Henry VIII's Wives (My Royal Story) by Alison Prince

My Royal Story

by Alison Prince

On her 10th birthday in 1536 Beatrice meets the King and his new queen, Jane Seymour, at Greenwich Palace. That same day, her friends Eva and Elinor entrust her with their old diaries. Reading these, she comes to understand the lives of two earlier queens, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, as she enters the service of not just one of Henry's queens, but three.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Tudor Period, Historical, Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction

Unknown Binding

First published March 1, 2011

Reviews

[Amber (the smiling cupcake) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read other books in this series and they were good; and so when my friend pointed this book out for me to read - i was all for it. This book is amzing and tells the story of a young girl who is in service of three of Henry VIII wives and learns about his previous ones. It's really informative - but in an interesting way.

[Maia Lunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved this as a child and must credit this book for getting me into Tudor history, but my god is it poorly researched. From confusing the various Norfolk’s to getting the year of Anne Boleyn’s execution wrong, some of the mistakes are downright lazy and should have been noticed by at least the editors.

[Flowergirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. One of my favourite books from Alison Prince. It's so fascinating with the diary's of Eva and Elinor I have also read those books to. I love this book very much and I intend to read it again some time.

[Kate M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty mediocre. A lot of whose who facts linking people to their relationship to Henry VIII, a bit much really. Lots of very short chapters

[Ashley Trefethen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that the book was good although, they only did the story of Jane S and on. They did not do Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.

[talia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
read this book for the first time in year 5
got a little obsessed with it

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

*1.5

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not an awful book, but not the best of the My Story series for sure. A good bit of it was spent recapping the author's previous two books in the series (which were much better in my opinion), and overall it was a bit dull. In order to cover such a large time span, there are gaps of a month or several months between most entries, so in a lot of them the storyline itself (which has several half-baked subplots) takes a back seat to almost a skim summary of the wives.
Additionally, while I don't expect my historical fiction to be 100% accurate, huge errors like saying James IV was defeated at "the massacre of Culloden" (which was over two centuries later) is pretty big. She corrected it to Flodden later, but it, combined with some other issues, is distracting for someone who already knows and misleading for anyone new to the period. Add all that to the grammar and spelling errors throughout, and I was quite happy to be finished with it. Disappointing, as I really looked forward to it

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Henry VIII's wives through the diary of a fictional young girl, Beatrice Townhill, during the years 1536 to 1548. Beatrice begins writing in her diary when she is ten years old. Her father is the king's huntsman, so as a special birthday present she is taken to court to meet Henry and his new wife, Jane Seymour. This book is also a a sequel to the author's previous books in the My Story series, about ladies in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, as Beatrice meets Eva and her daughter, Elinor, the main characters from those books, and learns about Catherine and Anne by reading their own diaries from when they were young girls at court.

After Jane Seymour dies giving birth to a son, Henry decides to marry again, and Beatrice, who is now old enough, is chosen to be a lady-in-waiting at court. Over the years, she serves as a lady-in-waiting to his last three wives, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr. She also grows up, falls in love, marries, and has children of her own.

This was the longest book from the My Story series and also one of my favorites, as I love reading historical fiction set during the Tudor era. Although I have enjoyed all the books I have read from the series, often I wished for them to be longer and more detailed. So I am happy that for this book, the author was allowed to write it to be much longer than the others in the series, given that it is set over twelve years and covers quite a lot of history.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I finally read this one :) I've owned it for a while, and have been meaning to read it. I thought it was actually a compilation of three littler books, but to find out it was it's own whole story is awesome :D And rather educational too, about Henry VIII's six wives: Catherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and Anne Boleyn. So many Katherine's and Anne's! I would be incredibly scared if I was one of Henry's wives, and if any I'd prefer to be Catherine, his first. I can't believe he would kill 4 of them, and then claim to have loved them, while still finding a new wife so soon. I liked the POV, as she wasn't really a lady-in-waiting, more of just a court lady. And I'm so pleased that she and Will got married :) Sad about the miscarriage, but surprising that her friend Kitty had like 4 consecutive children. Also that she was like 14/15 when she got pregnant the first time? That's so crazy, thinking that by my age (18) I would have at least one child. Such a different world we live in.

[Molly]

This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book.Touching and wonderful

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, historical books aren't usually what I like to read but I love this one and all the other my story books!

[Mrs F K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable.

[Alghalia Alkhalifa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice book...