The White Queen

Title: The White Queen
Author: Philippa Gregory
Pages: 464

NON-SPOILER INFO:
The fictional account of Elizabeth Woodville, who would marry King Edward IV and give birth to 10 of his children all while fighting with the house of the Lancaster’s in the “Cousin’s War” or The War of the Roses.

MY THOUGHTS:
I love, love, love Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl. That book stared my love/obsession with the Henry VIII and his wives. A love that carried over into reading The Constant Princess (Henry’s first wife) and The Boleyn Inheritance (Henry’s 4th and 5th wife) both by Gregory, as well as The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson. So when I heard that Gregory was going to start a new series about the War of the Roses and the grandmother of Henry VIII, I was VERY excited! But the book was sort of a disappointment. First I couldn’t stand all the stuff Gregory inserted about Elizabeth being descended from Melusina the water goddess and therefore having special powers. I could have lived with it and believed it more if Elizabeth thought herself a witch casting spells. I also felt no connection to Elizabeth or her husband Edward as characters. And I definitely didn’t feel the love between them. Edward risked everything to marry Elizabeth in secret and I felt no passion, no lust, no love, not anything. The most intriguing part of the book was the mystery of the two princes. Elizabeth’s son’s Edward and Richard were both taken into the Tower of London where they eventually disappeared without a trace. To this day no one knows if the princes were killed; and by who, or if they someone escaped in secret, or if they simply died of an illness in the Tower of London and were given a hasty burial to hide the truth. Gregory has a theory on what may have happened but I won’t tell, just in case you plan on reading this.

VERDICT: 2 and half stars out of 5. Read the Tudor Series instead!