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Title: Root of the Tudor Rose

Subtitle: Tudor Rose, Book 1

Author: Mari Griffith

Narrator: Kelly Clare

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-27-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

For fans of Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel comes Mari Griffith's debut, Root of the Tudor Rose.

This is the story of a passionate romance and a secret marriage which gave its name to the most famous royal dynasty in the history of Great Britain: the Tudors.

When King Henry V and his bride, Catherine de Valois, are blessed with the birth of a son, their happiness is short-lived. Henry's unexpected death leaves Catherine a widow at the age of 21. Then her father, King Charles of France, also dies, and her son inherits both crowns. Henry VI, King of England and France, is just 10 months old and needs all his mother's watchful care to protect him from political intrigue.

The queen, an attractive young widow, is a foreigner at the English court and now finds herself regarded with suspicion, particularly by the Duke of Gloucester, who will seemingly stop at nothing to protect his own claim to the throne. But lonely, vulnerable Catherine has found true friendship with another foreigner at court, a young Welshman named Owen. Their friendship deepens, but their liaisons must be kept secret at all costs, because Catherine, Queen of England and forbidden to remarry, is in love with a servant....

Members Reviews:

There are betters out there

Not terrible, but I struggled. I put it down numerous times & didn't pick it back up for days, which is unlike me. I love the story of Catherine of Valois, but not this one. The author (in her notes at the back) admits to putting Catherine in places where she wasn't, which detracted from the story for me-I knew Catherine was never at Baynards! And the author invented the birth of a child. And sped thru other births, I thought! I questioned several other events as well that I don't remember matching the historical record. I just didn't enjoy this historical novel like I normally enjoy novels, even if I've read the story 5 times before.

I recommend Joanna Hickson's novels of Catherine's life: The Agincourt Bride & The Tudor Bride. They are very in depth & you really get to know Catherine from the time she was a child. These novels follow the LONG process of her betrothal to Henry V, her difficult & short time as queen then dowager Queen of England, and then her relationship & family years with Owen Tudor. Jean Plaidy also wrote a good historical novel about Catherine, The Queen's Secret.

Details about the origins of the Tudors

I really enjoyed this little book. It explores a little-explored alley of the Tudor legacy -- Owen Tudor himself, someone I've heard and wondered about but never really knew much about. I liked Catherine de Valois, another of the multitudinous women of the medieval royals who had a very difficult life. I also enjoyed reading about the young life of her son the king, as opposed to all the tomes about the latter fifteenth century, where he is portrayed as a crazy old man almost worthy of death. This book puts a different spin on all of it, one might say. I had a bit of difficulty keeping all the historical characters straight (mostly the male ones) but all in all, the book is quite enjoyable and quite reasonably priced. It's nice to purchase a book about the middle ages for under three dollars.