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Longshore, Katherine
4 Reviews
(4)
YA
Charlotte has grown up rich and privileged in a nineteenth-century English manor; Janie is the manor's kitchen maid. Despite their class differences, they become friends and dream about defying society's expectations of them. The pace is slow (all secrets are revealed at the end), but the book provides an intriguing look into what life was like at a Downton Abbey–like estate.
Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith
(3)
YA
At age fourteen, Mary Howard and Henry FitzRoy (an illegitimate son of King Henry VIII) were married but forbidden to consummate the relationship. From this thin skein of historic fact, Longshore weaves a tale of love growing amid the corruption, ambition, and betrayals of the Tudor court. Detailed research and a deftly composed heroine make this hefty historical romance novel satisfying.
Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac
(4)
YA
Concentrating on Anne Boleyn's first three years in King Henry VIII's court, Longshore crafts a sympathetic first-person account of a young woman who's ambitious to be noticed, determined to choose her own husband, reluctantly enamored of the poet Thomas Wyatt, and loyal to her siblings. The decision to employ modern phrasings and modes of thought often interrupts the sense of historical authenticity.
Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac
(4)
YA
This novel offers a sympathetic account of the friends surrounding Cat, better known as Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife. Kitty, the narrator, is swept up in conspiracies and affairs as she struggles to understand what loyalty, love, and friendship demand. The modern prose can at times feel anachronistic, but the tone is lively, the settings are vivid, and the protagonist is sympathetic and believably portrayed.
Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac
4 reviews
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