This historical fiction looks at a whole new angle of the divorce of Henry the Eighth and Catherine of Aragon, through the eyes of their daughter Mary. Lucy Worsley has an excellent way with words as she brings this story to all new readers. Clearly well researched and adapted for a younger reader. I love this period of history and always want to learn more about it, so Lucy's recount of this famous divorce from the perspective of Mary was such an interesting read!

With thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for allowing the chance to review this book.

I'm a big fa of Lucy Worsley and her histology tv programs, so jumped at the chance to read her YA book about Lady Mary.

Lucy Worsley doesn't disappoint, Lady Mary is a good book that tells the story of Lady's Mary fight to say that she is the Queen's daughter.

This book took me a little to get into and used to. This may be because im not used to reading Historical fiction even though it is a genre I am highly interested in both to read and I love watching period dramas. It also jumped in time quite a bit so I was just getting used to what happened and then it jumped forward a months or years as we follow Mary from the age of 11 until 21. I enjoyed learning more about the Tudor life and what happened to Mary and Catharine and enjoyed them as characters even though it took Mary the whole book to mature. 
I gave this book 3 stars as I just struggled with it a bit and didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.

As a big fan of a lot of the goings on during Tudor reign, this book was a delight, although aimed at a younger audience there were some really interesting aspects to this book and I found it brilliantly descriptive but not overly so. This is a great portrayal as Mary who we get to see as a child during her parents divorce which is obviously something with even those with only a passing knowledge of the Tudor monchary will know about, this Mary is very easy to warm to and I became genuinely invested in her wellbeing.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I did wind up buying a finished copy for this one. I saw it whilst browsing in the bookstore. And the cover was just lovely. A green cover with gold accents and a princess silhouette. Caught my eye right away and I just had to have it. 

I have a weakness for anything Tudor related, I’m completely fascinated by anything related to Henry the 8th and his six wives. This one looked interesting as it was charting the history of Catherine of Aragon’s daughter Mary. Might be interesting to see things from Mary’s point of view, starting from when she was a young child to her early twenties.  

Unfortunately, I just didn’t like this novel much at all. It felt like a history lesson, and a boring one at that. It was very much tell and not show. And I may be a bit biased as Anne Boleyn is my favourite Tudor wife and she is portrayed as very much a villain and a vile woman with little more grace than an ambitious whore in this one. Which I really did not like.

But then again, I can understand, Catherine was the first wife and Mary is her daughter and while Mary finds herself reluctantly understanding that kings, like her father have mistresses, this one is becoming very prominent in his life and it will be impossible to like her from Mary’s point of view. Mary has always idolized her father, and when he starts changing and pushing Mary and her mother aside for this new woman, things change.

Mary does go through some horrible things as she gets older and has to deal with the loss of her princess title, being manipulated and shut out, separated from her mother and everything comfortable and familiar, to dealing with new people she doesn’t know who don’t respect her…it’s pretty awful.

Though again, as this was being told it felt like it was all tell and not show. I can certainly empathise with Mary but I didn’t feel an emotional connection to her character at all. The whole thing felt very boring and long winded. 

Not for me at all in the end. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for approving my request to view the title.

Trigger Warnings: Neglect, parental abuse

Who knew Mary I was so closely related to Elizabeth I?? Everyone, except me it seems!

Lady Mary is a look at the life of Mary I from her childhood to her early 20s, from the beginnings of the end of Henry VIII’s first marriage through to the death of his third wife, Jane Seymour. Worsley takes the reader on a journey through Mary’s heartache and abuse at the hands of her own father and first step-mother. 

Lady Mary fills in the blank spaces of history through the eyes of a young Mary desperate to prove she’s a daughter to be proud of. Unfortunately Henry VIII thinks otherwise and Mary goes through being shunned, starved, and betrayed while she holds tight to her right to call herself princess. Proving that all though her father might not consider her his rightful heir, she is every bit her mother’s daughter. 

I thought Mary was strong as a character, sticking to her guns through great hardships and I loved when it was pointed out by a side character that yes, Mary’s father is an absolute prick, but that Mary’s mother wasn’t exactly always doing what’s best for her daughter, either. 

I found myself rooting for Mary and hoping she would come out on top. I will admit I didn’t know all that much of the history going in. I knew Henry VIII was a dick and that there was a nine day queen at some point but that was about it. 

