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Vanora Bennett
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The Queen's Lover: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Vanora Bennett (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 257 ratings
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From Vanora Bennett, the acclaimed author of Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Figures in Silk comes The Queen’s Lover, a fictionalized account of the life and loves of Catherine de Valois, a woman of enormous courage who became a great queen of two countries. Fans of Phillipa Gregory, Alison Weir, Sarah Dunant, and Tracy Chevalier, and every reader who adores top-quality historical fiction will be swept away by this epic love story set against the rich backdrop of 15th-century England and France—and by this remarkable woman who triumphed magnificently by making her own rules.

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  1. Print length
    590 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    HarperCollins e-books
  5. Publication date
    February 27, 2010
  6. File size
    3489 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Everyone knows that medieval royals are hot. You need look no further than the best-selling novels of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir for proof of the popularity of this lucrative publishing phenomenon. While many are rushing to cash in on current market demand, few novels are as authentically rendered as this one. Displaying the same narrative flair and historical accuracy as she did in Figures in Silk (2009), Bennett spins the gripping tale of young Catherine de Valois, the fifteenth-century French princess sacrificed on the altar of national honor and political expediency. Hastily married off to King Henry V of England as a battle prize, she must learn to navigate the intricacies and intrigues of the English royal court after Henry’s untimely death. Luckily, she has Owain Tudor, the Welsh-born controller of her household, to assist her in doing so. Especially unique and compelling is the story of Elizabeth’s friendship with feminist poet Christine de Pizan. Historical fiction with enough heft to satisfy discriminating fans. --Margaret Flanagan

Review

“Vanora Bennett knows what drives her characters, both fictional and historical, and they seem as real and easy to relate to as your next-door neighbor. Bennett’s medieval England comes alive in ways a reader can immediately relate to, even while being transported away from the modern world.”

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003A7I2JQ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition (February 27, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 27, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3489 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 590 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 257 ratings

About the author

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Vanora Bennett

Vanora Bennett

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Vanora Bennett studied Russian at Oxford University and in the USSR. She began her career as a journalist at Reuters and went on to serve as Moscow correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, winning an US Overseas Press Club award for her writing on Russia. She now lives in Britain and has won the Orwell Prize for political writing for her work at The Times. She is the author of six novels, from Portrait of an Unknown Woman to Midnight in St Petersburg and the current The White Russian, as well as of two books of non-fiction.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
257 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Cynthia McArthur
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Drawn Historical Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2012
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The characters were beautifully drawn; Owen Tudor, the young Welshman whose family lost everything in rebellion against England; Princess Catherine, the beautiful, neglected daughter of a meddlesome mother and a mad father. The two meet in France when Owen meets Catherine de Pizan, the poet, and she introduces him to Catherine and her younger brother Charles. Christine anticipates that Owen can help Catherine and Charles to overcome their traumatic memories of the on-going French (and inter-family) upheavals, but she never expects them to fall in love with each other.
Once Christine realizes what is happening, Owen must go away, and Catherine decides to push for the marriage with the English warrior-king Henry V, in order to get away from the drama and sometimes terror in France. Her only regret is leaving her fragile father with no one to care for him.
Once in England, we meet Cardinal Beaufort, urbane, witty and never at a loss for words; the Earl of Warwick, mean abusive and ugly. Through much conflict, Owen and Catherine find a way back to each other, sometimes denying their feelings, sometimes being over-whelmed by them. The only thing holding all together is the small boy King Henry VI, whom Catherine loves beyond reason, though she fears for his future sanity.
This book was written so eloquently, the characters so believable, and the scene towards the end when the Earl of Warwick is unexpectedly confronted by Catherine's elderly mother was priceless.
This book was not only romance, but history, entertainment. I adored it!
6 people found this helpful
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Amy
4.0 out of 5 stars I Adora Vanora :)
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2010
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There are times when I am reading the reviews of other people when I want to just scream.."IT IS FICTION PEOPLE'!"
OK, now that is off my chest... I am a huge fan of Vanora Bennett and I think she has done a wonderful job, yet again. I have not read a lot about Catherine de Valois. It is refreshing to me to get a new (to me) historical figure thrown into my favorite genre. I get tired of the constant stream of books written about Ann Boleyn, or one of Henry VIII's other wives, etc.
The reasons I did not give it 5 stars (and it is rare that I give any book 5 stars....unlike a prolific reviewer I won't name here) are these:
(POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT....)
1. I thought that the sexual tension was a tad dragged out and occasionally taken to the extreme.
2. After all of the drawn out sexual tension, the actual culmination of all of that tension happened almost off-handedly, abruptly, as if none of the long, drawn out tension before hand had never taken place. I thought that was kind of weird and it was a little anticlimactic.
(END OF POSSIBLE SPOILER)
None of this however, would dissuade me from recommending this book wholeheartedly, especially if you are a fan of Vanora.
*****And one last RANT*****, which has nothing to do with the Author but everything to do with the editors and publishers. I am getting REALLY fed up with Kindle books that are so horribly edited that complete words are changed, not just misspelled, but completely changed. Especially when I pay premium price for a Kindle book. I don't complain about or "boycott" the over 9.99 Kindle books, but BY GOD IF I AM GOING TO PAY A PREMIUM PRICE, I WANT...NO, I EXPECT PREMIUM EDITING!!!!
16 people found this helpful
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L. Moreland
5.0 out of 5 stars Great historical fiction
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2018
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This well written tale was very poorly edited for e-reading, but even with that irritating distraction, it was hard to put down. Captivating and vividly imaginable characters make this story flow to a satisfying, if somewhat of a fairytale conclusion.
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Sandra
3.0 out of 5 stars If you like Phillipa Gregory
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2018
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If you like Phillipa Gregory, you will enjoy the details regarding royalty. However, there is something missing to make it on the same level;just not intriguing. The worst part about this book are the typographical errors, especially where the words run together and one must re-read a couple of times to finally get it. This really interferes with the fluidity of the story, as it happens on nearly every page. Additionally, the lengthy historical and family tree at the beginning is overwhelming and completely . Skip it or you'll put the book down and never return.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars This was a very well written historical fiction novel about ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2018
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This was a very well written historical fiction novel about the life of Catherine de Valois of France, Princess of France, who became Queen of England and then Queen of France. It was fast paced and very entertaining.
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JKSNYDER
4.0 out of 5 stars A Princess in love finds that even the annoitment of God is not a guarantee of love
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2018
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The book examines the short, but politically important, life of Catherine of Valois, the youngest daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. As a princess of the royal blood of Charlemagne, she was raised to be a queen. And as such, she became the wife of the Englis King Henry V who spent much of his adulthood trying to conquer Catherine's homeland as her father slipped in and out of madness. Her marriage, which came about as a condition of the treaty of Troyes, would be a short one, lasting less than a year, but produced a heir for Henry who would die, still fighting in France, never even seeing his son and namesake.

