This is probably one of my favorite Philippa Gregory books after The Other Boleyn Girl. . I don't even really know why. It's no different than her other books. It's about King Henry's last wife before he died. It starts out almost kind of boring, though. Kateryn Parr is in love with someone else but the King decides that he will marry her. So of course, she has no choice. She marries the King. It actually turns out to be a pretty good deal at first. The King lets Kateryn do basically whatever she wants. She also rules as regent because Henry is pretty sick at this point. But things turn sour, as they normally do with this King. He gets fed little lies about Kateryn and what she has been doing. So he has to tame her, hence the title. Luckily, Kateryn survives this because (view spoiler)[ King Henry finally dies. (hide spoiler)]. It really is such a good book. I've always wondered about the last wife, the one who survived. It's nice to learn about her and about Henry's last days. I highly recommend this book for any history buffs.

A very lively and convincing fictional portrait of the last queen of Henry VIII. This is my first time reading Gregory and while she is better known for The Other Boleyn Girl and historical romance, that this lesser known and talked about book, while so odd in this genre that I'm not sure whether to call it that at all, proves her aptitude in the historical aspects. It is impossible not to warm to Katherine's intelligence, passion and strong moral character. At the same time it is difficult not to feel for her fending for herself amid the hostilities and the ever-changing nature of court life, one moment reveling and confident in her place as queen and wife, the next haunted by personal loss and sacrifice, shame, and the possibility of treading that well-worn path of her royal predecessors to a premature demise. There is no sense of helplessness in women greater than their humiliation and devaluation at the hands of an autocratic whimsical de facto power, and two moments in this novel illustrate that very well. I cannot help comparing this version with that of The Tudors tv series; this novel emphasises the king's cruelty more heavily and is a lot more emotionally driven as the queen continually scrambles to decipher the intents of her husband and his court. Moments of darkness outweigh moments of pleasure, and the moving scenes are eclipsed by an increasing sense that there is no place here for loyalty or affection, when even the love that the royal children share with their stepmother is irrevocably tainted by the brutal facts of politics.

Compared to Gregory's other writing this was merely mediocre. Her version of both Henry VIII as a murderous rapist, Katherine as a weak, naive woman, and Thomas Seymour as a dashing romantic hero are confusing, given the actual historical record. The descriptions of life in the Tudor court were, as usual, spot on, making her misses on the characterizations of these individuals even odder. The book was okay but a bit of a disappointment from one of my favorite authors. Hopefully her new book will be an improvement.