Philippa Gregory is a bit of an institution when it comes to historical fiction of the British royals, just because of the sheer volume of her output. Her works have inspired TV as well as film adaptations, with their respective often irritatingly poor coverage of history (Eric Bana as Henry VIII, ahem). That said, here are my takeaways:

1.) I'm not holding Gregory to historical truth here, because this is admittedly a work of fiction. (Thankfully, she isn't as fanciful as she is in other books--her take on the story on this book is a bit more reasonable.)
2.) The book focuses on a subject that is lesser treated in historical fiction, Margaret of Scotland. Although the saga of Henry VIII looms large across the book, Margaret's perspective offers us a refreshingly different angle on the subject of the Great Matter.
3.) Margaret herself makes for a great character here--she is hilariously unlikable at points, and for a novel, that makes for a fun read.
4.) The book was fun. It moved along quickly and I enjoyed myself.

It's not the deepest book in the world, nor is it a work of dazzling prose, but it's an enjoyable read and one that saw me draining my Kindle's battery--and so for that, four stars.

(Note: This review was provided based on an ARC given to me by Netgalley.)

Thank you to Netgalley for my review copy.
I have always been a great fan of Philippa Gregory - she is the author that i make sure that I have got all of her upcoming books on TBR list. I find her writing to be very immersive and the detail is superb and I find myself slipping back in time with her characters. However, this book is the first book where I hated the main character! I still loved the story and the narrative but hated her all the way through. To be able to still love a book and hate the main character telling the story is certainly impressive and I applaud Philippa for doing so. Bravo!

While I'm an admirer of this author's work, I didn't find this one quite as interesting as her previous books. However it was refreshing to read a story from the viewpoint of Margaret Tudor, and a change from the usual historical characters. I had expected there to be three narratives, one from each queen, but this is not the case and it is just Margaret. She is not a very likeable character, but nevertheless we must appreciate that she was the product of her upbringing, as we all are. At the beginning she is petulant, spoiled and delights in the misery of her 'sisters', but as the story progresses we see that she matures as a queen and as a mother, whose actions and attempts to rule after the death of her husband the king are sadly limited by the mores of the day.

A preview copy was provided by the publisher.

I didn't enjoy this as much as the other books in this series. It was slow and felt repetitive. I might have learned something though, which is the biggest reason I read and enjoy historical fiction. As someone in collection development, I wouldn't miss out on this title for my library as this series and author are very popular.