Studying history in college and graduate school, I was aware of Lambert Simnel and his role in the reign of Henry VII. What I loved about this novel is the author's portrayal of a little known person. We know bare facts about Lambert and he was so young when he was put forth as the true heir to the throne of England. What was he like? Did he want to be King? Or was he a convenient candidate?

Jo Harkin does a beautiful job of submerging the reader into the world of the War of the Roses. Yorks, Lancasters, Tudors - it is all there. She breathes life and soul into Lambert (aka John, aka Simnel, aka Edward) and makes the reader care about the outcome of what happens to him. I loved the portrayal of all the characters and the language used made one feel they were back in 15th century England. A good read that I will definitely pass along!

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and Netgallery for and advanced copy of The Pretender in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: John Collan is an unsuspecting son of farmer Will Collan, or so he thinks. John is dealing with normal concerns, you know...like dealing with a wicked goat. Until someone comes to his village, and he learns his true identity: he is Edward, Duke of Warwick, alleged heir to the throne. This throne, however, is currently occupied by reigning king, Henry VII. Henry, who has a knack for murdering those that threaten his reign (enter the Princes in the Tower). This story follows Edward through the phases of his life and is packed full of intrigue, conspiracies, love, loss, friendship, and the constant search for identity.

What I liked: Historical fiction is not one of my usual genres, but I have been wanting to branch out. What I appreciated about this work is that although the protagonist gets put through the wringer, there is an overall humor to his perspective and the writing. I also appreciate that this was based around a real person (i.e., Simnel) and the book appeared to be well-researched. I cannot speak to the historical accuracy but also feel like it's not necessary since this is historical fiction.

Overall: Would definitely recommend for people who are fans of the Tudors and historical fiction.

Rating: 4/5

I would like to thank Net Galley and Knopf Publishing for the opportunity to read this as an ARC.I love historical fiction and was excited to read this. I was not as excited when I finished it. It was long, slow moving and difficult to read. The writing style was ponderous and florid. It just wasn't for me.

I had only read 1/10th of this book and in that span I had laughed out loud multiple times and also cried actual tears. So I knew pretty early on that this was going to be an absolute banger. I love being right.

This is the story of Lambert Simnel, a lesser known figure in 15th century British history. He was a Plantagenet pretender who actually briefly held the throne as “King Edward VI” in 1487. Very little is known about this man, other than that he succeeded in duping the British nobility and of course the fallout afterwards, but where did he come from and why and HOW on earth did he do it?

The Pretender is one very detailed and entertaining theory that answers those questions, following Simnel from boyhood to his kingship, including a colorful cast of characters who “help” and handle him on his bumbling course to the throne. My favorites were the women who played a pivotal role in this grand scheme, and the many other clever, dramatic plots that unfolded along the way. This is a rare book that manages to be authentic, irreverent, and bawdy but also so very wise and heartfelt.

Before this triumph, Jo Harkin was more known for her literary sci-fi. It’s always so impressive and exciting to me when an author branches out like this and absolutely crushes it. If you love learning about history, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel or Matrix by Lauren Groff, or just reading about people who call others things like “cheese-headed doorposts”, I think you’ll love this book as much as I did.

I read this through Netgalley after it was blurbed by the author of The Whalebone Theatre, which I enjoyed. This was a really enjoyable novel about basically a footnote in history, but brought to life with wit and charm in the style of maybe Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, or The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. The first 50-70% is about, we’ll call him Edward’s, time being trained and preparing for the monarchy. But the final 30% is more of a revenge novel, though not as dramatic as The Count of Monte Cristo. As it’s not out yet, I’m not allowed to quote from it, but I really enjoyed Harkin’s writing style and laughed out loud at how acerbic some of these characters were in their sarcasm. I also loved her prose probing at how we decide who is who they say they are. How do you really know who you are? Blood? Character? Something else altogether? I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction or who feels like they’d like to try out the genre.

Ugh, this book was just *chef's kiss*.

