Six Tudor Queens: Katheryn Howard, the Tainted Queen cover art

Six Tudor Queens: Katheryn Howard, the Tainted Queen

Six Tudor Queens, Book 5

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Six Tudor Queens: Katheryn Howard, the Tainted Queen

By: Alison Weir
Narrated by: Sophie Roberts
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About this listen

Alison Weir, historian and author of the Sunday Times best-selling Six Tudor Queens series, relates one of the most tragic stories in English history: Katheryn Howard, Henry VIII's fifth queen.

A naive young woman at the mercy of her ambitious family. At just 19, Katheryn Howard is quick to trust and fall in love. She comes to court. She sings, she dances. She captures the heart of the king. Henry declares she is his rose without a thorn. But Katheryn has a past of which he knows nothing. It comes back increasingly to haunt her. For those who share her secrets are waiting in the shadows, whispering words of love...and blackmail.

Katheryn Howard.

The fifth of Henry's queens.

Her story.

Acclaimed, best-selling historian Alison Weir draws on extensive research to recount one of the most tragic tales in English history - that of a lively, sweet but neglected girl, used by powerful men for their own gain.

History tells us she died too soon.

This mesmerising novel brings her to life.

©2020 Alison Weir (P)2020 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Renaissance Women's Fiction Royalty Tudor Biography

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Critic reviews

"This six-book series looks likely to become a landmark in historical fiction." (The Times)

"With characteristic verve and stunning period detail, this novel will captivate you and break your heart. Utterly sublime." (Tracy Borman)

"Conveys the heart-rending pathos of a young woman executed, whose only real crime was her naïveté and her desire to be loved. It is a profoundly moving story that lingers long after the last page is turned." (Elizabeth Freemantle)
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This book started a little slow for me, but as the drama escalated, I got hooked in further and further. The tedious house of cards kept building the tension, making you feel stressed as a reader, knowing the consequence that would follow.
The naivety of Katheryn makes you as a reader frustrated at times, but adds to the experience of the novel. Unlike Anne Boleyn, I knew little of Katheryn Howard prior to reading this book. I will now read other books to pick out the facts from the fiction to feed my new found curiosity surrounding the life of Katheryn Howard.

A great addition to the series

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Just so so so great, loved the narration so perfect, dreadfully sad, appalling and captivating. Katherine came to life in my kitchen, in my car, walking around the supermarket and in between the moments of my husband trying to talk to me :D

Amazing

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This is such a good book, so well written and narrated . I’ve read all 5 of this series and the quality has remained high throughout. Very much looking forward to the next one.




Such a good book

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Nicely narrated and I enjoyed listening to this story, though it was tragic and sad.

Loved this Audio book !

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Been waiting for this for months and so glad I finally got to listen to it.

Amazing

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very good for long days on your own working , very good story interesting

love it

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Having read all the books so far in this series It took a while me to get into this one and felt that the beginning was surprisingly weak. I’d almost go as far as saying it should have been re written. The writer noticeably gets into her flow of writing and what follows is all you would expect.Excellent.
Sophie Roberts is perfect as narrator and easy to listen too ,this added to an enjoyable listen and what began as a disappointing start was soon left behind. I would highly recommend this book just don’t be put off by the first chapters.

Excellent book but weak beginning

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This is a fun retelling of Katherine Howard's life and death. She was a pawn in the hands of older Tudor gentlemen trying to gain favour with the King.

Good Version of the life of Katherine Howard

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Good story, in line with the rest of the series. I've listened to all the preceeding ones, and the narration has varied a bit, but this wasn't too bad. Will definitely download the final one.

Enjoyed this

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I had hoped that this story may be a bit different, particularly after reading the fourth book in this series where Alison Weir played fast and loose with facts to make the story compelling (something I admit I didn't enjoy at first, but over time have come to realise that it only added to the story!)

However, with this one she seems to have chosen the typical story of Katherine Howard being a flighty, silly girl who gave in to her fancies with no consideration for the time she lived in. There's no real mention or emphasis on the fact that Katherine was a very young girl being manipulated by much older men to do things that she was much too young to do. I think this could have been an interesting take on the story, and yet instead we got the usual tale of a silly girl.

I understand that the 'silly girl' angle is possibly what's true but as I mentioned before, Weir had no issue with embellishing on Anna of Kleve's story (to the point where she had not one, but two bastard children!) - so I wonder why the same couldn't have been done here. The story could have definitely benefitted from it.

Otherwise, as always, the story was very well written. The only issue I had with the writing itself was when Weir included extracts from actual quotes or letters of the time and tried to include it into the story that wasn't written in that way - it felt a bit forced and clumsy.

Overall not a bad story, but just a little typical. The performance in the audiobook was lovely, very emotive and clear and the voices for characters like Henry VIII weren't ridiculous as they can be in other fictional history audiobooks.


A Little Typical

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