If you have been following along the Six Tudor Queen series, you will find Katheryn Howard’s installment similar to the others. I always enjoy learning about the Queens before marrying Henry and the Author’s Note. Katheryn’s story seems exceptionally sad to me. There were a few parts that dragged (Lambeth in particular) but overall I am happy to continue with this series.

You do not have to read the novels before in succession but I do think they add to the experience.

This book!!!!! Allison Weir is the quintessential author of books about Henry VIII and this time period. She carries on with Kathryn Howard: The Scandalous Queen. Such grand detail describes her trysts with her music teacher, Dereham and Tom Culpepper, and Ms. Weir doesn’t leave out a thing. From the gorgeous gowns to the precious gems and jewelry, this book reads like a fictional tale, yet with Ms. Weir’s great detail to her research and the facts, one can hardly believe why in the world Kathryn would delve into such a lustfilled life, and not with Henry. She was a stupid girl, truly! And only 21, when she was beheaded! As they say in Six, The Musical, Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, BEHEADED, survived. Why Kathryn made the choices she did just for love and lust, knowing what could happen to her, is the stuff of horrors!
Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the egalley....now I am determined to read all of Allison Weir’s books!!

It was so enlightening to read about Katheryn’s early life. I’ve read many times that she was in the Dowager’s household but had not known about the upheavals that she experienced before she lived there. With so much uncertainty it’s no wonder she kept looking for security and affirmation in herself. And I think it’s hard to forget how young she was.

Alison Weir has made Katheryn a sympathetic character, so much that I find myself rooting for her and trying to give her advice. Even though we all know how her story ends.

I’ve love all of Alison Weir’s books and the insight she gives us into the Tudor lives. This was a great book that I really enjoyed.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

In this latest installment in the Six Tudor Queens series, Alison Weir tells the story of Henry VIII’s fifth queen, Katheryn Howard. Written in the first person, it is the sad story of a shallow young woman who lived much of her life as a pawn. Unfortunately, by telling the story from Katheryn’s POV we miss a lot of information about her life, especially after she marries. The author briefly addresses this in the Author’s Note, but the book still seems to be lacking the ability to give us a real feel for this sad, young woman.

If this is your first encounter with Katheryn Howard, 5th wife of Henry VIII, you may be a bit surprised by the salacious nature of some parts of this book. Personally I have read many books on all of the Tudors and have read several Alison Weir books before this one. Even though this young girl was of the prominent Howard family, she grew up in poverty thanks to losing her mother young and her father consistently making really bad choices. She is farmed out to a home in her formative years where there is little supervision which is disastrous for very pretty, high spirited Katheryn who attracts no shortage of male attention. I feel like the story telling was really good here and it kept me engaged the whole time. Weirdly enough, I didn't get a good sense of Katheryn as a person other than as a young girl who lets her desires lead her instead of thinking things through. She definitely has that "I'm young and invincible" thing going on throughout the book. I am still curious about how she actually was as a person. This book definitely pumps up the drama, much like Philippa Gregory does in her books and I found it very entertaining. I also like that the author gives a detailed explanation of sources while writing the book so you can see why she wrote it the way she did.

WOW WOW WOW! This book is absolutely incredible! Every time I picked up "Katheryn Howard, The Scandalous Queen", I found myself whisked away to Tudor Era England, and history was brought to life before my eyes.

I have been waiting for this book as a part of Ms. Weir's "Six Tudor Queens" series, and I loved it. Ms. Weir has such a beautiful way of storytelling, seamlessly blending meticulous historical research with historical fiction. The various locations in the book all jumped off of the page, were described thoroughly and wonderfully, and I could really envision them as if I was actually in England in the 1500's. The historical figures she brings to life as her characters all felt so real, vivid, and their interactions with one another were so authentic. She made me believe I was in the Tudor Court with them all.

I really feel like I got to know and understand Katheryn Howard much better from reading this book. We see Katheryn first as a young child, watch her growing up, and see how she was often used as a pawn by those around her wanting to advance their own power and positions. She often didn't have a choice but to do certain things (no spoilers here!). We see Katheryn make some of her own decisions out of naiveté, some out of passion, and some out of just wanting to feel loved and accepted. What a sad and absolutely tragic story.

If you love historical fiction, and / or reading books set in Tudor England, I HIGHLY recommend this novel. I found myself not wanting to put this book down, turning page after page after page to see what and how events unfolded. I knew historically what was coming at the end, but still found myself quite moved and not wanting it to happen. I also really loved the "Author's Note", and found it really interesting!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group---Ballantine for the ARC of this novel, I loved it! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

So looking forward to her next book on Catherine Parr!

Note: The publisher gave me early access to this novel in exchange for writing an impartial review.

