I really wanted to love this book but I couldn’t get into it. It felt like it moved really slow. It did pick up farther into the book but it took me a lot. Ended up thinking it was just ok

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballentine Books for this eArc in exchange for my honest review. Welp, I made it to 43% and felt I had to DNF this book. But let's start with what is good. As always Alison Weir's writing is immaculate technically. She's also a very knowledgeable historian and it shows! I have read both her non-fiction and fiction books about the Tudor Dynasty. What didn't work for me? It felt as if we were jumping from one historically known event to another and showing Mary's reaction to those things. The pacing in the beginning definitely felt too fast. We flew through Mary's childhood and then the book started to slow down to moderate pacing as she reached her teenage years and it felt like the breaks were hit suddenly. Although I really enjoy the history, I was hoping for an indepth look at Mary's personality and feelings which I felt like was lacking. I think someone who is not as familiar with the history of this time period but is curious may really enjoy this book. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me and wasn't holding my attention.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Passionate Tudor by Alison Weir is a historical novel exploring the life of Queen Mary of England, aka Bloody Mary. When Mary’s mother falls from favor after yet another miscarriage, Henry VIII starts to look elsewhere for a queen to give him an heir and Mary’s life is changed forever. Her devotion to her mother and her faith is constantly tested as her father and her people demand that she submit to their versions of the truth.

My favorite part was how much time was spent on Mary’s relationship with her younger sister, Elizabeth. We see how Mary’s opinions of Elizabeth evolve and change, but nothing destroys her love for her sister because they are two women trapped in a world that is constantly trying to oust them. Mary doesn’t have strong aspirations for the throne, but more wants to be recognized as legitimate and wants the same for Elizabeth even if she doesn’t believe Elizabeth is also Henry’s child.

Mary’s faith and Catholicism show up quite a bit. From the constant references to the Pope in Rome to Mary’s belief that Anne Boleyn wasn’t truly married to Henry to mentions of mass, her devotion to her beliefs plays a key role in how Mary picks which relationships to invest in and guide her decisions and ideals. Many of the people close to Mary are Catholic themselves or do not recognize the Protestant movement that was brewing at the time.

Mary is portrayed as a sympathetic young woman who is often concerned that she is growing too old to attract a husband or have a child, which she does want. She isn’t portrayed as having grand plans for the British Empire in terms of expansion but wants to return the country back to the Catholic Church. Many of her concerns are more rooted in having access to her family (Henry, Edward, Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth) and in her family being treated with respect. There’s a strong throughline of Mary’s main motivation being familial love, especially when Henry starts paying attention to Anne Boleyn and tosses her mother aside.

I would recommend this to fans of works depicting the Tudor dynasty, readers who like works featuring Elizabeth I, and those looking for a historical novel exploring the history of religion in England.

In The Passionate Tudor, Alison Weir provides the accuracy we have come to expect from the author coupled with a personal narrative of Mary that allows us to explore both her point-of-view and her motivations. Mary remains one of my least favorite Tudor monarchs, and as Weir points out in her author’s note at the end, there is very little that history can do to make her a sympathetic figure. I respect Weir for providing Mary with a voice that allows us to see her vulnerabilities without attempting to make us sympathetic to her faults. I understand those who may feel the book was too long; however, I didn’t mind the length. Weir’s writing sucked me into the story fairly quickly and I was in no real hurry to leave. 4.5 Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books (Random House Publishing) for the advanced reader’s copy.

I love all of Alison Weir's Tudor books. She has a way of making you feel as if you are living in the time period with these legends. Mary has always been fascinating, even before her "bloody mary" reign began. From being isolated from her mother, the drama with her father Henry VIII, and the various health issues she faced throughout her life. She was more complicated then her nickname would show.

The Passionate Tudor by Alison Weir is a beautifully crafted and poignant portrayal of one of history's most complex, maligned, and fascinating figures. With her characteristic verve and attention to evocative period detail, Weir tells the story in a way that will linger in your mind long after you finish the last page. This book is a must-read for Tudor fans everywhere.

