The story of The Last White Rose- Elizabeth of York is not a new story and has an ending which we all know. However this version by Alison Weir brought out new details that I had not been aware of.
At first, I was not sure I would like this version as it spent a lot of time focusing on Elizabeth's childhhood and the difficulties she faced being the daughter of the King of England in the unsure time after the death of her father King Edward.
As the book goes on, it shows a different side of her mother Elizabeth of Woodville that I had not known. It also seems that the author believes she knows what happened to the Princes in the Tower. ( I agree with her!)
Overall, I enjoyed this book as much as I have this authors previous books. And even though I knew how the story ended, I found myself tearing up a bit at the descriptions painted by the author at the end.
Another enjoyable and informative read by one of my favorite authors.
Big thanks go to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Last White Rose: A Novel of Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir is a great historical fiction that gives us a spotlight on the pivotal woman, Elizabeth. I really liked this.

I have loved every book I have read from Ms. Weir, so even though I know quite a bit about Elizabeth of York, I knew I had to read this.

The author does a great job creating a narrative that is easy to follow, engaging, entertaining, and has a bit of something for everyone. Whether one knows a lot about the Tudors, or doesn’t, this is a great read.

Highly recommend and looking forward to the next book.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Random House/Ballentine for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 5/3/22.

This fictional account of the first Tudor queen is, like every Alison Weir book I’ve ever read, well researched, well written and totally captivating. From the first chapter the reader is immersed in Elizabeth’s life. She is shown as a real person and I really felt that I gained a new and better understanding of her life and times from this book. I was especially surprised by her relationship with her husband, Henry VII. Elizabeth has now become one of my favorite queens because of this book.

What a wonderful start to a new series. I loved all of the details - clothes, architecture, food, scenery and especially the thorough characterization of her characters. The times of the family in sanctuary were particularly moving for me with the fate of the young princes unknown to the family. I felt I knew Elizabeth of York by the end of the book and what trials and tribulations she had to endure. This was a well=researched piece of historical fiction. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy to review.

I really enjoyed this book! Elizabeth of York is one of my favorite Queens os England. She had an interesting life,and seen so much change.
Alison did a wonderful job bringing Elizabeth and her life back to life.

Generally I’m a fan of Historian Alison Weir’s fiction (I LOVED her Six Tudor Queens series) but I found more flaws (especially during Elizabeth’s early years) in this book, the first of Weir's new series (Tudor Rose). I would rate this one 3.5 stars.

ELIZABETH OF YORK, THE LAST WHITE ROSE is a fictional account of the life of the oldest daughter of King Edward IV of England and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. Elizabeth eventually becomes the wife of King Henry VII and together they found the Tudor Dynasty, ancestors of all English monarchs since 1509.

Weir’s account of Elizabeth’s life is solid and comprehensive. The traumas of her childhood, uncertainties surrounding prospective marriages, marriage to Henry, and threats to the legitimacy of their claim to the throne are all handled believably. If the author had stuck with just that, I’d have given this book four or five stars.

But Weir, an historian by training, felt compelled to include a lot of additional historical detail that felt superfluous so Elizabeth’s story and made the book feel long and in some places clunky. Let me try to explain.
• When Elizabeth is still a child, I felt the narrative kept shifting. I think Weir was trying to maintain Elizabeth’s child-appropriate perspective, like referring to “Mother” (instead of Queen Elizabeth Woodville) and “Grandmother” (Jacquetta Woodville). But then Weir would include information or observations that would not be possible coming from a five-year-old. As though the narrator suddenly became omniscient, with the language and sensibilities of an adult.
• Weir includes a lot of detail about the politics and shifting allegiances associated with the Wars of the Roses, some of which have little or no impact on Elizabeth’s interests or life. This, I believe, made the book feel overly long.
• To include a lot of this extraneous information, Weir again and again resorts to the same literary device: someone overhearing a conversation between others. WAY overused!

I certainly recommend the book for historical fiction fans, those who want to know more about this remarkable woman (the mother of King Henry VIII), and, of course, anyone who loves Tudor England.

NOTE #2: If you, like me, believe Richard III innocent of the controversial deaths of the two princes in the Tower, be warned that Weir does not agree.

Just when you think you've read it all about the War of the Roses and the Tudors, Alison Weir shows you that you haven't got a clue. "The Last White Rose" is a terrific historical novel about Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV. A bright, pretty, good natured girl, she's going to need all those attributes to make it through her life. She’s repeatedly betrothed, only to have other royal families break the matches off as opinion seesaws between the belief that her father had been secretly wed to another and thus she’s illegitimate, and that she is truly a Princess of England. When her father dies young and her brother-heirs disappear in the Tower of London, Uncle Richard III wants to marry her to put an end to speculation about his own reign.

