Katherine Longshore

Mary Howard, always in the shadow of her powerful family, marries Henry VIII's illegitimate son, Fitz, but their carefree life unravels as Queen Anne Boleyn falls out of favor and they are implicated in horrible rumors.

Brazen

Charlotte Gyselinck

So this turned into a dnf for me. Nothing happens: I literally spent nearly 250 pages reading about a 15y old girl being in love and feeling like they can't be together because of societal rules. But here is the kicker: he is not so unoptainable, he is her (soon to be legal) husband. The only reason they can't be together is because she is underaged. Really hard to feel sorry for her!

Laura

When I said I was going to be tying up some loose ends in November, I didn't think I would be going this far back. I've been putting off this book since MARCH for God's sake. But I've been in the mood for a little historical fiction lately despite the fact that everything I pick up seems to be a mystery and this was the only available book on my shelf (besides The Revolution of Marina M, but I'm saving that one for December). I mean, the book's over 500 pages and Tarnish kind of put me off wanting to go anywhere near this series for a while.

But this is one of the few series I actually wanted to get to this year from start to finish, so better late then never, right? 

Brazen is probably the best written of all the Royal Circle books, which really isn't saying anything at all. Longshore still writes in that annoying half old English-half modern English way that really takes you out of Tudor England and puts you in, I don't know, a suburban high school. I'm also impressed with her ability to both overwrite and underwrite at the same time- that takes talent. She writes paragraphs that look pretty and sound very dramatic, but in reality end up meaning very little. Reading this book at times is like eating a piece of cake that's 80% frosting and 20% cake.

In Longshore's defense though, she does focus more on pure politics than she did in any of her other books. I liked those parts, even if I did think she had a tendency to overdramaticize things. Also, all of her heroines are different people and yet they all sound the same. Especially in the case of Tarnish and Brazen. I could not tell Anne in Tarnish from Mary in Brazen. They both have that strong, female historical fiction character thing going, and likely believe things that neither the real Anne Boleyn nor the real Mary Fitzroy probably actually gave much thought to. I think my main problem with Longshore's work is I think she romanticizes her subjects too much. She wants us to like them so badly, but in the end they just come across as, again, generic historical fiction females.

Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...

Brazen

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