Jane Seymour, the Haunted Queen is the third book in Alison Weir’s historical fiction series about the six wives of Henry VIII. Poor Jane, so quiet and dull that in history she is remembered for giving Henry is only legitimate male heir. If she’s remembered at all. Weir digs deep beyond the footnotes of history for Henry’s wives which is why I love these novels. Whatever one-liner you’ve ever heard about any of his queens, she ignores and brings to life the women they were with all their flaws and strengths.  Jane is no exception and Weir, despite little first-hand information (Jane was not of the aristocracy so did not leave behind much writing of her own), still manages to give a sense of a woman who held fast to her beliefs—even against an aging tyrant.

While Alison Weir is probably best known for her non-fiction books, her historical fiction works are also wonderful looks into the past. This book is no exception.

Of all Henry VIII’s wives, I’ve always found Jane Seymour to be the most boring. Poor little “whey-faced” plain Jane. She did her duty and promptly died. No fuss, no muss; no trouble from this queen. But this book changed my feelings about Jane and gave me a new understanding of not only her life, but also that of her family. It was a wonderful glimpse into a fascinating time and breathed new life into people I thought I knew. I highly recommend this well written, well researched and highly readable book.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Very thorough account of Jane Seymour’s life as King Henry’s third wife. Alison Weir has a knack of transporting the reader back in history, so it seems as if you are right there in the thick of it as the drama unfolds. As a huge fan of Tudor history I always look forward to Ms. Weir’s novels and as usual this one doesn’t disappoint. Readers will see her life from the time she was a child up until she died after childbirth. As a child her greatest ambition was to become nun but that didn’t help promote her family and in the end she chose to leave for court instead of staying at home where life suddenly became very complicated. As all of Henry’s wives, Jane is drawn into the political drama and intrigue of court as she catches the eye and heart of the king.

The third book in Alison Weir's series about the wives of Henry VIII focuses on Jane Seymour, mother of Henry's only legitimate son. Jane may have been considered Henry's favorite wife because she did what no other wife had done - gave him the son he wanted. Unfortunately she died shortly after giving birth.

Jane is pictured as devout and loyal - especially to Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. To say she is not a fan of Anne Boleyn is accurate. She sees Catherine as Henry's true wife and only reluctantly serves Anne as a maid. Her gentle nature attracts Henry's attention when he starts to become disillusioned with Anne. Jane rationalizes Henry's attention towards her by thinking that since Anne is not his true wife, it is ok. She also feels that she can bring him back to the Church. Jane's family also push her towards the king in the hopes of obtaining honors and titles as a result.

Weir's series has been interesting so far as it looks more in depth at each queen and focuses on their individual personalty and motivations. This has been a different perspective than other books I have read which make them interesting even though the history and results are well-known. It is also interesting to compare how each Catherine, Anne, and Jane viewed same events from different points of view and beliefs. I look forward to the next one.

Alison Weir is a historian that you can count on to have done her research. This allows her to tell the story of the past in a way the reader can truly enjoy discovering the people who lived centuries ago. In this case it is Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII. While many know the story of Anne Boleyn, many don't know the story of the quiet and devout Jane Seymour. A young girl wanting to serve God and become a Nun, but instead aging to near spinsterhood as a maid to Anne Boleyn, only to become the queen that followed Anne. Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen is the story of how this quiet lady found her place in history, and was loved by one of the most fickle men in history. Discover her story for yourself in the pages of this wonderful book.
One of the things I admire about Ms. Weir, is that at the end of her books, she tells you where she found facts to pass on and where she had to draw conclusions. She will even tell you why she took a certain conclusion and ran with it, when others may not. She is very open and respects the readers with this glimpse into her thought process.

Many thanks go to Ballantine, Alison Weir (one of my all-time favorite authors), and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.I'm a HUGE Weir fan. Have been for years. I read everything by her. Seymour, of this series, has been my least favorite of the three. That may be because she is my least favorite queen. She's always seemed so meek and humble and abused by her family. This book does give more insight into her life than I've ever read. We watch Jane mature in this book. And she is a pawn. But Weir makes her seem more amiable to the situation than otherwise thought. It also discusses her feelings about Boleyn and Jane's death, which I found fascinating. Sadly there just isn't much documented about Jane. She was from a large family and was queen for a very short time. She was beloved because she bore a son. I will say to Weir that I think the idea for this series is just brilliant! I can't wait for Anne of Kleve!