Elizabeth, called Bessie by her family, is stuck in sanctuary with what is left of her family, and decides that she must be something besides a life-long pawn. She reaches out to Richard's main foe, Henry Tudor, and offers her support as daughter of Edward IV. When Richard is defeated, Bessie and Henry marry and have a strong relationship and many children, including the future Henry ViIII. But some things never go away and her husband's reign is repeatedly interrupted by people claiming to be one or another of her dead brothers and so the rightful rulers.

So little is written about medieval women that it offers the chance to imagine their reactions to established historical facts. Alison Weir does this very well, having built solid novels about Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, Queens of England about whom not much is known. She makes Bessie a believable woman of her time and weaves a rich tapestry around her.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. This is one of my favorite authors. I love her story-telling technique and I love everything Tudor. This book was so full of information! I knew somewhat the story of the York/Lancaster history but this brought it all into perspective for me. I cannot wait for another book by Alison Weir. I dont care what it is about, i will read it anyway!

I have always been a huge fan of Weir's work and this one was no exception! I love the way we see Elizabeth grow from a small princess into the queen that helped start the Tudor dynasty. I loved how she tackled the supposed "affair" she is to have had with Richard, before she married Henry. Any fan of the Tudors or the Cousin's War will enjoy this book.

The story is told from Elizabeth of York’s POV and it begins with what was probably the real Elizabeth of York’s earliest memory – when she, at four years old, and her younger sisters, and very pregnant mother had to flee to sanctuary when the Lancaster regained the throne and her father had to go into exile.

The writing starts off somewhat stilted, partially because its awkward to combine major historic events with a 4 year old’s comprehension.

The story follows Elizabeth as she grows up and witnesses the major events of the reigns of her father, brother, uncle, and husband, and with more understanding on her part, the story quickly blossoms.

She gets a front row seat to some events, such as the death of her father, while others, like the Battle of Bosworth, she has to sit at home and wait for news to come to her. However, she doesn’t always just sit and wait, and we see her taking action at several points to make things happen.

This story does a good job of showing the personal side of history. The deaths of people aren’t just political events for Elizbeth, it can be devasting personal blows. Everyone focuses on the disappearance of the princes in the Tower, but before that this story shows how terrible it was for Elizabeth to lose her baby brother George, her baby sister Margaret, and the heartbreak of the death of her sister Mary who died when Elizabeth was 15 and Mary was 14. The deaths of these siblings are usually barely mentioned at most, glossed over most of the time with just a brief aside of how “lucky” the royal family was to “only” lose 3 children.

As queen of England, we see how Elizabeth was actually quite active in numerous events, and Weir does an excellent job following the timeline to show where people were at specific points and showing the overlap of some events – such as dealing with the death of Arthur while also dealing with the confession of Tyrell. And getting – proven! – collaboration from his sister, overlooked by so many historians, who was friends with Thomas More’s wife, which gives his theories that much more credibility.

An excellent fictionalizing of the life of Elizabeth of York, making her come alive as a real, flesh and blood person.

I have to admit, I like Alison Weir’s fiction and nonfiction as a more historically accurate version of Tudor era fiction compared to someone like Philippa Gregory, whose books make the War of the Roses and Tudor eras seem even more like a soap opera than they already were.

This was a compelling story of Elizabeth of York, who as a historical figure, is incredibly important. I’ve always been a bit fascinated by her story because of how she was so connected to both sides and that she must have made some incredibly difficult choices and she was able to provide some stability to the new Tudor rule. We get to see Elizabeth grow and mature throughout the many significant, life altering events that she witnessed and was a part of. I also enjoyed that Ms. Weir wrote it so that there was never a truly evil figure, we could see motivations behind some of the character’s actions and could understand it a bit better. The writing was a little dry in some parts, but overall these historical figures were given depth and it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

An overly-ambitious novel that seems to take extreme detail as a duty rather than an option.

On the positive side, the reader is permitted to see historical figures in a way they've never been depicted.

On the negative? No one in this novel is truly evil—they all have seemingly justifiable reasons for committing the wrongs and downright atrocities they did. Unfortunately, that and other issues resulted in a 3,385 word review that I had to spread across two sites.

Alison Weir has a way of putting you in the story and this book does not disappoint. Elizabeth of York is a fascinating woman who helped usher in the Tudor Dynasty. This is a great beginning to her new series and I an eagerly awaiting the next book.

544 pages

5 stars

We first meet Elizabeth when she is just shy of four years old. We follow her life through her childhood and her father, King Edward IV’s, untimely death.

The book shifts gears a little when we reach the whole drama with her uncle the Duke of Gloucester, who becomes King Richard III. Her younger brother, King Edward V and an even younger brother, also named Richard, suddenly disappear. Richard III is considered as usurper by many and is suspected of the murder of Elizabeth’s two younger brothers. Or, at least their disappearance.

