I'll be honest about the fact that I bought this book to tick off Q in my A to Z challenge and wasn't really expecting much from it. A chapters in I was feeling a bit sad that I was indeed not enjoying it very much, and irritated having to tell people it's not about chess.... though the second issue was not the books fault. A few chapters later though it turned a corner, and by the end of the book I was surprised by how much I enojyed it.

The multiple perspectives were refreshing and having the views of the aristocracy and the low born made it quite interesting. I think the relationship with Thomas Seymour could have been gone into a little more though, as it was hard to understand Katherines motivations and actions with regards to him.

I really didn't know much of anything about Katerine Parr before reading this, and would be interested to know how historically acurate it is. Obviously specific dialogue and what characters are thinking and feeling is conjecture, but it's a really nice dramatisation and assuming nothing was glaringly innaccurate it's well worth reading.