Like any devotee of Tudor fiction, I have dutifully read bestselling author Alison Weir’s series of lengthy historical novels SIX TUDOR QUEENS as each has become available. This one is #5 and I look forward to the final one about Katherine Parr. Taken together, they are an impressive achievement - not even considering all those remarkable non-fiction works Weir is so famous for.

Weir's Katheryn is fully fleshed out. She’s attractive, fun-loving, immature, irresponsible, flighty, and passionate. And NOT very bright. She lives superficially, caring primarily about her own pleasure and comfort, repeatedly succumbing to male attention — even when the man’s reputation is known to be questionable. She makes blunder after blunder, always naively confident there will be no long-term consequences. She has little loyalty, lies easily, and is quick to blame others. Only when she is finally cornered does she seriously begin to contemplate her own responsibility for her own actions.

The book begins with Katheryn as a young girl just before her mother’s death. Katheryn is then separated from most of her siblings and moved around from relative to relative, until she is deposited in the home of her remote step-grandmother (the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk) — where she winds up getting into lots of trouble. The details and instability of her early home life (including the absence of her father) helps make Katheryn a sympathetic figure and, to my mind, provides a reason for her becoming so susceptible to the attentions of older men. Of course now, those early attentions of Henry Mannox, and perhaps even Francis Dereham, would more likely be construed as child abuse, with the men being held more accountable than the victim.

The attraction between Katheryn and her cousin Thomas Culpepper is established early and it felt believable to me that they would have likely married, if Katheryn had not caught the eye of the King and fallen victim to her ambitious uncle, the Duke of Norfolk.

Throughout the novel, Weir remains committed to keeping the reader true to Katheryn’s perspective, a decision I appreciated. Weir explains in the Afterword that she used her extensive research, including the original testimony from the Privy Council investigation into Katheryn’s misdeeds, to piece together this narrative — but, like Katheryn, readers are kept in the dark. Finding out about events (like the fate of the "other" men in her life) only when Katheryn does.

And finally, the author also does a skillful job of describing — quite convincingly — what was likely going through Katheryn’s mind as her downfall began. Her desperation rings true -- complete with frantic second-guessing, emotional hysterics, and panicked shifting between hope and fear.

Not surprisingly, there were moments when I felt Weir’s background in non-fiction and commitment to historical detail went overboard — making for some awkwardly inserted tangents and contrived dialog. Like when a boatman casually recounts the history of Syon Abbey where Katheryn is about to be imprisoned. Really? Hardly a conversation a mere boatman would likely have had with a condemned Queen.

But of course, I recommend the book to all lovers of Tudor history. Oddly enough, and somewhat surprising, King Henry VIII comes off as quite a nice guy. That turned out to be a nice change of pace.

Honestly I love all of Alison Weir's books. Thank you for the ARC. Loved the way she told Katheryn's story. If this isn't your first AW book then you know about Katheryn Howard. Alison Weir has a way of transporting you back in time. Fascinating descriptions and the history, I feel as I learn something new with each book...

This was probably my fourth favorite of the five Henry VIII books that Alison Weir has published, beating out only Anna of Kleves. I am fascinated by Katheryn Howard and think that there is a lot of mystery in the decisions she made before and after becoming queen, but I don't know if this was the best narrative presentation of that. Katheryn herself wasn't the most thought-out character and I thought she had a lot missing from her own character development. Sometimes, she was very serious and thoughtful, and other times she was very frivolous. It felt like Weir couldn't decide who she wanted Katheryn to be.

Culpeper and Lady Rochford were also pretty poorly developed characters, while Dereham was much better written. Their motivations were so clunky and confusing, and I wish Weir had taken a stance in what their motivations were, at least for the sake of a good narrative.

I think that Weir is best suited for nonfiction, as the last two books in this series have shown. Her first three were much better, although never great.

"Katheryn Howard, The Scandalous Queen" paints a rather vivid image of Katheryn Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. While I don't often enjoy historical fiction books about real people, this was certainly an interesting and entertaining one. It was well worth the read.

Another amazing Tudor Queen novel by best-selling author, Alison Weir. Katheryn Howard was Henry VIII’s fifth wife. She was a frivolous young woman who was manipulated by several men before and during her tenure as queen. She was also seduced by the thought of being the Queen of England even though she was not chaste and careful with her suitors prior to her marriage to Henry.

Weir paints a vivid picture of Kathryn’s life before both her marriage and her life at court. None of the main players in her life comes out of this unscathed, as is shown in this novel. I highly recommend this book and this series. If you are a Tudor fan, this is a must!