As a passionate Tudor fan, I read everything Tudor, and Alison Weir is the go to proverbial author for me. She has done it again with this book, The Passionate Tudor! From beginning to end, it was absorbing and passionate. If you want to feel like you are in the rooms where it happened read anything by Ms. Weir. This book is a complete and admirable book on everything Bloody Mary. I feel like I now know all about her life, her queenship, her jealousies, her clothes, her castles and her sickness, I would definitely call Mary a very tragic individual, from her birth to her death. I have to say she deserved the death she had. A brutal Queen, I'm sure her people in England were so happy she died, finally, putting an ending to the horrible killings she instigated all over England. Elizabeth coming to power was so welcomed. Bye bye to Mary.

This was such a great book! I cannot wait until Ms. Weir's next book on the Tudors! Who will it be this time?

3.5 Stars

I've read quite a lot of books about The Tudors over the decades, so you might say I am all Tudored out at this point. However, this piece of historical fiction was written by veteran British royal author Alison Weir, so it was hard to say no to reading this. But at over 500 pages, it was a bit of a dirge crawling along in excruciating detail through Mary Tudor's childhood as she watched her father King Henry VIII abandon her mother Queen Katharine (of Aragon), marry Anne Boleyn (then sign her execution warrant), marry Jane Seymour (then watch her die after birthing their son Edward), marry and divorce Anne of Cleves, marry Katherine Howard (then sign her execution warrant), and marry Catherine Parr- his final wife. At about the 65% point (and 5 hours to go) I surrendered and skimmed ahead to the poignant topic of Mary Tudor's false pregnancies and eventual death. I didn't learn anything new, but perhaps I'm just not the audience for this kind of book anymore. Call me a cynic, but it just seems like the same subjects keep being rehashed and repackaged with new titles and covers.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

Wow, is this book detailed! Of course, when most people gloss over Mary as a bloodthirsty [bleep] whose bored husband continually ditched her, it's not hard to give her sufficient attention.

(Sorry for not reviewing this here sooner...I thought I got it from the UK site.)

The cover of this book grabbed me immediately seeing that Alison Weir is the author. She is the most accomplished knowledgeable person on the Tudor reign. So it is my opinion she is the only person who can give a definitive story of Mary’s life and times. The novel also is able to capture the human side of Mary from the very beginning and having to watch her father set her loving mother aside and forcing an annulment. Which, in turn, made Mary illegitimate. Anne did not produce a male heir either and because of the evidence that would be brought before Henry, an other annulment was requested and approved, thus making Elizabeth illegitimate too. The girls would become close sisters. their father would marry again and would have a son. Henry makes his Will and Act of Succession. His heirs are first in line Edward and his sisters in order, followed by their heirs. Edward, in his youth, would ascend the throne councillors to guide him and make decisions. Once he was of age, he made the Protestant faith the faith of the land. Mary was beside herself with Anger.for she believed true faith was the one of Rome and always would be the true faith. She was so passionate in her faith, in time, she would find that her sister stood as adamant in her Protestant faith. Edward’s Will would declare his cousin, Jane Gray to be in line of his succession. He also wrote a document to disinherit his sisters. Mary would have to fight Jane to ascend the throne. The people adored Mary and would overthrow Jane easily. Mary would go on to become queen but, she was not a strong, in charge person, often depending on her guidance from her mother’s King of Spain or the ambassador from Rome. Later she would depend on her husband for all decisions because she didn’t trust her councilors. In actuality her husband wasn’t good for England norm her, the way All this changed my perception of Mary, but in my opinion she still deserves the moniker “Bloody Mary”. I would definitely recommend this be in libraries and a must read for English classes. Special thanks to the following for allowing me to read an early e-copy and allowing me to give my own honest opinion:
#NetGalley
#PenguinRandomHouse Ballentine Books
#AlisonWeir
#ThePassionateTudor
Publication Date: April 28, 2024

I love Weirs novels and this one is no different. She has done a fantastic job of bringing Mary the 1st to life for us.
I simply couldn't put this one down until I finished it.
Mary has quite the story! Wow! I feel that I've gotten to know her so much better than I did!
It's no wonder that she became who she was in the end! Poor girl.
Although I will say, she does have her father's temper and it definitely showed!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for the arc!
Once again Alison Weir does it again! I have yet to find a book that I don't like that is written by this author. The level of research and the depth of the characters that she writes about is astounding.
I also really appreciated the author's note. A must read.
Highly recommend this book!