Wasn’t it my surprise to discover that Queen Elizabeth I was Mary I’s half sister. (I know far more about Queen Elizabeth through her connection to Mary Queen of Scots thanks to my mum’s obsession with her.) It seems like Elizabeth I was perhaps plagued by Marys trying to take her crown. 

Don’t judge me, I’m still new to actually enjoying history.

At times I struggled to pay attention to this book for the same reasons I struggle to pay attention to most historical novels. They tend to get bogged down in the details in a bid to make it as historically accurate as possible which I’m sure is what you should do when writing historical fiction, but for me it can quickly become boring and tedious. 

However, I will give this book props because I still managed to finish it, which I would not have done if it wasn’t for the fact that it picked up greatly in the last third or so. 

I would have preferred it if we had gotten to explore Mary’s life a little further, past just the death of Jane and seeing what she was like as an older sister since in this story she had little to do with her siblings. 

I really loved that this book became a story about found family and tenacity and making what you can out of a horrible situation by the end.

Lady Mary left me with a thirst, to learn more about the Tudors, that I’ll be looking to quench in the near future.

I really liked this book! Silly old me didn't realise who the author was until I googled her and saw that she presented a lot of my fave history documentaries. Even brought a signed copy!!

I really enjoyed this book. It was the first historical fiction based on Henry VIII that I’ve read. As I was reading, I would cross check facts and they were all true, which made this story even more enjoyable. It was a quick, fast paced book, with a middle grade writing style. I felt like Lady Mary didn’t grow up during this book, which would be one of my main downfalls. I can’t believe how her father just disposed of her and her mother when he fell in love with Anne Boleyn. I loved how this book wrapped up and found the ending very satisfying. The epilogue was great, as Lucy spoke about the truth to the story and I liked her perspective on the biased historical versions of Lady Mary created by the Protestants. This definitely has spurred on my need for some more historical fiction!

This definitely had more of a middle-grade feel to it than I expected it to. While it did make it easy to read, I feel like it was only appropriate while Mary was young, and when she hit 17-21 years old the writing should have matured. It wasn't a very detailed read, but I do appreciate how it was easy to follow, as this is history, this really happened. I liked my own understanding of Henry VIII, as I knew what would happen, so seeing the story and narrative around it was really cool. It also seemed to flesh it out a bit more for me.

Great storyline with good strong characters.  Very well written.  I would recommend this book to anyone.

I am a huge Henry the Eighth fan, so when I saw this book, I had to read it, unfortunately, that is where my excitement waned...
This felt like every other Henry XIV novel, maybe that is because I have read a lot of them? Maybe it's because it is just like the others.
It is well written and great to see something from Mary's view point, although I find her immature and annoying (not just in this novel, just in general).

I liked this; Worsley writes well, and I would have loved this as a child.  It is perhaps a little too juvenile in some respects, but she captures the period and her characters well.

A well written account of Mary's early life as a princess, an outcast, and then a lady. It certainly has changed my image from the 'Bloody Queen' who despised her sister to a strong character determined not to be ignored or made less than what she was. Mary endures a lot and that shows through the writing and I as a reader want Mary to have the happy ending. Worsley moves swiftly through each stage of Mary's early life, not dawdling or becoming flowery as previous historical fictions I have read are wont to do. Worsley instead focuses on her message: the games, the politics, the ignorance, the complexities of family, the feelings. Definitely a book I recommend to historical fiction lovers who want a fresh take on the tudor regime through the eyes of the Princess Mary

This book is to be featured at the end of the month, and again in a cover feature a few months afterwards.

I love anything to do with history and this book is really good and has made me want to learn more about the Tudors.

3.5 stars

Mary Tudor loves her parents Henry the Eighth and Catherine of Aragon. She wishes they could all spend more time together.
Then Mary's world is turned upside down when her father announces that his marriage to Catherine isn't legal and he plans to marry again.
Henry marries Anne Boleyn and Mary is separated from her mother. No longer a princess, Mary resists those who wish her to become a servant for the new princess, Anne and Henry's daughter Elizabeth. 
Does Mary have the strength to fight back?
Will she regain her former title of princess?

I have always been interested in the Tudors, but I never knew much about Mary. This book has definitely made me want to find out more about her. As a fan of Lucy Worsley and her documentaries, I was very intrigued to read this.
Mary was a likeable protagonist and I felt sorry for her - her family was torn apart and she was treated badly.
The plot was interesting and held my attention. I don't know how accurate it is, but it seemed believable.
I enjoyed the writing style and would read more fiction books by Lucy Worsley.

