The Rose Without A Thorn (Queens of England, #11) by Jean Plaidy

 

Title: The Rose Without A Thorn

Author: Jean Plaidy

Series: Queen's of England which do not need to be read in any order

Published: August 1995

Publisher: Ivy Books

Pages: 325

ISBN: 9780449223260

Source: Personal Copy

Description: Born into an impoverished branch of the noble Howard family, young Katherine is plucked from her home to live with her grandmother, the Duchess of Norfolk. The innocent girl quickly learns that her grandmother’s puritanism is not shared by Katherine’s free-spirited cousins, with whom she lives. Beautiful and impressionable, Katherine becomes involved in two ill-fated love affairs before her sixteenth birthday. Like her cousin Anne Boleyn, she leaves her grandmother’s home to become a lady-in-waiting at the court of Henry VIII. The royal palaces are exciting to a young girl from the country, and Katherine is pleased that her duties there allow her to be near her handsome cousin, Thomas Culpepper, whom she has loved since childhood.
But when Katherine catches the eye of the aging and unhappily married king, she is forced to abandon her plans for a life with Thomas and marry King Henry. Overwhelmed by the change in her fortunes, bewildered and flattered by the adoration of her husband, Katherine is dazzled by the royal life. But her bliss is short-lived as rumors of her wayward past come back to haunt her, and Katherine’s destiny takes another, deadly, turn.

I Give This Book 3 Stars!

I read quite a few of the books by Jean Plaidy in the Queen's of England series when I was younger.  They're hard to come by since they are out of print.  I decided to collect the rest (still missing one) and catch up on my royal reading.  I'm hoping my feelings for this book have more to do with the fact that I've read a better one about Katherine Howard than I may no longer like the writing style.  It started out fine, although I was a little disgusted by the way Katherine was allowed to behave when she moves to her grandmother's house.  I would think a Duchess of the court would have better sense of what was going on in her household.  But, history seems to have proven otherwise.  I also felt that the author made Katherine seem much more simple than she really was.  But, maybe her families ambitions were just way outside of her knowledge.  The book also lacked the terror that must have been going through the young queen's mind towards the end of her life.  What a tragic ending for a young women who had almost no hope from the start.   I would recommend reading The Queen's Mistake by Diane Haeger over this one.