I did not know much about Queen Mary I, England’s first female monarch. Weir does a good job of taking us from her happy childhood through the torment of being separated from her mother and on through her reign which is ultimately considered a failure. She had strength but was often overrun with doubts, easily influenced in some things but staunch and unrelenting in others, ultimately being remembered as Bloody Mary. I think Weir does an excellent job of fleshing out the full cast of characters and giving a real sense of time and place.

My review can be found on Litsy with my handle @Deblovestoread. I gave this book 4 🌟on The Storygraph.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

As a fan of Ms. Weir's books, I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to read The Passionate Tudor. Once again, the author draws the reader in with her writing style and her knowledge of the time period. I am not a Mary Tudor fan, but I felt myself feeling sorry for her. The interactions between Mary and Elizabeth were well done. It was interesting to read that Mary was a mother figure to Elizabeth in those early years.

Mary's religion is a driving force behind most of her decisions. We see this when she finally becomes queen and tries to turn England back to Catholicism. We see her love for her religion, how she leans on it, and also how she becomes a radical when she tries to destroy the heretics.

I highly recommend this book for Tudor fans or those that enjoy Alison Weir's writing. It will not disappoint.

Born from young King Henry’s first marriage, his elder daughter, Princess Mary, is raised to be queen once it becomes clear that her mother, Katherine of Aragon, will bear no more children. However, Henry’s passion for Anne Boleyn has a devastating influence on the young princess’s future when, determined to sire a male heir, he marries Anne, has his marriage to Katherine declared unlawful,

The Passionate Tudor
by Alison Weir
Pub Date: May 28 2024

brands Mary illegitimate, and banishes them both from the royal court. But when Anne too fails to produce a son, she is beheaded and Mary is allowed to return to court as the default heir. At age twenty, she waits in vain for her own marriage and children, but who will marry her, bastard that she is?

Yet Mary eventually triumphs and becomes queen, after first deposing a seventeen-year-old usurper, Lady Jane Grey, and ordering her beheading. Any hopes that Mary, as the first female queen regent of England, will show religious toleration are dashed when she embarks on a ruthless campaign to force Catholicism on the English by burning hundreds of Protestants at the stake. But while her brutality will forever earn her the name Bloody Mary, at heart she is an insecure and vulnerable woman, her character forged by the unhappiness of her early years.

In Alison Weir’s masterful novel, the drama of Mary I’s life and five-year reign—from her abusive childhood, marriage, and mysterious pregnancies to the cruelty that marks her legacy—comes to vivid life.

I was familiar with Alison Weir because my former grad school advisor once mentioned her as someone she knew, but I had never read one of her books before this. This book was unfortunately not my cup of tea. I'm not sure if all of Weir's books are like this, but this one is very much a "this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened..." account of Mary I's life, and a rather boring one at that. Mary I was a fairly interesting person in reality, but you wouldn't know it from Weir's book. But... if you're interested in reading nearly 500 pages of boring drivel about a naïve woman not doing much at all, this is the book for you.

"The Passionate Tudor" is an excellent addition to the Tudor Rose series by Alison Weir. This book, which chronicles the life of Queen Mary I, the first Queen Regnant of England, humanizes an often maligned figure. Beginning when she is young and going until the moment right up until her death, the novel works to gives us insight into what psychology might have led to the decisions that have given her the enduring title of "Bloody Mary".

