Today I'm reviewing a book I bought last weekend, which I've been reading all week. I'm dying to get on with this review, so let's take a look at the stats!
Stats
Title: Eliza Rose
Author: Lucy Worsley
Version: Paperback
Published by Bloomsbury Childrens on 7th April 2016
Length: 368 pages
ISBN: 1408869438
Average rating (Goodreads): 3.9 stars
Synopsis (Goodreads)
I would often wonder about my future husband. A knight? A duke? A stable boy?
Of course the last was just a wicked fancy.
Eliza Rose Camperdowne is young and headstrong, but she knows her duty well. As the only daughter of a noble family, she must one day marry a man who is very grand and very rich.
But Fate has other plans. When Eliza becomes a maid of honour, she's drawn into the thrilling, treacherous court of Henry the Eighth . . .
Is her glamorous cousin Katherine Howard a friend or a rival?
And can a girl choose her own destiny in a world ruled by men?
Of course the last was just a wicked fancy.
Eliza Rose Camperdowne is young and headstrong, but she knows her duty well. As the only daughter of a noble family, she must one day marry a man who is very grand and very rich.
But Fate has other plans. When Eliza becomes a maid of honour, she's drawn into the thrilling, treacherous court of Henry the Eighth . . .
Is her glamorous cousin Katherine Howard a friend or a rival?
And can a girl choose her own destiny in a world ruled by men?
The Review
I absolutely love historical novels, and it is incredibly rare to find a historical YA novel (never mind a good one), which is part of the reason why I think Eliza Rose is a total gem.
It is written by a historian who actually curates Hampton Court, which means that this novel goes into the sort of detail I've never seen before in a Young Adult historical novel. Everything is absolutely accurate, and it is a fantastic way to illustrate the events that happened in Henry VIII's court spanning the reigns of three queens, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.
I respect Worsley because she wrote Eliza Rose to offer a new perspective on the life of Katherine Howard, and I think she managed to gain a different level of intimacy by telling it through the eyes of Katherine's cousin, Eliza, rather than through Katherine's.
The plot is exciting and shocking, even if you know what is going to happen. I know the different events that happened within this period, yet Worsley still managed to make them sneak up on me and shock me.
On the other hand, the main character, Eliza, can be incredibly irritating. She says constantly in the beginning of the novel that she deserves the best because her family is the oldest in Derbyshire. She can be selfish and arrogant, and this constant childish boasting in the beginning parts of the novel can be very annoying.
I did also feel that, although the writing in the rest of the novel was of a consistently high standard, I was let down by the ending. It felt rushed and lacked description.
On the whole, Worsley did an excellent job at capturing the danger of Henry VIII's court, and her writing was generally excellent. With all of this in mind, I am awarding Eliza Rose:
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