Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Julia Fox narrated by, Rosalyn Landor
I recently finished the historical fiction
novels The Queen’s Vow & The Last Queen by, C.W. Gortner and went into this
one because these women all fascinated me. What I liked about this one was it
gave a look at Katherine’s life between marrying Arthur & Henry. I also
liked the fact that like Gortner’s fiction Fox also asserts that Juana wasn’t
crazy (well not completely...the whole dragging her dead husband around was a
little well, wacko) but that it was the men around her that wanted to rule in
her stead and made it appear that way and used anything they could to make it
so.
As I said in my review of Last Queen I believe that what both of these authors assert, that she was not as crazy as they made the world believe and if she did end up going crazy who can blame her they took away everything she loved, her kingdom, her children and locked her away where she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, I guess I just ended up feeling so bad for her.
With Katherine we hear so much about the end of her marriage with Henry it was so very fascinating to hear what happened between the time of Arthurs death and that marriage I guess in my mind I thought it had happened rather quickly but I see now I was mistaken, she still had to jump through many hoops and so much political finagling.
There is more in this book about Katherine than Juana however that is only because there is much more documentation still around about Katherine. But the author does give a good view of Juana and her life. I found these women so fascinating. However their lives in the end kind of mirrored each other both cast out and their child taken away.
As non-fiction this book never got dry it kept my interest even when it got to the part of Tudor history I’ve heard hundreds of times but was nice to hear it from Katherine’s side.
Audio production: Rosalyn Landor’s narrations adds voice to this fascinating history and she does a great job I love her deep British, slightly haughty accent, it plays just perfect for these royals. Landor’s narrations are always great and never cookie cutter will always choose to get a book on audio if I see she narrates it!
4 Stars
As I said in my review of Last Queen I believe that what both of these authors assert, that she was not as crazy as they made the world believe and if she did end up going crazy who can blame her they took away everything she loved, her kingdom, her children and locked her away where she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, I guess I just ended up feeling so bad for her.
With Katherine we hear so much about the end of her marriage with Henry it was so very fascinating to hear what happened between the time of Arthurs death and that marriage I guess in my mind I thought it had happened rather quickly but I see now I was mistaken, she still had to jump through many hoops and so much political finagling.
There is more in this book about Katherine than Juana however that is only because there is much more documentation still around about Katherine. But the author does give a good view of Juana and her life. I found these women so fascinating. However their lives in the end kind of mirrored each other both cast out and their child taken away.
As non-fiction this book never got dry it kept my interest even when it got to the part of Tudor history I’ve heard hundreds of times but was nice to hear it from Katherine’s side.
Audio production: Rosalyn Landor’s narrations adds voice to this fascinating history and she does a great job I love her deep British, slightly haughty accent, it plays just perfect for these royals. Landor’s narrations are always great and never cookie cutter will always choose to get a book on audio if I see she narrates it!
4 Stars
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