about Henry VIII, and that was about all I knew about King Henry. So many wives and so much murder and mayhem, I almost gave up reading this, yet I read to the end. This was enough about British kings and queens to last me for some time to come. The story ended rather abruptly, and not my cup of tea.

I never miss an Alison Weir book, and this installment delivered just as all of her others have. Jane Seymour always struck me as the most boring of Henry VIII's wives, but Weir's take opens up a whole new angle on her story. Must-read for anyone interested in Tudor history.

Alison Weir has another terrific book about one of England’s queens. So readable and well researched, thoroughly enjoyable! I highly recommend this book to history buffs!

"Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen" was a wonderful, fast paced novel about Jane Seymour, her becoming the queen, and of King Henry's court. Intriguing relationships, dynamics, scheming, politics and social statuses. This book was hard to set aside. Thank you Alison Weir, the author, to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Third of six wives, with a short tenure in power Jane has long been my least favorite of the wives & holds true here. Weir tries to follow historical records while also inventing a personality for the girl; it’s a hard sell. KH8 looms larger than ever over the plot and its people.

Jane herself really lack a a presence in her own story. She is constricted by her time and place but she has so little stand out. Katherine was steadfast, Anne was clever, and Jane.... has the long-for heir. Weir tries to graft more into the bones of what we know about Jane Seymour but it is not enough. ★★

This was my introduction to Alison Weir and I am totally into her books. Maybe not 100% factual but close enough to satisfy anyone interested in Henry VIII and his life.

After reading this I purchased many of her earlier books and had a British book fest.

Having read Weir's non-fiction and the previous two books in this series, I definitely needed to read this book.

Jane Seymour was raised as the eldest daughter of a landed gentry in York. While her family are not hugely influential as a noble family, they do have a small place at court. Jane starts her life wanting to be a nun, but as she becomes an adult realizes this is not her place. She becomes a lady-in-waiting for Queen Catherine. Following the tide of favor, she eventually is forced to become lady-in-waiting for the next queen, Anne Boleyn, and this puts her in line for the throne as well.

As per usual, Weir does a fantastic job taking on this book through a third person/first person-like perspective. Jane was our vehicle through this whole story and we learned her thoughts, motivations, etc. We do get almost an omniscient view of the characters around her as well. Jane helped with that by being such an observant soul. She notices a lot about what is going with other characters, their moods, etc. Because of this, we do get to learn a bit about the characters around Jane as she interacts with them but also as she observes them.

I felt like we got a fairly good breakdown through Jane's life. Between the years of her childhood, her years serving different queens and her year and change as queen herself. I almost felt like we got a little too much time while Anne was Queen, but I also understand what Jane must have been going through, how it effected her when the King started pursuing her, etc. I almost wish we had gotten an option of seeing Jane's funeral, etc. through character's eyes. It just felt a little weird to have it end the way it did. I know Jane died and the book was being told through her voice, but it would have been interesting to see.

I think my overall feeling in this book had nothing to do with the writing or the plot, but just with Jane. She made some small waves. But they felt small. I guess considering the fact that she was only queen for a year and 5 months, she did much in her tenure. She is remembered for producing a male heir for Henry. But her lack of fire in comparison to Catherine and Anne makes her seem almost lackluster in comparison. She was a woman of quiet strengths.

I still feel Jane has an important place and I'm glad I got a chance to read her history. Thank you Alison Weir for writing this superb story about Jane. I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

As always, Allison Weir delivers! I really enjoyed this book and loved a chance to explore the life of one of Henry's often overlooked wives.

A novel of the devout young woman who became the unwilling object of King Henry VIII's ardor - and the mother of his only son.

In this third book in the epic Six Tudor Queens series, the acclaimed historian and best-selling author brings new insight to this dramatic story, showing how pure fear for her life determined Jane Seymour's actions.

Twenty-five-year-old Jane Seymour wants nothing more than to become a nun. But her ambitious father has forced her to live at court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon, a fellow Catholic whom she soon comes to love and admire. So Jane is appalled when King Henry shunts Katherine aside in his lustful pursuit of Anne Boleyn, but even more so when he takes Anne's life in his rush to wed - Jane herself!

Unwilling to marry but terrified to resist Henry's advances for fear she might share Anne's fate, and propelled by her family, Jane becomes queen of England a mere 10 days after Anne's execution. She knows she must produce a male heir without fail. Her very life depends on it.

Another fabulous book from Alison Weir. This is the third in a series of six. You do not have to read the first two books to be completely caught up with King Henry VIII and his other two wives with this one. The author goes into great detail about Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Actually half of the book is about them. This is Jane Seymour 's story and it's a rather short one. If you're not familiar with the six wives, this is an interesting book. If you know the story up until Jane, then you might be a little bored. Jane Seymour is probably King Henry VIII 's least liked bride. She is also thought to be the one he loved most because she gave him the long awaited son. She's also the wife His Majesty chose to be buried beside him forever.
I thought it was a little bit drawn out, but it's very well written and researched, as this author is best known for.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thank you so much, Netgalley!
All opinions are my own

I LOVE Alison Weir's nonfiction works about the Tudors and Plantagenets, but I've been a little disappointed in her historical fiction novels. She seems to take the characters waaaaaay off track and it just isn't believable if you've read enough of her nonfiction. I want my historical fiction to at least be believable. I just didn't think that this portrayal of Jane made much sense at all. Barely had enough interest to finish.