The entire first half of the book is the story of Catherine before she departs for England and her short reign as queen. An interesting subplot of Christine Pizan, the Italian woman who became one of the few women writers of the time , adds texture to the book and provides a possible mode of introduction between Catherine and Owain Tudor, who would become Catherine's second husband and mother of the father of Henry VII and founder of the Tudor line of English kings and grandmother of Henry VIII.

As with her other novels, Vanora Bennett is a story weaver extraordinaire. Her brilliantly developed characters show royalty as well as the life of nobles in both the best and worst of lights. Her development of characters make them real enough to exist even within the license in which Bennett has cast them.

An examination of characters mostly overlooked by other writers of the genre, the book certainly fills in some of the historical gaps before the Tudors actually take the throne and also foreshadows the madness of Henry VI which led to civil war, now referred to as the War of the Roses.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Longname
5.0 out of 5 stars A Little-Known Queen
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2013
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This book, like all the others I have read by Vanora Bennett, is very readable with no difficult phraseology or vocabulary, making it immensely suitable for a long journey , lazy hours on the beach or for bedtime reading. The book is about struggles of power, love, family and tradition, all the necessary ingredients for a great read. I loved this book and hope that Vanora is busy writing all day, every day, to supply me with more reading matter this year.
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Chaoslaborantin
4.0 out of 5 stars Der Ursprung der Tudors
Reviewed in Germany on April 5, 2013
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Der Roman "Blood Royal/ The Queen's Lover" schildert das Leben der französischen Prinzessin Katherine de Valois und ihrer Jugendliebe Owain Tudor. Die Prinzessin wächst recht verwahrlost während des Hundertjährigen Krieges auf und ist von den Intrigen und Kämpfen ihrer adligen Verwandschaft, insbesondere ihrer Mutter, und der dem Wahnsinn ihres königlichen Vaters umgeben. Eigentlich will sie nur weg von dort und würde dafür sogar eine Ehe mit dem Feind, dem englischen König, eingehen. Doch ihr "Kindermädchen", die gebildete Christine de Pizan, zeigt ihr die Schönheit des Lebens - nicht zuletzt, als sie den Waliser - und in England somit "Unterbürger" - Owain unter ihre Fittiche nimmt und Katherine vorstellt, denn für die beiden ist es Liebe auf den ersten Blick.

Was jetzt kitschiger klingt als es ist. Frau Bennett gibt dieser wahren Romanze frischen Wind, indem sie eine Jugendliebe daraus macht, die ein Leben lang halten soll, auch wenn sie einige Anläufe braucht, denn ein landloser Waliser ist nicht gerade der richtige Gatte für eine Prinzessin mit dem gesegneten königlichen Blut. Die beiden Hauptpersonen kämpfen mit ihren Gefühlen und doch werden sie nie melodramatisch, sondern sehen stoisch ihrem Schicksal entgegen. Gerade Katherine macht eine beeindruckende Entwicklung durch, als sie beginnt, ihren Vater zu pflegen und Verständnis für ihre egositische Mutter aufzubringen, statt vor ihnen davonzulaufen. Dies ist eine zeitlose Geschichte, die vom Mut vom Kindern in zerrütteten Elternhäusern erzählt und mich ein wenig an "Winter's Bone" erinnert hat. Später jedoch entwickelt sich Katherine in eine ähnliche Intrigantin wie ihre Mutter, nachdem sie zwei Enttäuschungen erfahren muss. Ihr Charakter wandelt sich während des ganzen Buches, was sie umso lebensechter wirken lässt. Owain ist ein sehr sympatischer junger Mann, der überraschenderweise nicht als Krieger, sondern als Gebildeter seine Vorgesetzten beeindruckt.