I'll preface my review with a disclaimer: I don't think this book is for everyone. If it does happen to be for you, it's going to blow you away. If not, it's possible that you'll hate it. That being said, here's why it was absolutely, 100% for me:

1. This story covers the latter part of the Wars of the Roses, when Henry VII has taken the throne and is busy being paranoid that everyone in his court is going to betray him. I LOVE the Wars of the Roses, and I'll devour pretty much any book that covers this topic. However, it's a very complicated part of history. If you find yourself getting lost in the plotting and having a hard time keeping track of all the different conspirators, it isn't the author's fault: it really was that complicated. That being said, I think Jo Harkin does a pretty good job laying the story out. You have to pay attention, but if you do, stuff generally makes sense.
2. This book brings to life a character who is given only a brief mention in history. Simnel was the face of a rebellion against Henry VII, but we know very little about who he really was. His backers (nobles who were still loyal to the Yorks) claimed that he was the son of a former York King's brother. More likely, this wasn't true. But Jo Harkin dances around this mystery in a genius way: even the main character never knows whether he is truly a royal descendent by the end. I love stories that pull one small note from history and give them more context.
3. The writing is so unique! The story is told with a lot of old-timey language, and happens to include a lot of irreverent, "bawdy" humor. This can be a bit jarring when you start, but you get used to it quickly, and I personally found parts of the story to be quite funny.
3. The main narrator is FANTASTIC. It isn't often that the protagonist is my favorite, because they usually get sacrificed in order to move the plot forward. However, John/Edward/Simnel was such a compelling character. Even when he starts doing some questionable things, you still can't help but love him. All I wanted to do at the end was give him a hug.
4. I thought this book did an excellent job showcasing a single character's growth, but in the opposite direction: a slow descent into emotionless despair. Simnel is certainly something very different from the innocent boy he started out as by the time you get to the end. The pacing of this journey is perfect, and somehow, you don't end up hating him at the end, even when it seems like his morals have been compromised. How Jo Harkin managed that, I'll never understand, but I adored it.

LOVED this book, and so excited for other like-minded readers to get to enjoy it when it comes out too!

The Pretender is a fictionalized history of Lambert Simnel, a boy swept up in a king-making scheme. Simnel’s temporary claim, historically, had always been a highly implausible possibility, but I think in recent years Prince Edward’s body was discovered, several centuries after his imprisonment and “mysterious” disappearance (murder).

I love a fictionalized history, and since my knowledge of English history during this period is practically non-existent (I’m more a House of Wessex/Norman conquest era girlie), I was really excited to pick a few things up through the story of this boy who, despite being the center of the tumult of a challenge to the throne, was little more than a footnote.

In this story, Lambert Simnel is a name invented by John Collan, the intellectually curious and kind-hearted youngest son of farmer Will Collan. One day, a man arrives to whisk John away to study at Oxford. Along the way, he is told that he is not truly John Collan, but the Earl of Warwick, claimant to the throne. We follow Lambert through his studies and training in the ways of courtly manners and deceptions. Older than the real Lambert Simnel was at the time of the rebellion, we follow him through the embarrassment of puberty and the pain of falling in love.

Jo Harkin’s Lambert is someone you find yourself rooting for at every step. His first steps into this farce are a tragedy, because you watch John lose his family and his identity. When he becomes Edward, we watch him agonize over how he just wants everyone he cares about to be happy and at peace. He does not aspire to be the king. He just wants to not disappoint the people who have put their hopes in him. When he falls in love with Joan while staying with Kildare, he’s ready to abdicate all of it, finally finding a reason that weighs against that disappointment.

It feels like a tragedy when he’s defeated, though Joan is right that he is far too soft-hearted to rule. He feels it like a personal failing, like it was he who led to Lincoln’s death, the death and ruin of so many others. We watch his relationship with God and morality change, starting the story as a boy always striving to be devout and good, and becoming disillusioned, not because of his own misfortunes—not because he was taken away from his family, not because he failed to become king—but because along his journey, innocent and kind people were hurt. For the sake of him. Sometimes for his choices, often for choices made for him. He is angry at the senselessness of it all, and while we all feel this from time to time, we’ve reached a period in our own history where that feeling is a constant for many.

John/Lambert/Edward/Simnel loses everything. Family, happiness, love, God, and then even his hate once he finds revenge tepid and pointless. Harkin, though, allows something good to sprout from those ashes once again, though, over time. He decides that instead of being no one, he’s a bit of every one of those people, and whoever that man is can be someone entirely new. That end, the life we hope he gets to live, doesn’t align with what we believe we know about the real Lambert Simnel, but after spending so much of his life alongside him, it feels like the least we can do for him.

I highly, highly recommend this to anyone who’s into this time period and doesn’t mind a little fiction in their history, or to anyone who just enjoys this type of historical fiction. Also, if you’re anything like me, be prepared to get really emotional. I feel like I cried throughout this way more than was warranted.

