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On my way home from Wilmington I finished listening to the last book in Philippa Gregory's series called "The Cousins War". The title of the novel is The White Princess and is about Henry VII's wife and Edward IV's daughter who was one and the same - Elizabeth. And of course that also made her Henry VIII's mother. This novel moves on from the same time frame that the first five books of the series cover to new events. The back ground on Elizabeth's mother was covered in the novel called The White Queen and the back ground on Elizabeth's mother in law was covered in the novel The Red Queen. The novel The Lady of the Rivers was about her maternal grandmother. The Women Of The Cousins War was a non fiction book that tries to sort out the known facts from Philippa Gregory's historical fiction novels and The Kingmaker's Daughter covers history just prior to where The White Princess begins. While The White Princess was not my favorite novel of the series I will read or listen to more of Philippa Gregory's novels. King Henry VII was a real Debbie Downer as was his mother the Lady Margaret. And they were prime examples of how people have historically used their belief systems to justify bad behavior. Most of the book was King Henry VII struggling to maintain his throne from uprisings and describing his failures as a leader and Elizabeth's struggle to remain loyal to him when he was such an ass. It makes clear how little choice and how little power women had in that time frame. I am sure that this series will make my top ten list for 2013 but this novel is not my favorite of the series. I am glad I listened to it though and while I intend to tear myself away from Philippa Gregory's works for a bit I will return to another of her series in the near future. Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to learn more and enjoy the video that follows.