Overall this was an enjoyable read.

This book was ok. It took me a long time to get through, and I think it was because I just didn't care that much about it. I love Tudor history and find Mary fascinating so was excited to read a book from her perspective, but for me, something fell flat. Perhaps it was the fact that this book was YA and I just didn't connect with Mary, but I actually think it was because no characters were ever really developed. I think this book suffered from trying to fit in Mary's life from the beginning until her late twenties, too much happened for a fairly short book, so a lot was brushed over and the characters suffered.
Either way, it has tipped my interest and I would like to research more around Mary, particularly her time as queen (which this book doesn't actually go into).
An interesting premise, that didn't quite do so well in the execution.

Lucy Worsley's Lady Mary is a YA historical fiction novel about Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Later known as 'Bloody Mary', who famously exectued hundreds of Protestants while attempting to restore Roman Catholicism in England, Worsley's novel begins in Mary's childhood and covers her parents' divorce, her father's marriage to Anne Boleyn, Mary's fall from grace, time in exile and the hardships she endured throughout and the birth of her half-sister, Elizabeth, who went on to become Elizabeth I, before concluding when Mary is a young adult, aged around 21.

While this isn't a badly written novel, my main gripe is the lack of real plot-line and the overall portrayal of Mary. In this fictional account, largely about her time in exile, Mary is petulant and rather immature, even as she ages in the novel, and I find this characterisation hard to marry with the historical Mary, who fought for her royal position and eventually became queen.

Likewise, the secondary characters are almost caricatures of their historical namesakes. Anne Boleyn is the stereotypical wicked stepmother, forcing young Mary into servitude; Catherine of Aragon, her mother, the proud Spanish queen who wouldn't relent and urged the same of Mary; Jane Seymour the pure, kindly mother-figure Mary yearned for but whose influence was short-lived when she tragically died in childbirth. But there is little depth of any of the women mentioned, each of whose presence in Mary's formative years surely had an impact on the women (and queen) she became, and I found that rather disappointing.

Other characters, like Cromwell, Lady Shelton, the Shelton's servants and Lady Shelton's nephew, have even less character development than the women Henry VIII married, and appear to have largely been added to the novel in order to add intrigue and excitement to Mary's time in exile, whereas in reality it was probably much more of a banal, albeit hard and trying, experience for the young princess.

I also felt there were several missed opportunities that could've made the plot-line a little more interesting: exploring in more detail Mary's relationship with her father, for example, or ending the novel with Mary becoming queen after the hardships she endured in her youth, which could've been empowering to a younger audience.

For a YA title, it isn't a bad read and despite my gripes, I did enjoy the story. I haven't seen (m)any YA titles set in the Tudor period so Worsley's found a nice gap in the market, too. But if you're familiar with the historical figures in the book and the Tudor period, you may find this novel somewhat lacking.

Note: Many thanks to the author, Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this title in exchange for an honest review.

I love Lucy Worsley. I love her documentaries, nonfiction and now fiction. This is a delightful read and I wasn't at all bothered that I was reading a YA book at the age of 26. Worsley shows her passion and enthusiasm through the pages as well as her plentiful knowledge. Can't wait for more!

"I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review"

More than anything Mary just wants her family to stay together; for her mother and her father - and for her - to all be in the same place at once. But when her father announces that his marriage to her mother was void and by turns that Mary doesn't really count as his child, she realises things will never be as she hoped.
Things only get worse when her father marries again. Separated from her mother and forced to work as a servant for her new sister, Mary must dig deep to find the strength to stand up against those who wish to bring her down. Despite what anyone says, she will always be a princess. She has the blood of a princess and she is ready to fight for what is rightfully hers. 

Lady Mary was an intense quick read. I have to say I probably would of loved this book a lot more if I hard learnt more about the Tudor history (Yes I know I should know more than I do and after reading this I want to learn more). Learning about Mary as a child and what she went through in this story was heart breaking. This book has me wanting to read more stories regarding Tudor history as I found it quite complex and fascinating. 

I gave this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I am enjoyed the story a lot but because I was missing some of the history (my own fault) left me feeling like I was missing something in this book. I will defiantly read Lady Mary again once I have read more about the Tudor history and I will be reading more of Lucy Worsleys novels after reading this one.