A huge thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

I really loved this book. The reader is carried along on an intriguing, suspenseful and often humorous adventure in the life of John/Lambert/Simnel/Edward, who is being raised in protective anonymity as the future king of England. The overall story is interesting, and I also enjoyed the details of everyday living in that time. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and AA Knopf for this free copy of "The Pretender."

I'm still deep in my historical fiction reading and think I mentioned that the Tudors have always fascinated me. So I wanted to read this story about Lambert Simnel who was supposedly Edward IV's nephew (cousin to the Princes in the Tower) and challenged Henry VII for the crown.

Knowing that royals did sometimes send their children away to be fostered makes this whole scenario plausible. We meet Lambert as a child named John Cullan where he lives an idyllic life on a farm. The villagers all speculate about his "father" Will and the source of his wealth, though.

But then a nobleman comes to the farm, telling John that he's really the nephew of Edward IV and he needs to go to Oxford to study and then reclaim the throne.

Although it's lengthy, what I loved about this book was displaying all of Lambert's emotions: confusion, fright, love, pride, courage. He has to deal with the fact that he'll never know who he is and he has to decide for himself who he wants to be.

I was hooked from the beginning! The story draws you in and you can't put it down!

Normally I'm not big on coming-of-age stories but this was an exception!

Thank you so much Jo Harkin, NetGalley, and Knopf publishing for the opportunity to read this novel!

The Pretender was a page-turner that I could not put down. This wickedly funny historical story is a work of genius. I was truely transported as a time traveler and could feel, smell and taste this richly drawn novel. I loved it!

I don't even know where to begin. From the jump, this book had me by the throat. With whimsical, hysterical, wondrous prose, Jo Harkin sold my heart to John Collan, a protagonist the reader cannot help but root for as his world is turned upside-down over and over and over again. As the reins of his life are wrested so firmly out of his grasp at the tender age of ten, it is impossible not to root for him, to yearn with him for his happiness and peace, to feel his dread as it becomes more and more likely that those things will never come to him. It is a feat of character writing to have a protagonist actively getting worse as a person, making increasingly desperate and destructive decisions, and for the reader to cheer for his cruel and often deadly attempts to finally regain control of his own fate. (Or was that just me? Am I the psychopath?) In a typical coming-of-age story, the young protagonist will make decisions that an older reader will look at with self-deprecating, indulgent humor—of COURSE you're doing the dumbest thing imaginable, you're fifteen—but the realities of John/Lambert/Simnel/Edward's life are so extraordinary and impossible to imagine that it feels foolish to try and pass judgement on any choice he makes. The only thing to do is follow along and hope for the best.

These extraordinary and impossible realities are reflected so perfectly in Harkin's extraordinary and impossible prose. Fifteenth-century slang, expert poetic technique, and clever wordplay come together to create a language both hilarious and heartbreaking simultaneously, entirely unique to this world. Harkin does not spend much time on specific visual descriptions of people, places, and things, and instead spends time creating an atmosphere that reflects the whirlwind chaos and devastation of the protagonist's life. I'm thinking specifically of the breathless horrors of war and the blood-pumping final confrontation that left me haunted. I dreaded the end of this book because I wouldn't just miss John, I'd miss the gorgeous prose Harkin used to bring him to life.

My only regret with regards to this book is that I'm forced to limit my rating to a mere five stars. I finished this book just over twelve hours ago and I've already recommended it to two people, and now I'm recommending it to you. This is a masterpiece of a novel that I cannot wait to read again someday.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor- Knopf for an advance copy of this historical novel about a young man who finds out that everything he thought about himself was a lie, and how this lie follows him throughout his life, effecting his relationships with everyone.

I have always been interested in the argument about nature vs nurture. Certain people like to thing that we are born to be a certain way. Royals act royal. Poor people are poor to the bone. However history is loaded with so-called elites who bled out from hemophilia, died in accidents, or lead their kingdoms to ruin. So does birthright really make the person, or does the life around the person make the future. What also happens when a life is upended, when a person is content with their lot in life is told that all this is lie. Your family isn't your birth family, you are no longer a peasant, but a royal heir. Especially in a time when royal heirs have a habit of disappearing. The Pretender by Jo Harkin is a historical novel about a real person, who went from being a peasant to being a pawn in a game of kings, though never feeling as if he belonged in either world.

