DNF

Well, I've given this my best college try, and it's not enough. I can't even tough it out for Richard's sake. The prose is too simple and repetitive, Anne is whiny, and the characters in general are dull. And apparently, the House of York owes its victories to witchcraft. I just can't.

I'm reading Gregory's books in the order they're newly displayed on her website - by historical start date, not publication date. I really like "Lady of the Rivers" and was disappointed with both "The White Queen" and "The Red Queen." Gregory says Elizabeth Woodville is her favorite character and you can clearly tell that in "The White Queen," which paints her so sympathetically even though I found her unlikable, and in the "The Red Queen," which felt, as a reader, that it was painful for Gregory to write.

"The Kingmaker's Daughter" is treading familiar ground - The Cousins' War, again - but from the point of view of a minor character in the other three books. This is an easy read and a good one if you like Gregory or this sort of historical fiction.

One of my favorite things about this book is that it tells a story I know from another point of view. I've been reading/listening to these books and I love hearing all the different points of view.

Not my favorite Philippa Gregory novel, but still a well written novel from an author who can clearly navigate 15th century English politics, culture, style and rhetoric. It's also nice to read from the perspective of the losing side of the War of the Roses. The Tudor House is arguably the most popular royal family in historical fiction. And I freely admit that the name Richard III immediately brings to mind the "Princes in the Tower" and how he murdered his brother's sons and buried them somewhere in the Tower of London. It was a nice change of pace to see the Nevilles and Plantagenets' depiction of the events that took place during this tumultuous period - even if it is fiction.

I always enjoy Gregory's fictionalized biographies, and this is no exception. Her Cousins' War series is a little different than the Tudors, as they're concurrent and overlap. I wish I'd read them closer together; it's hard to recall the motivations of the previous heroines at this point. If you like to get your history from fiction like me, I recommend it.

The battles for the crown, witchcraft, the desperation of making an heir and the indulgences of the royal court, there's never a dull or easy moment in this one. Gregory create such immense tension in her historic tales told, as always, from the women behind the men.

This was one of my favorites. Fast paced and kept me interested.

I really love Phillipa Gregory's books. She manages to take a well known period of history and make the reader see it in a completely new way. She obviously does a lot of research, and she stays accurate to history, but she gives a new perspective to the events and what might have led up to them.
I'm really enjoying the Cousin's War books, this is my second one, and I'm going to start another right away. I think it's very interesting to read about the same historical moments from very different perspectives. In a way it makes me question some of the assumptions that are always made about history.

Loved it! Easy to digest historical fiction. Accessible to everyone. So interesting to read a different version of the events from the white queen, told from the point of view of a different heroine. I look forward to the next in the cousins war series.

This was less gripping/compelling than the earlier books in this series, at least to me, in this moment. Gregory is definitely good at shifts of perspective - the portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville in her own book (The White Queen?) is very sympathetic, and this is clearly not. It does make it hard to piece together a comprehensive view of the world - there is no way to see "truth" in it, but I guess that's fiction for you.