Review ~ The Queen of Last Hopes by Susan Higginbotham

Title: The Queen of Last Hopes

AUTHOR: Susan Higginbotham
COPYRIGHT: 1/1/2011
TYPE: historical fiction/romance
PAGES: 400
SERIES: No

REASON FOR READ: Was offered by Sourcebook as an ARC and sounded interested so I asked for it.

SUMMARY (from Goodreads):
It would be called the Wars of the Roses, but it all began with one woman's fury...


Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, cannot give up on her husband-even when he goes insane. And as mother to the House of Lancaster's last hope, she cannot give up on her son-even when all England turns against him. This gripping tale of a queen is at its heart a tender tale of love: passionate, for her husband, and motherly, for her only son.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:

Wow, just wow this book completely blew me away. I was mesmerized from the begging and found putting it down was very hard. This book reminds me a lot of why I enjoy historical novels. You get the history, the people, the way they live, but you also get the what were they thinking. In this one book I began to understand what one woman might have faced during this time when her king went mad and the country turned against them. Do I think this is what Margaret of Anjou was thinking? Who knows what I do know is that I loved this book.

I loved watching a young girl grow into a woman then slowly turn into the Queen the British hated. I enjoyed watching how she stuck by her king’s side even when he went mad and the country turned against her. I loved watching her strength as she did everything she thought was right to fight her for son’s rightful place as king. I also enjoyed the fact that she did fault and slip. That she made fatal mistakes that cost lives and even though she could have shrugged her shoulders and moved on. She didn’t in this book she grieved for every lost life. I have no idea what this Queen was like in real life but the way she was portrayed by Ms. Higginbotham makes me hope that this is what she was thinking and doing.

There are not a lot of things in here that I disliked the main thing that was hard for me was switching from different people. Alison Weir does this back and forth to show us different perspectives of what people were thinking and at times I find this hard to follow. Other than that I thought this book was lovely and well written. I will be picking up the back list for this author!

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Oh this will be one I am keeping I loved the writing and the historical accuracy. I really, really enjoyed this book. She reminds me of Allison Weir’s fiction stories.

Would you recommend this book? Yes I think it was very well written you could find yourself sympathizing with Margret. I am also going out to purchase Ms. Higginbotham’s backlist I enjoyed this one so much!

Challenges:

Out do Yourself

Reviewing Next:

Kiss at your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe