Mary, Queen of France

This book took awhile to sink into because Plaidy jumps between POVs without any warning. We'd switch between Katherine to Mary to Henry to Mary even within the same paragraph. Once I figured this out, it wasn't so bad.

Aside from the narration style, this was pretty average. The story was fascinating, and Mary really grew as a character, as did the other characters around her, but half the book was taken up by the Dauphin Mary almost displaced as the next King of France. While it was interesting, it wasn't needed, not at the expense of fleshing out Mary's character more. Her mind was a one lane track of Charles Brandon. I would've preferred to read about her life in France or a more nuanced opinion of her various suitors. Why does she show more love Charles Brandon besides the fact he's the tallest, handsomest, and best sportsman in England? Who knows? But we do know about the bitter rival between the Dauphin's mother and Anne of Brittany. Because that's relevant for some reason.

Plaidy had her own charm, and this is a decent introduction into the Tudor world featuring lesser known players, which is cool. However, it leaves the reader wanting because this could've been so engrossing. Don't come in with high expectations, and then you'll enjoy this. show less

The real Mary Tudor – that’s Henry VIII’s sister, not his daughter – was a fascinating person. I think Jean Plaidy portrays Mary quite well in this novel. I love the tale of her pretending to be pregnant!

I knew about half of Mary’s life story before reading this, so it was interesting to learn more about her.

I could’ve done without the extended section on the French characters. This isn’t because I’m not interested in their history, because I am, but the amount of time dedicated to them is irrelevant to the main story. It’s like filler material. The novel’s supposed to be about Mary, yet suddenly she’s pushed off stage for a full act, and you're reading what feels like another book.

Without giving the ending away, show more I will only state that it’s one of few Plaidy endings that moved me. The author made me care about her version of Mary, and of and Charles Brandon.

“Mary, Queen of France” pleased me in the most part, though the author's style – as always – prevented it from being better than it could’ve been. Too much “telling”, not “showing”, is the biggest problem. Too much repetition is another. Also, as mentioned, the extended focus on the French characters was irrelevant to the story. show less

Mary is the younger sister of Henry VIII, and he dotes on her. This book covers much her life - her betrothals to princes of Europe, her miserable marriage to the King of France, her love affair with Charles Brandon (the king's best friend), and finally her marriage to Brandon against her brother's wishes - a very dangerous game to play against Henry VIII.

The book's pacing was not even. At times the story raced and I flew through the pages; at other times it dragged on and seemed much longer than its 290 pages. Over all I liked the book, and I'm planning on eventually collecting all of the re-published books by Jean Plaidy.

3.75 stars

Mary Tudor was Henry VIII’s younger sister. She was originally betrothed to Charles of Castile when they were both young (Charles much younger than Mary). In the meantime, at home in England, she fell madly in love with Henry’s best friend, Charles Brandon (and he with her). She thought she was free when the betrothal was broken, but, even worse, she was instead promised to Louis XII of France, an old man. She fought for a chance to wed Brandon instead, though she was still required to go to France and marry Louis.

This was quite good. There were a couple of dryer parts, most notably the history of the succession in France. I don’t know much about French royalty, so it was new to me, but not knowing any of the names, my show more mind tended to wander. That was only a brief part in the middle, though, just to introduce Louis and his court and rival for the throne. show less

Loved this book and is one of my favorites of the series. Told the story of Princess Mary (soon to briefly be Queen of France) the younger sister of Henry VIII. Mary fell in love with Henry's best friend Charles Brandon when she was a young girl but Henry had plans to wed her to the very aged Louis, King of France. Mary, who was as strong a personality as Henry, fought him on this made Henry promise that when Louis died - Mary would be free to marry whom she wished. Mary's relationship with the Dauphin of France, King Louis, the Dauphin's sister and mother are very engaging and at times very humorous. Again, like the previous book it goes at a great pace and then just rushes at the end.

A pretty fair historical novel - better than some I've read - although the narrative style is showing its age - a little bit 60's, a teeny bit Janet & John. But that complaint aside, still a very readable life story of a Tudor princess more usually left to one side.

The love story of Mary, sister to Henry VIII, and hist best mate Charles Brandon. Enveloped in the story is also a substantial telling of how Francis Incame to the throne of France. Some might find this a bbit distracting from the main story, though I found myself wishing Plaidy had devoted a whole novel to it's telling.