"The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women" has an interesting premise, but it fell rather flat for me.

The author focuses on really interesting real-life women but instead of detailing their history and accomplishments, each mini chapter wasted space on detailed descriptions of their dress and supposed emotions at at certain point in time that the author could only speculate on.

I have always been fascinated by history and I found this text to be so compelling. I learned so much and I am in awe at the brilliance of these women.

I love Amy License’s biographies! Therefore, I really wanted to love this because it focused on many women that have not been talked about before. However, I really did not learn anything from this book. The biographies are glossed over that it doesn’t mention any details in their lives. Instead, it is just one main event in each of their lives. I found that I could get more information about them on Wikipedia, which is not a scholarly website, than from an acclaimed historian. Thus, it was very lazy writing! Overall, this book was a disappointment and could have been much better!

This was such a fascinating read that I found hard to put down.. The author has clearly carried out extensive research and it clearly shows. What I found so interesting was the stories of ordinary women as well as the more famous ones that we know about. A great read that I know I will read again

An interesting concept but I find it ironic that many of these women’s lives were summarized by a key interaction with men. For example, Catherine of Aragorn’s chapter focuses exclusively on her marriage to Arthur, their wedding night, and King Henry VIII’s use of it to eventually annul their marriage. Another chapter discusses the nameless prostitute that may or may not have been at a party for the pope. These glimpses are interesting but not enough of the story. It seems the author may have done better to focus on fewer women in more depth or to worry less about putting them in a chronological order by forcing focus on one important event in their lives. Interesting book and women but perhaps not a book for everyone.

I received a free ARC of this book. The formatting of the book on kindle was incorrect and this made it difficult and less enjoyable to read. This frustration has not impacted my rating but feels worth noting since it is a problem I hope the publisher would want to be aware of and fix for its readers.

This retelling of the sixteenth century introduces the reader to a gallery of amazing women, from queens to commoners, who navigated the patriarchal world in memorable and life-changing ways.

"So often, history is presented as a series of male events, with women as appendages necessary for the continuation of the dynasty..."

This is a great book for people who love history but are bogged down by literary biographies! I wasn't familiar with most of the women mentioned in the book and the biographies are short, digestible entries that scratch the surface of complex European history. It's a great way to learn about new historical figures and see whose lives you might actually be more invested in before reading a more in depth and academic nonfiction.

Thanks to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

An interesting read about women in the Tudor dynasty. This covered a lot and it was well researched and written overall. This is a good introduction to this period in history and it would spark reader’s interest to find out more.

This is such a cool book and the stories were definitely interesting. My biggest issue is that even though I minored in women's studies and love the topic, there are only so many biographies you can read in a row before you feel a little cross eyed. It might be better in some sort of format like a woman a week (so 52 instead of 100) in a calendar or daily journal or something.

Amy Licence does an amazing job bringing history to life. This book was truly a treasure and a delight. It's a book I could definitely see myself revisiting in the future.

There were quite a few women written about that I hadn't heard of before. Some unknown or nearly forgotten to history, and it was wonderful learning about them. Many were women who were well known to me, and this brought a new perspective to their stories.

I enjoyed each and every chapter of this book and each and every woman's story told.

If you are at all interested in women's history, then this is a must-read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Very interesting and informative book about early women. Not only was this a well written book but it delved into the lives and struggles of woman who were important and historically significant!

I thought this book was full of amazing women throughout history. It's beautifully written and incredibly detail oriented. I really enjoyed reading this book.

While this was an interesting read, I wanted to know more about women throughout Europe and the rest of the world. It felt very focused in women based in England and France. I understand these were the power houses at the time and not much was written about women, but I feel like more research could've been done.

I didn’t know most of the women in this book and I am so glad I was introduced to them. There were many from Europe but many also came from all over the world. They were rich, unnamed or famous. I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter as it showed me someone new who impacted her world and those around her. This was a surprise and a delight to discover.

I received an arc via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

Amy Licence has done it again. A fabulous book, at the same time entertaining and educating.
The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women includes those you would expect, the six wives of Henry VIII, Mary I, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. But you will also find women you are not so familiar with, Caterina Sforza, a maid of honour at Eltham palace and the women of the Devonshire Manuscript. Amy Licence also stretches her reach further afield, to include women from Morocco, Japan, Nigeria and Chile.
The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women provides a snapshot of a wide range of women over one century, from lowly prostitutes to great queens. And it is a truly fascinating book.

The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women is a nonfiction book that presents 100 mini biographies of 100 women throughout the 16th century. I thought this book seemed like an interesting overview of a turbulent period of time and was excited to read it!

I started out really enjoying this book! I liked that the author included women from outside of Europe and women in a variety of occupations and settings. While it is not one woman per year, there is a time progression and women are featured at specific points when they are prominent, not necessarily their birth or death date. I thought this was really cool way to order the book and I liked seeing when the author decided to include some of the more famous women of the century.

My main issue, as you might have guessed, is that 100 mini biographies is a lot of mini biographies. I got about 30% through and then felt like I was reading 100 Wikipedia articles. This isn't really a problem because I do enjoy reading Wikipedia (and have read the Wikipedia on many of these women!), but it's tough to do for almost 300 pages. This might be a me problem but if you see the title and have a similar thought, this might not be the book for you. I would also recommend skipping around if you are only interested in specific areas!

Overall, I liked the premise of this book and the way that it was written and presented. It was a little too repetitive for me to have really enjoyed reading it, but I'm glad that I did! 3.5 stars from me rounded down to 3. Thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The entries are short. The women covered are from all over the world. I would have liked the book better if there were fewer women and more information on each person. Maybe breaking up the book into multiple volumes to cover all the women. As it is it works as a nice introduction to the various histories.

Overall this book was pretty interesting...I'm not the biggest student of history, so many of these women were unknown to me other than the ones that already have much written about them. I understand that in the past (even now somewhat) that the contributions of women weren't deemed noteworthy, so it's nice finding extra pieces to add to the puzzle when found.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

SO MANY FASCINATING WOMEN TO DIVE INTO!

As someone who loves female history and has a passion for the Tudor dynasty, this book was right up my alley. Licence does a great job of bringing these amazing women back to life. The variety of women was really good, apart from it being a bit Anglo-centric. I think more could have been done to find interesting women from other countries. But I really liked this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the women who shaped our history.

This book perfectly captures the extraordinary lives of women across the 16th century. The short chapters made it really easy to read, although I would have loved for them to be a little longer. I learned a lot and it definitely left me wanting to know more!