Another great installment in this series about the wives of Henry the VIII. Alison Weir is able to bring each woman to life with her ability to weave fact and fiction to make an encredible book.

Alison Weir provided a few tidbits of which this Anglophile was not aware. I won’t give them away here! This was well researched as always with Weir, and the book kept my interest while bringing Jane more to life than most writers do. Jane is probably the least interesting of Henry’s wives, at least to me, but Weir fleshed out her character and gave a more nuanced portrait than I’ve ever encountered when it comes to Jane. Well done!

To say that I really enjoyed this book would be an understatement. This is one of the best books I EVER read. I would give it 10 stars of I could.

I am a big fan of Alison Weir as a historian. I have read a lot of her books but this is the first book of her's that is more of a novel than a historical book. Although it does try to stay historically accurate as possible. This is the third book in this new series on the wives of Henry VIII. I have already purchased the first two and will be reading them next. I know, out of order but I saw that this book was available for review, so I requested it. I was not disappointed. Thank you, NetGalley!

Full disclosure, I love reading and learning about the British royal family. Especially about the War of the Roses. Ever since I read "The Sunne In Splendour" by Sharon Kay Penman, I have been obsessed with that time period. Richard III is my favorite King. And Henry VII, the usurper, my least favorite. In my opinion, Alison Weir is a staunch supporter of the Tudor's and seems to believe the lie spread by Tudor and his supporters that King Richard III was responsible for the disappearance of the little Princes. Which is totally wrong. Buckingham did the dirty deed. (About our to The Richard III Society.) But I digress, back to the book.

I have read lots of books on Henry VIII and his wives, but not much on Jane Seymour. She was Queen for such a short period and I haven't seen any books devoted to her before this book. Just chapters in books on Henry VIII. But I will start looking for any.

This book covers most of Jane Seymour's life and I was fascinated to read that she had wanted to be a nun since she was a little girl. (Spoiler alert: she doesn't become a nun.) Because of this, her father never tried to arrange a suitable marriage for her. By the time she decided that being a nun was not right for her, she was at the time old age of 19. She had zero experience with men so it was a big change in her life to go from her family home to court to be a lady-in-waiting in the service of Queen Katherine of Aragon.

She became very devoted to Queen Katherine. And this was during the most contentious time in Henry's reign. Queen Katherine had not given Henry a son to carry on the Tudor dynasty. Add to that, there was a upstart lady-in-waiting named Anne Boleyn that was determined to Queen. But first, she had to get rid of the current Queen. A small problem. That lead to the break with the Pope and the Catholic Church in Rome.

A very tense time indeed. And poor, innocent and sweet Jane Seymour was smack dab in the middle of it. Her family was devoted to the Catholic Church but they were also very ambitious. Especially her two brothers Edward and Thomas. They weren't too happy with Jane remains in the service of Queen Catherine, whom King Henry was trying to divorce. They wanted her to join the household of Anne Boleyn, whom Jane did not like.

(Spoiler alert 2: this takes place in the 16th century so they are all deceased.) You will have to read the book to find out what happened to Jane Seymour and the others. But I would suggest reading the first two books first. There is also a book on Elizabeth I that is also on my next to read books. While I'm waiting for book four on Anne of Cleves.

I was provided a complimentary Ebook copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Exactly what I expected from Alison Weir. Excellent research coupled with great storytelling skill. Her characters were believable and well written. Eager to read the other books in the series.

Jane Seymour is probably my least favorite of Henry VIII's wives, but this story actually makes her seem interesting to me! This interpretation of her is so vibrant, it seems hard to square with the mousy girl history often paints her as. Anything Alison Weir writes about Henry's queens is a must-read for me now.

*Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Jane Seymour, the queen Henry seemingly loved the most, had a rather monotonous life. I read this book because I love anything involving the Tudors. That being said, this book really slowed down when Anne died and Jane became queen and I had to sorta push myself to finish. Up until that point I was interested in what was happening, even if Jane was a tad tedious with a super plain personality. The very end did make me sad though.
While the description of the clothes and architecture was, I assume, very accurate, many times my brain read the words and promptly forgot everything.
The writing didn't hold any special quality and relied on the story to carry it.
The dialogue seemed believably old-fashioned and I had to read some sentences twice to understand the awkward wording. No one said "Where fore art thou?"
Since there were only a dozen names to chose from back then, many of the characters and their allegiances blurred together. It's really hard to have sympathy for the women when every little hiccup sends them into a tizzy. And Cromwell, Cranmer, Cornwall, Corn Muffin, man, I could not tell you who did what to save my life.
Overall I was intrigued by what happened and may have happened, but if you're looking for a juicy dramatic story with characters you might actually like, look elsewhere.