Jane Seymour grew up just knowing she was to be a nun. She lived with the nuns for a short period of time before deciding that wasn't her life's calling. Jane grew into maturity in a very tumultuous period of Tudor history. Henry Tudor had put aside Queen Katherine to marry Anne Boleyn to hopefully gain his coveted male heir. As history shows, that didn't happen. Weir takes you through this time through the eyes of Jane. She served both Queens before attracting the attentions of King Henry. Once married, Jane gives Henry his desired heir, but childbirth sickness leads to her tragic death.

What I enjoyed so much about this "version" of Jane's story was that she wasn't this innocent, pure, virginal person that so many have made her out to be. She was definitely a good person, but might have had some part in the fall of Queen Anne. As with most women in this era, she really didn't have the authority to make her own choices. So much of her life was planned by the males in her family. For whatever reason, this book was hard for me to get into, BUT once I got past a few chapters, I couldn't put it down. Weir never disappoints. 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for providing a copy of this work in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of British royals, both modern day and historic, so Alison Weir is what I consider to be a great and accurate author and historian of this topic. I had recently read The Six Wives of Henry VIII, also by Weir, so I was somewhat familiar with each wife (Anne of Cleves is my fave) and this book gave more in depth knowledge about Jane, the only wife of Henry to give him a male heir who became king and the wife buried with Henry at St. George’s Chapel. She may have had a short life and reign, but Jane was what many consider to be Henry VIII’s true love.

Jane Seymour is a Tudor queen about which less has been written; she was a quiet girl, who spent her early years wanting to become a nun. Her home life was rather horrific: her brother’s wife became her father’s mistress. Ultimately she is sent to court to be Lady in Waiting to Henry’s first queen, Catherine of Aragon. She loves Catherine, and dislikes Henry’s adulteries. When he banishes Catherine and declares their marriage null, she is reassigned to Anne Boleyn, whom she despises. When Anne in turn falls from favor, she is flattered but alarmed when the king’s attentions turn to her.

Jane was supposed to be Henry’s favorite queen; she gave him a living son and died before he could get bored with her. He is buried next to her. She was involved with Henry for only 3 years- which was longer, actually, than I’d thought. She left behind no letters and was not involved in politics or religious arguing, so her character can only be surmised from what little others wrote about her. Weir has given us a pious, private girl who was pushed into the king’s path by her family. Sadly, this girl failed to take fire as a character. She comes across as one of those people you don’t pay much attention to in real life.

The first part of the book is very, very heavily entwined with the stories of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, because Jane lived through that and knew them, and she was not a history maker until after they were dead. There is a lot of physical details in the book, which bring the time alive, but not, unfortunately, Jane. Three stars.

As a firm reader of historical fiction and having read the author’s previous books on Tudor history, it was interesting to see the perspective from Jane Seymour. While Jane was considered one of the more dull of Henry VIII’s wives, Weir made Jane come alive and sympathize with her.

It has been a while since I read a historical fiction and this one did not disappoint. You can tell the author did extensive research and while it is a fiction it feels very well done and fits with popular history knowledge. I haven't read the previous two books but plan to after reading this. It was fun to watch Jane change and mature over time in this book. While arguably, she is not the most likable at times, I do think you understand her and her actions. Overall really good book!

* I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third book in Alison Weir Six Tudor Queens series. I had no intention of reading this book just yet because I had not read the first two books in this series. But then I was fortunate enough to receive a netgalley of this. After reading one or two pages of this I could not put it down.

This story centers around Jane Seymour, who was the third wife of Henry VIII. She was both lady-in-waiting to both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She caught Henry eyes which precipitated the downfall of Anne Boleyn. She was dubbed Henry’s favorite “Queen” because she was the only one to provide him with a male heir.

Jane was the narrator throughout the story, so we get her perspective throughout the book. So I disagree with anyone that says that we didn’t get enough Jane in this. Plus I think that this was the best route to go since there not much information on her historically.

Weir certainly embellishes on some stuff, but for the most part she is sticking straight to history. And for the things that she does embellish on at the end of the book she gives solid arguments as to why she that way in her story.

I thought all her character portrayals were spot on. I think out of all the books I have read on Jane I think this my favorite depiction of her. Jane in this wanted to bring the Boleyn’s down, but she didn’t want to see them dead. I liked how she wrote Henry as well. We see a man who values his Kingly prerogative over anything else, including his family.

If your an Anne Boleyn fan, I don’t think your going to like this version of her, but at the same time we have remember that this book is written from Jane’s perspective. She doesn’t have a kindly opinion of her, but the towards the end of the book she changes her mind about certain beliefs had about her.

Overall, I thought this book was Amazing. It's making me want to research more on the Seymour’s. I highly recommend this.

I mean really, all the girl wanted was to be a nun. She wanted to eat, sleep, pray and instead fate throws her smack dab in the middle of court drama.

People complain that Jane was quiet, or boring, or mousy but honestly would I be any different? There can be power in listening more than you speak, which comes with mystery as a natural consequence--who knows what really went on in quiet Jane's head?


We do get to read all about Anne, which is natural in almost any Tudor novel but if I were to accidentally find myself in the Tudor era, Jane would be the one I find myself drawn to.

I really loved this book. It was fascinating to learn about Jane and her relationship with Henry. Good read