Inherently, Mary was written as a sympathetic character in much of the novel. Though I disagree with a number of her viewpoints Catholicism-wise, I found myself sympathizing with her and rooting for her all the same. She showed a great deal of courage and perseverance under extreme odds as well as admirable faith. You can really see how Mary is a combination of her father's and Katherine of Aragon's personalities (were Katherine invested with the kind of power as Heir and Queen that Mary ultimately is).

However, as Weir noted in her author's note, I find that sympathy wanes rather quickly once she becomes Queen and embarks on her religious persecution. In this way, Elizabeth I was much wiser than Mary I - perhaps learning a lesson from her sister - in that she came up with the enduring compromise of the English Church. It did get me wondering, with all the similarities between Mary I and her mother, how Katherine of Aragon might have handled such matters. Might she, Katherine, have turned out as hated where she is now remembered so well in history? Just got me thinking.

One point of minor issue I had with the book is that there are a great deal of explanatory passages. While I understand the necessity of covering a vast amount of historical material in a short period of time to get the plot continuing, it got a little too much for me at some points. I would have liked it if more dialogue were used to explain some pieces here and there, if possible.

Overall, I am pleased to see Weir adding another excellent novel to her monolithic body of work, and congratulate her on such a tour-de-force. If anyone could take on Mary I and make her sympathetic - or at least comprehensible - it is Weir. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Thank you to Weir and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

#ThePassionateTudor #NetGalley

"The Passionate Tudor" by Alison Weir delves into the tumultuous life of Princess Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Raised to be queen, Mary's future is thrown into uncertainty when her father's passion for Anne Boleyn leads to the annulment of his marriage to Katherine, branding Mary illegitimate. Despite enduring hardships, including banishment from court and the execution of her mother, Mary eventually ascends to the throne. However, her reign is marred by religious persecution, earning her the infamous title of Bloody Mary. Weir's novel vividly portrays Mary's journey, from her troubled childhood to her tumultuous reign, revealing the complexities of her character and the legacy of her rule.

This was my first novel by Alison Weir, and I greatly enjoyed it! I was also unaware that this was the third in the Tudor Rose trilogy, but I don't think that impaired my enjoyment at all. I did feel like the writing was slow in the first third of The Passionate Tudor, more of a sequence of events happening to Mary, rather than her feeling like a character experiencing them. I recognize that that might be how Weir writes, which I'm new to, and also that her work consists of chronicling an individual's entire life. I felt like Mary came into her own as a character and as an enjoyable perspective to read from when she finally ascended the throne, which makes sense thematically with her coming into power. As a history student, I can say that I'm definitely the target demographic for this type of book, and consequently would understand why someone might not enjoy it as much as I did. Even so, I wasn't overly familiar with this period of English history, so the story itself was new to me, in the sense that I was not expecting certain events, or perceiving the writing as overly-autobiographical. Overall, I really enjoyed my first entry in Alison Weir's expansive catalogue. I'm definitely going to look into another one of her works to pick up soon! Thank you for giving me access to this early!

The Passionate Tudor: A Novel of Queen Mary I
by Alison Weir is a great historical fiction that is the third book in the Tudor Rose series.

I just loved Alison Weir and have thoroughly enjoyed every book of hers that I have read. This is such a great series to expand on (the first two being: The Last White Rose and The King’s Pleasure) after delving into the six book series of the Queens of Henry VIII.

Mary I is such a person full of contradictions: momentous yet limited, passionate and zealous yet narrow-minded and judgmental, a heart that started out so full of love and joy to give others yet starved and withered in the end. Her life is fascinating yet mundane and tragic. She was misjudged but yet some of her actions really did support some of the rumors made common knowledge.

Not very often does Mary I get the spotlight, and so many things that took place in her life are glossed over, yet Ms. Weir gives us an excellent fictional narrative that allows Mary I to have her moment and her day to let us all know more about what made her the monarch, woman, and the person we now reflect on today.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books 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 5/28/24.