I am finally starting my brief reviews to catch up on my blog. I’m feeling mostly better now, which is fantastic. I’m fifteen weeks pregnant now with Baby Number three. Now I’m just sad looking at this giant stack of books and thinking about how to get caught up!Young Bess is a historical fiction novel about Elizabeth I during her young years from age twelve before her father’s death through her brother Edward’s reign until his death when she was a young lady of twenty. I love reading about Elizabeth’s I life and am looking forwarding to continuing this trilogy by Margaret Irwin.
I often felt while I was reading this book that it should have been called “The Seymour Brothers.” The novel often was centered on the scheming of Tom Seymour, the handsome admiral who married Henry VIII’s widow (Catherine Parr), wooed Elizabeth, and planned to take over England, and his brother Ned, the Lord Protector who wanted too much power for himself. I found their relationship and scheming quite intriguing and actually wanted to read more about them. The only thing I didn’t like is that this seemed to take away some of the time devoted to Elizabeth’s story.
Overall Young Bess is a great historical fiction novel of Elizabeth I’s early years.
Book Source: Advance Review Copy from Sourcebooks. Thank-you!
Glad to hear you're feeling better! I've missed your posts. I'm curious as to when this book was published. There is an old movie called Young Bess that stars Elizabeth Taylor as Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteYoung Bess was just published this past April so it is unrelated to the old movie. I have never seen that movie - I need to look it up as it sounds like something I would enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYay, a new post! I'm glad you're feeling better. Young Bess sounds quite good.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting book, even if it does focus on the brother. After all, there's been enough focuse on the sisters over time, but you're right, the title might have been chosen better. I suppose they were trying to capitalize on the momentum of the rest of the Tudor wave.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the baby!