Sorry, friends -- this one is going to stay on my shelf! While I disagree a tiny bit with the way that Kathryn Howard was portrayed as a naive, childlike figure, I think that this book still has an overwhelming degree of accurate detail. The story is told correctly even if her motivations for her licentious acts are a little unclear. Still, it generated in me a strong degree of sympathy for the young queen, which is not something I had previously felt for her. Whether or not she was scandalous or just plain gullible, there's no ignoring the fact that she was still a teenager when she was executed, and to be as young as she was, she handled her death quite honorably. Hoyt does an excellent job of really showing the reader how little Kathryn knew about royal life before being thrust into the spotlight, and how jealousy and gossip can destroy a person. You can't write about Kathryn Howard without including a few sexual situations, but the ones in this book were well written and not sleazy, which I appreciated. I know everyone has their own take on Henry VIII's wives, but I think the author makes a compelling case for a more forgiving version of Kathryn Howard's story. I'd recommend this book to other fans of Tudor England in a heartbeat.
An Very interesting story of Tudor England. Sarah A. Hoyt's "No Will But His" is an excellent historical romance about Kathryn Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England. Kathryn Howard has always been given short shrift by scholars because she was young, frivolous, and her letters showed abominable penmanship and little literary craftsmanship; seemingly, Kathryn Howard was the one woman King Henry VIII married without accomplishment. But as Ms. Hoyt's novel shows, Kathryn Howard was far from stupid or silly; she was young, vivacious, somewhat unlettered but bright and ambitious . . . and she attracted the King as a bee attracts honey because of her good qualities, not in spite of them. Her motto was "no will but his" No doubt saved her life.She was also the second cousin of Henry's second wife Anne Boleyn.