Alison Weir writes the most beautiful vivid historical fiction.Katheryn Howard comes alive the Tudor era the atmosphere the loves .Highly recommend this and all her books.#netgalley#randomhouse,

I don't think I could praise this book near enough. Alison Weir has absolutely done it again! She has captivated my heart from page one with Katheryn Howard's story.

This is definitely a chronicled book where you walk through Katheryn's life from Age 7 when she lost her mother all the way until she met her untimely end.

As I was devouring this book I could just imagine her surrounding landscapes, what the king looked like, how culpeper was and so on. Alison definitely knows how to awaken your imagination all while you are learning about a queen not many people knew much about.

This definitely goes by the "big" major events in Katheryn's life, however, please take this book as merely fiction. Yes the main events really played out like Alison describes. The parts that you need to remember is just a fictitious story is the conversations she had, how Alison describes how Katheryn felt and so on.

No matter how much fiction this book is it was a glorious read and I plan on re-reading this book in the near future. Now that I have read it once I feel I can go back and truly enjoy the book down to the tiny details.

This is a historical fiction book about the life of Katheryn Howard.
It starts with her childhood. The death of her mother and the consequential marriages of her father. He died in debt. Katheryn was living with relatives and didn't have a future of a great marriage since she didn't have a dowry.
When she is sent to live with the Dutchess her step grandmother is when her life changed.
She was in the dormitory with the other young maidens. There were parties and young men there that the Dutchess was not aware of.
Never in her wildest dreams did Katheryn even imagine that she would catch the Kings eye and become Queen.
This is an excellent story. It has a lot of detail of what was worn, and the gifts received by the women.
It also has the people involved and how they were related without being mundane or boring.
Wonderful story.

Alison Weir writes great books and this one was no exception! Katheryn Howard was certainly scandalous! I have read a bit about her life, but I was a little shocked at how "free spirited" she was for the time period in which she lived.
This is a very engrossing novel with very interesting historical characters. It is a book you can't easily put down, even though if you enjoy the Tudor period you know the outcome. Great for book clubs as well as fans of historical fiction.
Sit in a comfy chair, make a cup of tea, and get ready for a story that will stick with you for some time...
Thank You to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC.

I have enjoyed other works by Alison Weir more than this, the tower and beheading couldn't happen soon enough for me in this book, and it's unfortunate because usually I relish historical fiction. The portrayal of this scandalous queen was more irritating than anything, and I almost found myself justifying her beheading. Be done with it already is how I felt half way through, and so this was a rather difficult read to get through because of the dislike I felt for most of the characters. I would recommend other books by this Author and would continue to read more work from her in the future. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have read this prior to publication and thank the publisher and Author.

This is another outstanding novel of the Tudor era by Alison Weir. This one deals with Katherine Howard. All the historical facts are presented accurately. The author brings the past to life, and you find yourself immersed in the past. Ms. Weir is a wonderful author, and I read everything she has written. If you read even one of her novels, I guarantee she will have another devoted fan.

I enjoyed this book about Katheryn Howard's short life. It was clear that the author did a lot of research into the time period and her life, and it was really interesting to read about what a woman's life was like during this time. This was my first book by Alison Weir and it definitely won't be my last! Thank you for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I waffled on this review for a few days because this book is very different from the others in the series. I was hoping that Weir would give Katheryn a little more substance than historians generally have given her, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

The book starts with the death of Katheryn’s mother, spends a considerable amount of time on her years in Horsham and Lambeth and her interactions with Henry Mannox and Francis Dereham, and finally her affair with Thomas Culpeper which leads to her demise. In the end, it all just feels a bit surface-level? I would have liked to see Weir take more risks with Katheryn’s interests and ambitions, but her entire narrative revolves around these three men and the King… which is nothing new and gets tiring after awhile, especially toward the end when she’s on progress with the King and constantly having trysts with Culpeper.

That being said, I know that Katheryn is also the youngest of Henry’s wives and there typically isn’t as much material on her as the other women, so I think it’s fair to say that Weir had less to work with (and to be honest, her strength is in using historical records). Truly, the most interesting parts for me were her thoughts around events like Culpeper raping a woman and murdering a bystander. I think that the book would have been a lot more interesting if it had her reactions to other current events, and if it had been shortened to remove some of the redundant liaisons.

I was able to read this book thanks to o. I love all things Tudor and Alison Weir is the master. I have loved every book in this Tudor Queen series and this one was no exception. Written about his fifth wife who was beheaded on adultery charges, it was interesting and well written. You can definitely sympathize with Katheryn and while some of it is likely fact you feel poorly for how she was constantly used by men and had no choice but to marry the King. This is my favorite in the series so far and I look forward to the sixth book. I will be recommending this to all of my friends and book clubs.