ryannburkart's review
Meh… lots of back and forth but not really getting into the story. Interesting story but taking too long to get to the point. Too much pointless dialogue.
meowatmeee's review against another edition
3.0
Недоволството ми произтича от плоскостта на героите. До последно не успях да проява съчувствие към съдбата на обречените влюбени. Но когато се замислих, стигнах до заключението, че може би особеностите на жанра са отговорни за това, което аз възприемам като "недостатък" на произведението. Психологизацията предполага истинска близост от страна на автора с неговите герои. Колкото и да се е задълбочила в проучването си, Мери Грифит не би могла да претендира за близост, каквато би имала, ако образите бяха обект на нейната фикция. И все пак сърце не ми дава да отбележа повече от 3 звезди.
lisa_setepenre's review
1.0
Catherine de Valois, the youngest daughter of the King of France, has been raised in a convent, ignorant of the world outside. But that will soon change as she is summoned back to court to marry the English king, Henry, as part of the peace treaty between the two nations. But soon, Catherine is widowed and alone in England, increasingly shut out of the life of her young son – and the new King of England. But Owen Tudor, a Welsh member of her household, may be the answer to her loneliness.
At best, I think, it was a relief to find Root of the Tudor Rose was a relatively easy read. The prose isn’t particularly wonderful or pretty, but neither is it complicated or dull. It was simple enough that I just about glided through the book.
However, the rest of it isn’t that great. For starters, I think the protagonist of the book should have been Owen Tudor, not Catherine. It felt Owen and the plight of the Welsh in 15th century England was what Mari Griffith was really interested in, not Catherine.
Catherine is also not that interesting as a protagonist. I mean, there’s plenty interesting about the historical Catherine, who married the man who was seen as the great enemy of her home country, and then had an affair with a servant. But this Catherine is rather simply characterised. She’s basically a virginal ingenue, ignorant and innocent of the world, sometimes to the point where I’d facepalm over how moronic she was. She literally believes that Englishmen have tails! There is some hint of a childhood trauma, but it’s not unpacked much at all, and certainly not to the extent to give Catherine any depth.
The book is tonally uneven – at the start, I really wasn’t sure if this was meant to be a serious work of historical fiction or a comedy, as there were a few scenes where I braced myself for the Benny Hill theme music as the story devolved into farce. It’s definitely not an intelligent comedy like, say, Monty Python or Blackadder.
The plot begins to get a bit repetitive, with the latter sections of the book being dominated by repeated incidences where Catherine falls pregnant, needs to hide this, figures out a way to hide this and then gives birth.
All up, this is an easy read, but don’t go looking for depth or quality.
At best, I think, it was a relief to find Root of the Tudor Rose was a relatively easy read. The prose isn’t particularly wonderful or pretty, but neither is it complicated or dull. It was simple enough that I just about glided through the book.
However, the rest of it isn’t that great. For starters, I think the protagonist of the book should have been Owen Tudor, not Catherine. It felt Owen and the plight of the Welsh in 15th century England was what Mari Griffith was really interested in, not Catherine.
Catherine is also not that interesting as a protagonist. I mean, there’s plenty interesting about the historical Catherine, who married the man who was seen as the great enemy of her home country, and then had an affair with a servant. But this Catherine is rather simply characterised. She’s basically a virginal ingenue, ignorant and innocent of the world, sometimes to the point where I’d facepalm over how moronic she was. She literally believes that Englishmen have tails! There is some hint of a childhood trauma, but it’s not unpacked much at all, and certainly not to the extent to give Catherine any depth.
The book is tonally uneven – at the start, I really wasn’t sure if this was meant to be a serious work of historical fiction or a comedy, as there were a few scenes where I braced myself for the Benny Hill theme music as the story devolved into farce. It’s definitely not an intelligent comedy like, say, Monty Python or Blackadder.
The plot begins to get a bit repetitive, with the latter sections of the book being dominated by repeated incidences where Catherine falls pregnant, needs to hide this, figures out a way to hide this and then gives birth.
All up, this is an easy read, but don’t go looking for depth or quality.
elliejmatthews's review
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
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