Gleichzeitig bringt Frau Bennett verschiedene Perspektive in den Roman, jedoch nur, um Verständnis für die historischen gGgner einzubringen, weshalb das Buch zusätzlich Übersicht gewinnt. Allerdings werden eher weniger Jahreszahlen genannt, weshalb der Verlauf ohne Vorkenntnisse schwierig zu erfassen ist. Insgesamt wird auf die Geschichte nur so viel eingegangen, wie Katherine sie persönlich erlebt hat. Auch wirkt das Buch etwas lang, ohne direkt kürzbare Längen zu haben. Nachdem ich es auf dem Kindle gelesen habe, dachte ich eher an 800 als 600 Seiten.

Ich finde, dass der Roman durchaus an Rosemary Jarmans "Crown in Candlelight" zum gleichen Thema heranreicht, nur dass eben der melodische Schreibstil und die imposanten Schlachtszenen (sowie das tragische Ende) fehlen. Insgesamt eine schöne, lebensechte, zumal auch wirklich passierte Romanze über eine Liebe ohne Standesdünkel.
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Suzie
4.0 out of 5 stars A tale of love and intrigue
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2009
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I was always told that I shouldn't learn my history from Shakespeare, but I'm afraid that's what I did because I hated history at school and loved Shakespeare. Living just a short drive from Stratford-upon-Avon at the time, I rarely missed a production. Henry V was a particular favourite, partly because it was one of our O-Level plays so I knew it really well. Our whole class was taken to see Olivier's film version, whereupon we all fell madly in love with Olivier. As a result, a novel about Henry V's wife, Catherine de Valois, was irresistible.

In Vanora Bennett's story, Catherine, daughter of the schizophrenic Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria, led a neglected childhood with barely enough to eat. She spent her days playing in the gardens with her younger brother Charles, later the Dauphin and eventually Charles VII of France. Her only friend, the learned Christine de Pizan, was a major influence on her young life. It was Christine who encouraged the friendship that developed between the teenage Catherine and Owain Tudor, a young Welshman under the protection of Henry V of England, encouragement that she later came to regret.

Henry was a soldier king who inspired his people and kept peace within his own country. His ambitions lay in extending his territory in France beyond the gates of Calais, which was already occupied by the English. His victory at Agincourt was familiar from Shakespeare's play, but the rest of the story was new and fascinating.

Surrounded by squabbling French Dukes, and listening to Owain's talk of peaceful coexistence within the English Court, Catherine is determined to secure the proposed marriage with Henry, but his terms are too demanding. I knew that the marriage would eventually proceed but not the details of Catherine's life or the roughness of the English Court after the elegance of the French. I'm not saying any more about the plot so as not to spoil it for those who haven't read it.

It's a tale of intrigue and a tender love story. It's also a long story, never so gripping that I couldn't bear to put it down but always interesting enough to make me want to take it up again, which would make it an excellent choice for a long journey, or a day on the beach.

The book has a wide cast of characters: the loyal and gentle Owain, the self-indulgent but fierce Isabeau (Catherine's mother), the weak, mad King, the evil and inscrutable Warwick, the friendly but wily Cardinal Beaufort. And there are Henry's brothers, the powerful and lascivious Duke Humphrey and the quieter but effective Duke John, left in France to manage the campaign against the French. Only Henry himself remained a bit of an enigma but unlike in Shakespeare's play Henry's life is not central to the story so this is not a criticism. Catherine is the central figure and as such, her character is well drawn and rounded, so that I really came to know her and felt for her fears and anxieties. This is especially true of her widowhood, when her future became ever more uncertain and precarious.

My one criticism, and the reason I didn't give the book five stars, is the style of the writing. I had not heard of the author before so haven't read her previous two novels, but seeing that she wrote a weekly column for TimesOnline I imagined that her style would be more elegant than it was. Although the text generally flows fluently and is easy to read, some sentences struck me as clumsy and displeasing. Close to the end, for instance, are these: `He had two men waiting to open a box waiting on the table', immediately followed by `Catherine recognised the box as one of the ones the Cardinal had travelled with from England.' It was almost as if the author had rushed her revision. Pedantic though it might sound, the plural `son-in-laws' instead of the correct `sons-in-law' also grated. I felt the text would have benefited from more careful editing.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and my criticisms would not put me off trying Vanora Bennett's other works. Blood Royal is a work of fiction based on history so I have no idea how accurate it is, but as I said earlier, an excellent holiday read and highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good historical story.
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Book Mad Mother
5.0 out of 5 stars Fab Historical Fiction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2012
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For those who love Phillipa Gregory you will love this. A bit slow to begin with but persevere as then becomes a page turner. Fascinating to discover about the lives of Henry V and Catherine Valois and how the Tudors began - well worth reading.
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Niki
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2014
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