Also, I wonder what Jane would've thought about how Mary handled her reign.

This was a fascinating story of Jane Seymour Henry’ the XVIII third queen of England. Alison Weir combines history with the amazing ability to makes her characters seem relatable and complex at the same time. This book is an excellent addition to her other books about the Tudor queens and I highly recommend it!

This is the third in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series.

From the time Jane was a child, she wanted to be a nun, but once at the nunnery, she knew she made a mistake and returned home. From there, she goes to court and catches the eye of King Henry VIII and becomes his third wife.

Weir has written eighteen non-fiction books and seven fiction books all about the British royalty. I was surprised to find this book to be unusually dense. It is obvious she’s done the research, but unfortunately she has the propensity of doing information dumps. Perhaps if she had limited her need to do the dumps the book wouldn’t have been such a dense read and would have, undoubtedly, been shorter.

Despite the above, fans of historical fiction should find this a fascinating read about a little-known Queen of England.

Any Tudorphile needs to read this book! So much has been written on Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn and not enough attention has been paid in the modern era to the other wives of Henry VIII. Like all of Weir's books, this one is a quick read. While there is not enough quantifiable evidence to construct many elements of Jane Seymour's life, the author's interpretation seems plausible and much in line with the time. The intrigue surrounding Henry VIII's court never gets old and each new publication only adds to one's understanding of its complexity. We will never know all of the elements surrounding the demise of Anne or the subsequent rise of Jane, a seemingly inconsequential knight's daughter. Some critics may wish to counter some of the author's decisions, however I feel that Jane was given her deserved dues in this book.

Alison Weir is back with her latest installment of her Six Tudor Queens series, with the intricate portrayal of Jane Seymour. I’ve been a devote follower of the series and Weir’s other fiction and non-fiction works. Weir has the captivating ability to portray elaborate stories of history that completely engrosses me from the very beginning. Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen was no exception.
Jane Seymour was quite the opposite of her predecessor Anne Boleyn, being docile, pure, and kind-hearted. Like Alison Weir’s insightful Author’s Note indicates, very little personal details were documented known about Jane, in her very short three-year reign.
I enjoyed the pace of the book, beginning with Jane’s home life in Wulfhall, to her life in Queen Katherine’s court, following to her reluctant service to Anne Boleyn, to her winning of King Henry VIII’s heart. The story isn’t rushed and I was astonished numerous times at the scandalous happenings on the era.
I found it commendable the details contained in the Author’s Notes where Weir describes what creative liberties she took in writing Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen and why. I would call her fictional writing “faction”, as it very closely illustrates actual historical accounts.
This book is for anyone interested in historical fiction and Tudor history. I devoured most of the novel in one sitting. The plot is full of scandal, secrets, and innocent deception.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me the ARC of this marvelous book. Thank you Alison Weir for once again blessing readers with your amazing talent of writing such eloquent historical fiction novels.

Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen is another wonderful historical fiction novel about England’s Tudor dynasty. This book is ambitious in that it tells the story of Queen Jane, the third and arguably least well documented wife of Henry VIII. Jane Seymour, one of Katherine of Aragon’s maids-in-waiting, loved Katherine and her daughter Princess Mary long after Henry’s pursuit of Anne Boleyn caused Katherine to be put away and ultimately deemed never to have been married to him, leading to her much reduced circumstances and death. Like Katherine’s supporters, Jane was Catholic and Reformist in name and appearances only. Jane Seymour did serve as one of Queen Anne’s maids of honor until Henry VIII, always a philanderer and deeply angered at Anne’s inability to give him a son and heir, led his eye to Jane Seymour. Shortly after Anne’s beheading, Jane Seymour became the third queen. The three years of her reign were among the three most tumultuous in English history staring on the coattails of Queen Anne’s trial, beheading, early days in the Reformation, the Dissolution and peasant uprisings. Anne sought to reunite Henry with both daughters, negotiate the highest female office in the land (for which she was ill prepared, being only the daughter of a knight), calm Henry’s savage beast, and protect the monasteries, all while trying to conceive and bring to term a son and heir. Who wouldn’t be haunted? Queen Jane is well known as the only Queen to bear Henry his desperately desired son. This was a tale well told but even more fascinating was the Afterwords where Weir shared her reasoning behind the plausible story lines. #JaneSeymour #HenryVIII #netgalley #Janeseymour,thehauntedqueen

