REVIEW: Lady Mary

I received a copy of this book for free from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley

Page Count: 384 pages

Release Date: April 5, 2018

My Rating: 3/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

By turns thrilling, dramatic and touching, this is the story of Henry the Eighth and Catherine of Aragon's divorce as you've never heard it before - from the eyes of their daughter, Princess Mary. More than anything Mary just wants her family to stay together; for her mother and her father - and for her - to all be in the same place at once. But when her father announces that his marriage to her mother was void and by turns that Mary doesn't really count as his child, she realises things will never be as she hoped. Things only get worse when her father marries again. Separated from her mother and forced to work as a servant for her new sister, Mary must dig deep to find the strength to stand up against those who wish to bring her down. Despite what anyone says, she will always be a princess. She has the blood of a princess and she is ready to fight for what is rightfully hers.

My Review:

I got my Bachelor's degree in History (concentration in European History), so this book seemed right up my alley. I love historical fiction, and the Tudor period is incredibly interesting to me. I think if I were younger, I might've enjoyed this a bit more. The story follows Mary Tudor (the woman who would become known as "Bloody Mary") from the age of nine until the age of twenty-one. The ages are written no differently, however: twenty-one year old Mary thinks and acts almost exactly the same as nine year old Mary. There is rarely any character development, and the small amount that does occur takes place mostly in the last couple pages.

The plot or characters weren't the problem, however; the main issue I had was with the writing. Sometimes it was written simply, to the point of being overly simple. But, as this book is supposed to be for Middle Grade readers, that wasn't a problem. But then the author would throw in a complex word or phrase like "marshy quandry"and "palaver," and I stared in confusion when there was this sentence:

"That woman," he said, "is a bitch. A bitch of the highest order."

What happened to Middle Grade?????? Overall, while it was interesting to see Mary Tudor's story told from a unique perspective, I felt the writing slightly let down the book, with too much focus being on the historical aspects and not enough focus on telling a story in a way that flowed.