Tour Review +Giveaway - The Queen's Rivals by Brandy Purdy

Title: The Queen's Rivals 
Author: Brandy Purdy
Series: Stand Alone
Pages: 368
Published:  June 25th 2013 by Kensington
ISBN: 9780758265999
Source: Sent for tour purposes

Description: As cousins of history's most tempestuous queens, Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey were born in an age when all of London lived beneath the Tower's menacing shadow. Tyrannized by Bloody Mary and the Virgin Queen, the sisters feared love was unthinkable —and the scaffold all but unavoidable...Raised to fear her royal blood and what it might lead men to do in her name, Mary Grey dreads what will become of herself and her elder sisters under the reigns of Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. On their honor, they have no designs on the crown, yet are condemned to solitude, forbidden to wed. Though Mary, accustomed to dwelling in the shadows, the subject of whispers, may never catch the eye of a gentleman, her beautiful and brilliant sisters long for freedoms that would surely cost their lives. And so, wizened for her years, Mary can only hope for divine providence amid a bleak present and a future at the whim of the throne — unless destiny gains the upper hand. 

I Give This ....

 

I recently read a book concerning Jane Grey and I vowed that I would read another one.  The 9 day Queen is something of a mystery to me.  Yet, the Grey family is important to acknowledge because of the close proximity to the thrown.  Plus, King Henry VIII named to them to the line of successors. 

I don't know much about the Grey family as a whole.  Her parents seemed like an ambitious bunch, but the more I read about them the more I come to the conclusion that her mother was harsh and her father was clueless.  The Grey sisters (Jane especially) were just caught in the middle of it.

This book really cover a long time period.  First we are taken through Jane's betrothal, marriage, and her being trust onto the throne.  Her imprisonment and later death and detailed from the eyes of her sister Mary.  Jane doesn't come across as harsh in this book, so I had a little bit more sympathy for her.  However, her interactions with her husband drove me nuts.   

Katherine is a person that I confess to knowing nothing about.  The constant description of her being the pretty one often made me think there wasn't much too her.  But, I think she was affected by what happens to her family much more than she let on.  There is only so much a person can take before they break.  Her father and her sister both executed, her first marriage annulled, and the thought that she might never find the love she craved.    What amazed me is that she so easily decided to marry without the Queen's permission.   That's never worked out well for anybody throughout history.  She finally had enough and that point and let herself go.

With the whole story being told from Mary's point of view,  I felt we learned quite a bit about her.  Prior to this, I knew nothing about her.   In the book she's often described as being ugly and a dwarf.  But, I wonder how much of that was an exaggeration (specifically by that time periods standards).  I also was completely amazed that after was happened with Jane and then with Katherine that Mary felt she was so insignificant to marry without the Queen's permission.  It's like train wreck waiting to happen.  

The were a few time I felt like the author might have taken a few liberties with the story.  There's an instance with a potion, a field of flowers, and Jane and her husband.  It's was weird.  Maybe it's because Jane is painted as a chaste women who is very against sex but occasionally this other side of her breaks free.  It just didn't fit with the character in my opinion.  I also felt the story was a bit slow, especially sense such a large time period is covered.  There are also occasions that the time period jumps.  I was never sure exactly how much time had gone by. 

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