The year is 1540 and King Henry VIII has grown tired of his fourth wife from Germany, Anne of Cleves. The aging king longs for another heir to make sure that his dynasty is secure, which means he is searching for his fifth wife. Henry’s wandering eye lands on a young girl who happens to be a cousin of his second wife of Anne Boleyn. The young woman’s name who caught the king’s attention is Katheryn Howard. Henry believes that his new bride is virtuous as well as being very beautiful, but what secrets does this young queen hide? In her latest installment of the Six Tudor Queens series “Katheryn Howard: The Scandalous Queen”, Alison Weir takes a look into the life of this young woman and the men who loved her.

As a fan of Alison Weir’s other books, I knew that I wanted to read this title. I have been enjoying the Six Tudor Queens series so far, even though I don’t necessarily agree with how she has characterized certain historical figures. I have not read any books with Katheryn Howard as the protagonist, so I was intrigued to see how it would go.

We begin our adventure with Katheryn Howard’s childhood and how she entered the household of her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. This is where Katheryn fell in love with men like Henry Mannox and Francis Dereham. I enjoyed seeing how Weir fleshed out these two relationships and how drastically different they were in Katheryn’s eyes. We see Katheryn try to keep the secrets of her past relationships as she works hard to capture the heart of the aging king, Henry VIII. Katheryn’s relationship with Henry is a bit one-sided at first, but it develops into love on both sides, but not like the love that Katheryn has known before. I found myself feeling sorry for Henry and Katheryn as they suffered a few miscarriages. But none of her other relationships are like her connection with Thomas Culpeper.

I think one of my problems with this particular book is how she viewed certain characters, like Katheryn Howard and Jane Boleyn, the wife of the late George Boleyn. To me, it felt like Weir was repeating the traditional view about these two women. Katheryn Howard has been seen as a young and naïve girl who was used as a pawn by her family to manipulate the King. Jane Boleyn has been viewed as a manipulator who despised her husband and suffered from mental trauma in the end. I think that there is so much more to their stories than how they have been portrayed in fictional representations of their lives. We see Weir try to go a bit further into their personalities, but for the most part, she stays along these lines.

Just because I don’t agree with how these two characters were represented does not mean that I thought the book was bad. I think the story itself was intriguing and Weir’s writing style is engaging like her other books. I think it is a fine novel that shows Katheryn Howard’s rise and fall from power and how dangerous love can be, especially for a young queen. If you want a great escape with a novel about Henry VIII’s fifth wife, check out Alison Weir’s, “Katheryn Howard: The Scandalous Queen”.