Elizabeth liked and trusted Gloucester, so she couldn’t understand why her mother disliked and distrusted him so much. Surely, her mother was wrong about him. He wouldn’t harm her brothers or try to usurp the throne.

When her brother Edward is taken by Gloucester and her uncle and half-brother are arrested, Elizabeth and her family must flee to sanctuary once more. Elizabeth feels that her mother is overreacting to the Duke of Gloucester’s behavior when he has Edward V installed in the Tower of London. It is the customary place for royalty awaiting coronation to be housed, but Elizabeth’s mother doesn’t see it that way. Elizabeth is getting tired and fed up with her mother’s fears.

When Elizabeth’s mother turns out to be right about Gloucester, her world is turned upside down.

Margaret Beaufort a/k/a Lady Stanley, a descendant of John of Gaunt, proposes that Elizabeth marry her son, the Duke of Richmond. She stresses that it would join the houses of York and Lancaster. The Duke of Richmond is Henry Tudor.

Following another betrayal by King Richard, Elizabeth throws all her support to Henry Tudor. She schemes with Lord Stanley to assist Henry in any way they can.

When Henry defeated King Richard at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Elizabeth’s future was practically assured. Once they were wed, Henry was kind and her dreams were realized. Their first child was a prince whom they named Arthur.

Although Elizabeth’s life with Henry VII was not totally idyllic, she was happy and satisfied. She loved Henry and he loved her.

This book is a much needed examination of Elizabeth of York’s life. It is filled with colorful people, good and bad. There were many players to keep straight, but it was not very difficult. I had read a little about her, but this wonderful book really filled out her life. I watched her grow from a child to a woman. I met her brothers and sisters, as well as her other relatives and those who would do them wrong. It is a book that I will read again. It is both well written and plotted, as are all of Ms. Weir’s books. She has a very real talent for bringing historical figures to life with all their positive and negative attributes. Well done, Ms. Weir!

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Ballantine Books
for forwarding to me a copy of this most remarkable book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

After the first few pages, I ended up deciding to put this book on my 'did not finish' pile. I don't that there was anything wrong with the book itself, I think it was the author's writing style that did it for me. But I think that anyone that is a fan of the author would likely enjoy this book.

“Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose” is the first in a series of “Tudor Rose” books by Alison Weir. I’ve been a fan of Ms. Weir’s non-fiction British Royal Family books for a long time. Writing fiction based upon your own non-fiction books must be interesting. In some ways, Ms. Weir succeeded very well - in other ways, it didn’t always work as well as I would’ve liked.

I really liked that Ms. Weir gave Elizabeth of York a voice. When one looks at “who she is,” one realizes that Elizabeth was the daughter to a king, sister of a king, the niece of a king, and wife of a king. That’s a woman who has seen a lot of history - and a shift in her “importance” in a defining point in British history. I liked that the reader sees Elizabeth maturing in both her thinking and actions. I also enjoyed learning more about her lesser known siblings. While it was good to read about a more warmer than usual Henry VII, I found at times their relationship to be a bit too sentimental for my taste. And, in a minor point, I enjoyed seeing Henry VIII (referred to as “Harry”) make appearances - his character just jumps off the page, but I’m a huge Henry VIII fan.

I wished that Ms. Weir had included a family tree. In the endnotes, she mentioned that she used nicknames for some characters to avoid confusion, but a family tree would’ve also helped with clearing some of the name confusion. I also wasn’t too keen on the handling of the “reveal” about what happened to Elizabeth of York’s brothers. There’s a lot of speculation about the subject, but while I think Elizabeth of York getting closure was good for the story, it just didn’t sit well with me (note: Ms. Weir wrote a stand-alone non-fiction book about the Princes about two decades ago).

I’d give this book five stars for the historical information, but it took me a while to get into the book and warm up to Elizabeth of York (and keep the names straight), thus why I’d overall give the book a 3.5 rating, rounded up to four stars. I look forward to the rest of this series and will, most likely, take a look at the upcoming books.

I am a huge fan of Alison Weir and her Tudor stories! This was a perfect ending to her series - I love how we have ended with Elizabeth York and her journey to becoming a Tudor and siring one of the most notorious king's in English history! Absolutely amazing story - highly recommend!

A poignant and compelling telling of Elizabeth of York’s story. This is the best Alison Weir fiction book I’ve read, and I’ve read them all! In some ways this story is better than Philippa Gregory’s White Princess, because it tells the story of a real, human woman without supernatural powers, a noblewoman of the Cousin’s War trying to make her way in a treacherous world with her head and finding love, dignity, and power to be herself.