4.5 stars
This is my first time reading a historical fiction novel about a real person that I actually have a decent amount of knowledge on. Where did I get that knowledge, you ask? Why, from The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, of course.

I used to read a lot more historical fiction than I do currently, but I was happy to get back to it with this book. Since I read history as well, I have a bad habit of picking apart the inaccurate details in most historical fiction’s. So where can I expect accuracy in abundance? Why, from a historian of course! Now I realize I can’t necessarily use the word “accurate“ for the dialogue, since a word for word transcript doesn’t exist. But it all read as very plausible to me. As I would expect from this author everything is very well written. While I have read quite a few of Weir’s history books, this is my first fiction from her, but will certainly not be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

Katharine Parr is twice a widow and childless when she is elevated to be Henry VIII's sixth (and ultimately final) queen). While she is nursing a passionate love of her own, with the young Prince Edward's uncle, Thomas Seymour, she feels called to the position in order to guide the king to embrace Protestantism. While their time together was relatively short, Henry and Katharine made an effective pair, and she made an impact on a reign that had seen much chaos and bloodshed. But when Henry passes away, and Katharine finally gets what she thinks she's always wanted, she is beset by trials, heartache, and a tragic end.

I enjoyed this novelization of Henry VIII's final, surviving queen. Weir draws her beautifully with a lot of dimension and complexity. To a 21st century reader, a lot of her attitudes seem terrible (thinking in particular of her attitude toward her husband's molestation of Elizabeth), but in historical fiction, I think that's good. I hate when authors make their subjects anachronistically progressive in order to make them palatable to modern readers. And at the same time, she was a great promoter of education and intellectual development for women, and threaded the needle of court politics effectively, becoming a favorite of all of her stepchildren despite their differing religious views. A complex book for a complex person. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Books for the ARC. Once again Allison Weir does it again. She so easily breathes life into her stories and transports the readers back in time. This is historical fiction at its best. Definitely will recommend this book too.

Review
It’s obvious that an incredible amount of research went into this exhaustive novel of Katharine Parr’s life. Parr is the wife I always forget; the mysterious woman who outlived Henry VIII by only a year despite her comparative youth. I had no idea that she was already twice widowed and in her thirties by the she became Henry’s final spouse. Parr remains the most married English queen, remarrying less than a year after Henry’s death.

Parr is known for her Protestantism and religious views that were not yet safe during Henry’s twilight years. This account highlights how those beliefs may have begun; her religious convictions form the majority of the novel, outside the quotidian tedium. I frequently felt impatient with the length of the novel and its dedication to detail, but this is a result of historical accuracy and scholarly enthusiasm on behalf of the author. I’d recommend it for someone looking for a deep dive into what daily life was like for a noblewoman commonly living outside of court life.

Many thanks to Ballantine Books for a free copy! Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the final book in Alison' Weir's series about Henry VIII's wives, and while Katharine is easily one of Henry's most compelling wives – far more compelling than Katherine Howard, although I will always love K. Howard! – this book was easily the most boring. The creative liberties that Weir chose to take with Katharine's plot don't make the story better, in my opinion, and when she stays true to history, she doesn't make it much of a story worth telling.

In all, Katharine deserved better, and I was disappointed by this. Two stars.

I just love Alison Weir! Her books are so well researched and this one was up to the high standards of her previous works! Katharine Parr is one of Henry VIII's wives, and it's always been a time in history I am fascinated with! I really enjoyed reading this book, and I feel like I learned so much!!

I actually enjoyed this one more than K was expecting. Maybe because Katherine Parr had more happen before she was married, but this one definitely didn't drag as much as the previous ones.

