Fatal Throne
by Candace Fleming, M.T. Anderson, Stephanie Hemphill, Lisa Ann Sandell, Jennifer Donnelly, Linda Sue Park, and Deborah Hopkinson
Genres: Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Tudor, Young Adult
Release Date: May 1, 2018
Pages: 388
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★☆
If you were one of King Henry VIII’s six wives, who would you be? Would you be Anne Boleyn, who literally lost her head? Would you be the subject of rumor and scandal like Catherine Howard? Or would you get away and survive like Anna of Cleves?
Meet them and Henry’s other queens–each bound for divorce or death–in this epic and thrilling novel that reads like fantasy but really happened. Watch spellbound as each of these women attempts to survive their unpredictable king as he grows more and more obsessed with producing a male heir. And discover how the power-hungry court fanned the flames of Henry’s passions . . . and his most horrible impulses.
Whether you’re a huge fan of all things Tudor or new to this jaw-dropping saga, you won’t be able to get the unique voices of Henry and his wives–all brought to life by seven award-winning and bestselling authors–out of your head.
This is an intimate look at the royals during one of the most treacherous times in history. Who will you root for and who will you love to hate?
Review
I enjoyed Fatal Throne. It was a fun — well, engaging, at least — retelling of Henry VIII’s six wives.
Each wife’s story was told from her own perspective, followed by a short narrative from Henry’s point of view.
We also got a short epilogue about Elizabeth I from a third person point of view. I don’t know why only Elizabeth got featured. I would have enjoyed seeing a short piece for each of Henry’s three legitimate children.
This book seems, at times, to be not quite historically accurate, but it may be that, like with Catherine Howard, the authors were using a different “truth” than the one I’m most familiar with. We don’t know the real facts for all of the wives, often having several possible truths, each as valid as the others.
Fatal Throne was well-written, and the character voices fell true-to-life. However, at times, it seemed as though the different wives versions contradicted each other. I don’t mean in perspective, because of course they’d disagree there, but in actual “fact” of what happened. This made it feel like we were reading tellings of six different timelines, as opposed to six different tellings of the same timeline.
But, other than that nitpicky — and potentially subjective — issue, Fatal Throne is great, and well worth a read. I leave with you with a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
- “Plain girls can prosper. We can make our lives our own.”
- “Life deals the cards—” “—but it is up to us how we play them”
- “I am not my breasts, my belly, my legs, or that which lies between them. I am my head and my heart. All that I know, all that I love, everything I hope for.”
- “By changing a life, just one life, you can change the world. It is the only way anyone ever has.”
- “Everyone told me I must accept what I cannot change. But I wished to change what I cannot accept, and that is where the trouble starts.”
About the Authors
Note: Because there are multiple authors, I am only including their names (in the order listed on Goodreads) and their easily-located links.
Candace Fleming: Website | Goodreads
M.T. Anderson: Goodreads | Twitter
Stephanie Hemphill: Goodreads | Amazon Author Page
Lisa Ann Sandell: Website | Goodreads
Jennifer Donnelly: Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter | Amazon Author Page
Linda Sue Park: Website | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page
Deborah Hopkinson: Website | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter | Amazon Author Page
Disclaimer: This review is based on an eBook I purchased from Amazon on June 17, 2021 .