This is the story of Henry VIII's third queen, Jane Seymour from the time she was a young girl with aspirations of entering a nunnery to serving the king's first two queens to falling in love with and marrying the king and giving birth to his son. The haunted queen is a good way to describe her. She finds herself haunted in many aspects of her life - personally, religiously, socially. I appreciate that the author took the time to remind readers of how the lives of the king's first three wives were intertwined. Anne Boleyn is portrayed as an ambitious, manipulative, jealous queen with a tendency to go off unhinged when she's upset. This helps in emphasizing Jane's goodness and purity that she is well known for. She comes across as kindhearted, gentle woman who is pressured by her family and religious beliefs and forced to make choices that she may not completely agree with. I felt that the pre-marriage romance between Jane and the king was a little too passionate than how I had envisioned that carrying out based on other historical readings I had come across with her character. Overall, good historical fiction approach to Jane Seymour.

Jane Seymour (1508-1537) was the wife of Henry VIII and Queen of England for a very short time, 1536-1537. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as Henry's wife and bore him a son...and died a few days later from birth-related complications.

In The Haunted Queen, Allison Weir continues her Six Tudor Queens saga with Jane's story. The book is a mix of historical fact and fictional story, recounting what might have happened from the time Jane was about 10 years old until her death.

I am a sucker for all things Tudor. And Jane's story, while being less exciting or morbid than the divorces, two beheadings and a survivor, her tale is still fascinating to me. The struggles between the catholic church and the monarchy, the King's long fight for divorce from his first wife, Katherine, the short reign of Anne Boleyn.....and her own marriage to Henry..... Jane lived in very exciting time of change, violence and political rivalries. While I'm glad that I don't live in a similar situation, it is interesting to read about those who did. I can only imagine how scared Anne Boleyn was when she realized her triumph at being named queen was going to end in disaster. And Jane's short-lived joy at birthing a son.

I loved this book! I've read a couple other books by Allison Weir and always enjoy her mix of fact and fiction. It brings Court and all the intrigue to life. I'm not sure why I enjoy reading about Henry VIII's reign so much. He really was a bad king and a narcissistic man bent on having a male successor no matter what the cost. Let alone the irony that most likely it was his sperm and health that caused the problems in the first place.

Fabulous book for those who enjoy historical fiction. This is NOT a romance novel disguised as historical fiction, but a fictionalized account of historical events. Don't expect steamy sex scenes....it's not that sort of book. If you want to read about political intrigue, the jealousies of court, and Jane's short lived marriage to one of the most famous rulers of England....then this book is perfect!

I will definitely be reading more by Allison Weir. I haven't read the first two books in this series yet -- Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen and Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession. There are also several Novellas in the series, including one about Arthur, Henry's older brother and Katherine's first husband. I will definitely be reading this entire series! I can't wait for the next book! Anna of Kleve is up next -- another divorce. (At least she kept her head!!)

**I voluntarily read an advance reader's copy of this book from Random House via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Well, Alison Weir has done it again! I actually enjoyed this book even better than the first two books in her Queens series.
It wasn't that it was written better per say, it's just that there are so many Anne Boleyn novels out there that Tudor fans have read about our beloved Anne over and over again. Katherine of Aragon may be written about less frequently, but once the Great Matter takes over her life, not much else happened to the poor lady and everything just slowed to a standstill for her.

With Jane Seymour, we got to read all of her life and the (very plausible) inner workings of her mind... from childhood through to her days serving as a Maid of Honor to two very different queens, to her audacious courtship with the king, to her marriage and pregnancy... and finally up to the last moments of her life.

What I love about books by Weir is that we get a front seat viewing from various first hand female perspectives to some of the most debated and divisive moments in English history. Though with even the best historical fiction there will be always a measure of artistic license taken, with Alison Weir I always feel like I'm getting as close as possible to the real story and how it likely played out, and 'Jane Seymore: The Haunted Queen' is no exception.

Her innate understanding of the personal and political motivations of the key players in her novels, as well as of the time period itself, lend an authenticity that I appreciate greatly. Too often I check out the newest Tudor fiction and quickly stop reading as I spot this blatant discrepancy and that incorrect fact, etc. This never happens with Alison Weir; the lady knows her stuff and sticking to the true nature of the time period never affects her writing style.

I literally can't wait for the next 3 books!!!