Surprisingly,I thought this was a fairly accurate account of Katherine Parr's life.There are a few debatable scences in here but the one that really stuck out to me was Katherine's confrontation with Elizabeth over Thomas Seymour.To my knowledge I think Elizabeth was too intelligent to ever say that Thomas preferred her to Katherine.I think I broke up laughing at that point in the book.On the other hand Ms. Weir seemed to have captured Thomas and Katharine's relationship as volatile which seemed in keeping with the historical record.As for Katherine I felt this was a sympathetic portrayal where the author managed to bring out her personal qualities quite well.Overall I enjoyed it and it has been my favorite of the series.Much thanks to Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Henry VIII was neither her first nor her last husband, yet it’s Katharine Parr’s status as his sixth wife, naturally, that commands the most attention. Weir’s admirable conclusion to her best-selling Six Tudor Queens series reveals Katharine as a woman of intellect, kindness, and strategic acumen who plays the long game to attain her heart’s desires. Twice-widowed when she marries Henry, she brings a diverse range of experiences to her queenship. Weir smoothly knits all these life segments together, showing how Katharine’s background shapes her character and beliefs. Raised in a loving family that respects women’s education, she first weds a nobleman’s son and, second, an older Catholic baron. The story strikes a clear path through the complicated political and religious circumstances of 1520–40s England as the action sweeps from Lincolnshire to Yorkshire during the Pilgrimage of Grace to dazzling London. In choosing Henry over personal happiness, Katharine, secretly Protestant, seeks to guide the realm in that direction. She comes to love the king despite his age and infirmities, but influential women tend to acquire enemies. Weir handles Katharine’s relations with her stepchildren with realistic nuance as well as how Henry’s death leads Katharine into intense romantic intrigue. This wide-ranging novel expertly showcases Katharine’s courageous, eventful life and many noteworthy accomplishments.

(Published in Booklist, 4/15/21 issue)

As someone who really enjoys not only just historical fiction, but Tudor fiction in the realm of Philippa Gregory and also Weir’s previous works in the Wives of Henry VIII series, being able to read this book was so wonderful and interesting to be allowed to do. Katharine Parr is an interesting character, as Weir has so meticulously researched and developed. As the last wife of Henry VIII, she was unlike his other wives in that she had been previously married, and was beloved by him and his children for a time as well.
Weir is not only a historical fiction writer but also a historian and her portrayal of Katharine Parr is second to none.
The story starts before her marriage to the King, and led us through a history that was absolutely confounding, and I found myself really sympathizing with her for her plight throughout the story.
Weir also makes the story accessible for 20th century women because it frames the goings on in the story differently than previous books have done.
I greatly loved this book and would definitely suggest it to anyone who wants to learn more about her life, but in a great historical fiction way.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Alison Weir’s Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife is the story of Katharine Parr, Henry the VIII’s sixth and final wife. Through her books, Weir makes history come alive. These are no longer just people we read about in history books, but people who lived, cared about others, made mistakes, and were human. This well-researched and beautifully written novel is a must for anyone who enjoys reading about the Tudors and fans of historical fiction. Well done, Alison Weir! I can’t wait to read what you write next.

I’m rating this book in two halves with the first half being 5 stars and the second being 3 stars, and I suspect that many people will feel the opposite! I was really eager to learn more about Katharine’s life before marrying Henry as I knew that she had been widowed before but didn’t know any more than that. While I understand Weir had to be more creative than historically accurate with this part due to the lack of material available, I enjoyed her approach and imagination (in the afterword she mentions that she used other contemporary sources to influence what some of these characters “could have” been like to reflect the times). I think other readers might find this part of the book to be boring as it is quite long, but I also think it’s important to illustrate why the second half of the book is puzzling to me.

It’s well-understood that Katharine wanted to marry Thomas Seymour and had to put that on hold due to Henry’s interest in her. I liked that Weir explored the theme of Katharine coming to terms with marrying Henry as her calling to help aid the cause of religious reform, something which becomes a clear arc for her character early on. As her dedication to reform ultimately lands her in a dangerous position with the King and the machinations of Gardiner, we see how clever she is deferring to Henry’s “superior intellect” in a move that likely saved her from being his next victim. It’s at this moment that we fully understand just how smart Katharine is.

So it’s especially surprising following Henry’s death how quickly Katharine turns into a goggle-eyed teen over Seymour. While I’m sure there’s something to be said for being “blinded by love,” we see Seymour make so many bad decisions it’s difficult to reconcile Katharine’s acceptance of his selfishness and egomania. At the very end we see some of her anger come forward at the point it can no longer have any consequence. I would have liked to see more introspection, more difficult conversations between Katharine and Seymour, how his actions hurt her, if she felt she’d made a mistake in marrying him. It’s not difficult to assume that she may have felt this way given the point that she was at in her life: she was finally able to marry for love, is this what she expected? Given that she was so intelligent, it must have been hard to watch him make terrible choices, but in this book we see that she often agrees with them and feeds his jealousy.

In the afterword Weir mentions that she hadn’t read about Katharine for almost 30 years and it made me wonder how this book might have been different if Katharine had maybe been her favorite of Henry’s wives. I’m sad that this series is over and I did enjoy reading this book even if I would have liked to see Katharine portrayed in a different way.

