fatal throne

Fatal Throne

by Candace Fleming

Review by: Maddy

 

“Divorced, beheaded, died

Divorced beheaded, survived”

 

This simple nursery rhyme is one that most people can recite when asked about the fates of Henry VIII wives, but if you asked for their names fewer people would be able to answer, and fewer still would be able to tell you their stories. In Fatal Throne, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr become more than a trivia answer as their stories unravel while they fight to survive the court, producing an heir, and their husband.

Fatal Throne should be illegal, because as a history lover, this book was like cocaine. After every queen, I was left dying for another fix, and it supplied time and again. There is something to be said about a book that keeps you on your toes even when you already know the fate of every character in it.

Each character gets its own life and its own author! Not only did the multiple styles keep everyone distinct, but each style harmonized with the personalities of the respective person, which gave moments some 500 years ago the feeling of events you were living through right now. It was like time travel reading this book.

Even if you aren’t the biggest history buff, Fatal Throne is still worth the read. Its story is wonderful, its characters feel real (you know cause they were real people), and it’s written so eloquently, that I can’t fathom how you could be disappointed.