This was a fresh look into the life of the last queen of Henry VIII and one of Alison Weir’s best fiction books. Everything rang true to life. I felt like I was lost in Katherine’s life. This time she wasn’t only the tired widow who signed on to nurse Henry in the twilight of his life. We saw her when she was young and vibrant and beginning to question her religious beliefs. We also saw her as a loving wife in her earlier marriages and as well as the dowager queen. This was a wonderful end to a very enjoyable series.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

I have always been a fan of novels set in Tudor England. When Alison Weir had stated that she would write a series of books about each of Henry's wives I was excited and curious about what she would contribute. Each year I eagerly awaited a new book in the series and was not disappointed. Finally we have reached the end with Katharine Parr, a woman who I knew little about. This book was wonderful, really taking you into the mind of a woman who already twice married caught the eye of an aging king and torn between duty and true love chose duty foremost. An excellent conclusion to the series and I am excited to see what Weir will

Katherine Parr, The Sixth Wife (and the last in Alison Weir's series on Henry VIII's wives) is well researched and well written. If you are familiar with Katherine Parr, you won't learn much that's new, but if you don't know much about her, this book will give you depth and insight into the deeply religious, intelligent woman who was instrumental in influencing changes in the Church of England, and who managed to survive marriage with the capricious Henry the VIII without losing her head.

Alison Weir's 6 Tudor Queens series wraps up with Katharine Parr. Katharine was Henry VIII's final wife and as usual she had her own drama. She was Protestant leaning in Henry's reformist movement from the Catholic church, even though full Protestant was seen as heresy and punishable by death. Parr was his wife at his death, and a wonderful stepmother to his 3 children. Parr is still the most married queen consort as she was married 4 times with Henry being her third husband.
Weir has spent decades researching the Tudors and it shows in her books. They are well written and interesting to read. I do wonder if she gives these queens their personalities in the books or if she sees their personalities through her research. Parr seemed to be well loved by most people that spent any time around her, yet I felt she came across as arrogant, or at least a know it all. Thank you #NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to give my voluntary and honest opinion on #KatherineParrTheSixthWife.

Delicious, as all of Alison Weir's work have been thus far. A little lower-key than the other five books, perhaps, but I suppose that's to be expected from a queen who was also...dare I say "less vivacious"?...than her predecessors.

(My longer, diary-style review is available on Goodreads.)

An excellent wrap up of the Six Tudor Queens series. Alison Weir novels are so well researched and I learned so much about this time period and the Tudors and Henry VIII. She makes the wives of Henry come alive in each novel. I cannot wait to read some of her other novels.

Alison Weir winds up her fictional study of Henry VIII's six wives with "Katharine Parr, the Sixth Wife." It's fictional because this is a novel, and because like so many women in the period, we only know the bare outlines of their lives. More is known about Katharine Parr than Kathryn Howard (whose birthdate is unknown) but there is still lot for a historian/novelist like Weir to fill in.

Katharine is different from the other wives in that there are fewer connivers around her, she was older, and she was more educated. By the time she met Henry, she had been widowed twice and was just about to announce her engagement to Thomas Seymour, a man with whom she had truly fallen in love. But when the King takes an interest, a woman cannot say no. Knowing that Henry was ill and did not have a long life ahead, they put their plans off.

The marriage of Katharine and Henry was a happy one. They liked each other, she did a lot of work to give his children a mother (although Mary was already 29) and create a warm household. Henry could discuss matters of religion with her, as long as she always conceded to his kingly knowledge. She took his New Religion to heart and even a step forward, believing that everyone had the right to read the Bible in their own language. This brought her closer to Lutheranism, and her enemies were listening at the keyhole.

Henry's other wives fell because of their passions, but Katharine approached the brink because of her intellect. There were many in Henry's court who wanted to return to Catholicism and kept sharp eyes out for people who got too close to the teaching to Martin Luther. Katharine and a number of her ladies gathered to read forbidden texts. With Henry's power waning, she came oh, so close, to being arrested and burned.

But she wasn't. After Henry's death, she secretly marries Tom Seymour before her mourning period is out. And, after being married to three other men with no issue, she becomes pregnant. If you need another sad Tudor story, look into what happened to their little girl, Mary, after Katharine dies in childbed and Seymour is executed for treason.

Alison Weir, what historical period will you take on next to weave into novels? I've enjoyed every book in this series and am excited to find out!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this excellent series.

~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader

This book was okay. Since I knew the story of Catherine Parr, it was pretty much like reading a book I had already read. But if you haven't read the story, you're going to like it. I thought Katherine 's book was better.