The year is 1480 Stories travel around the countryside about King Richard, his battles and the nephews that Richard have placed in the Tower of London. To John Collan, all of ten years old, this means little. Living with his father a wealthy farmer, things are good for him, though his mother has died, and his brothers have gone to school, leaving him alone. John's only problem is a goat who hates him, and a fear that his father's wealth was given to him a bargain with dark forces. Within a short period of time John's live changes. His father marries a local widow, and John is told that a benefactor has offered to pay his way to school. However he must leave immediately. Accompanied by two men, John Collan learns he is not the son of Will Collan, but the proper heir to the Duke of Clarence, deceased, brother of King Richard. John, now called Lambert Simnel was hidden away to keep him safe, the man he thought his father paid for his care. Now Lambert will be educated in the ways of an heir to the throne. Lambert attends Oxford, travels to Burgandy and soon Ireland, also feeling a sense that he is not what he is anymore. That somehow he is a pretender in his own life.

A very good novel, based on a real character in history, but expanded and fictionalized. The novel starts with a verse and throws the reader and character right in, immersing both in the world and story. The language that Harkin uses is ripe, raw and of the time, but easy to distinguish. There is a lot going on here, with a plot that expands as the book does, but does not get lost, nor lose the reader. Lambert is an interesting character at turns sympathetic, a bit of a jerk, at lose in the world he finds himself in, and very much interested in many different things. The writing though really is the star, the way that Harkin carries the plot along, dropping subtle hints that explain the motivations of characters. Especially in the female characters.

Hilary Mantel is the first thought of what these books reminded me of. A. S. Byatt also. The writing, the use of history are really well done. A book for people who love words as well as history, and enjoy stories that a reader can really get lost in.

A compelling historical fiction from the Tudor period that will enchant anyone fascinated with the time period. Reminded me almost of an adult version of the book "The False Prince." I can absolutely envision this being an incredibly popular book.

This was truly a spectacular read. Descriptions from others compare The Pretender to Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and I agree but I would say it’s closer to Hamnet in that it’s a book with lots of vibes. It’s character driven and explores a more day to day life of our protagonist. Are there things what happen? Absolutely! We follow our protagonist who assumes multiple names throughout the novel from John to Lambert to Simnel to Edward. He’s raised at first by a farmer and then one day is life changes forever as he is told he’s the only living son of the Earl of Warwick, the true heir to the throne of England, and thus starts our protagonist’s story of being molded into a symbol of rebellion. I was sucked in from the first page and was completely absorbed into Simnel’s world. It’s a truly remarkable novels with great characters and attention to detail and the women? Joan, Margaret of York, Beatrice? Truly compelling written characters. I recommend this book for readers who love a good historical novel but also enjoys a good romp!

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

Historical fiction at its best. This book had two of my favorite features: 1) a super duper deep dive into a completely obscure footnote of history that brings that time period to life in a vivid way; 3) takes a time period that is often thought of as stodgy and stuffy and writes it in a totally raunchy, hilarious, profane in a way that feels so fresh.

I loved this novel so much. Loved the protagonist’s voice, outlook, and delightful narration. This was a joy to read, even through the dark parts, of which there were plenty, It was a longer read, but it didn’t lose my interest. Recommending it to fans of Hillary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell feels perfect—those are two of my favorites and I’d put Jo Harkin right up there with them now.

This book is a fictional work based on the life of Lambert Simnel (John), who was the alleged successor of Richard III, but pretended his way through succession. This brings an interesting take on how he came to be on the throne, as well as how his life came to be during his time before and on his way to the throne itself as the heir. The prose within this work allowed me to channel back into the time in which these events took place. It was definitely a page turner, and I highly recommend this to anyone who wishes to immerse themselves into a new and incredible take on a quite unknown figure in English history during the 15th century.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an early-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book hooked me from the beginning. As a fan of Hilary Mantel I had high hopes this novel would pull me out of a short reading slump, and it did just that. I loved that the novel included characters plucked from history in an era of history I always find interesting, the rise of the Tudors and the end of the Plantagenets. It will be easy to recommend this book not only to readers of historical fiction, but to anyone who craves a good story well told.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me a pre-approved copy of this book!

DNF @ 77%

I really wanted to love this one- I think that I am currently in a huge reading slump, and this just didn't do me any favors. I have never read a book like this before, and so I thought perhaps since I was pre-approved, I would give something like this a shot. I love historical fiction and I think this period of history is really fascinating, but it was just right out of my range of things I typically enjoy, and it didn't hold me. I think along with a reading slump, I've been really emotionally wrecked lately, and this book made me unbearably sad. About 20% of the way through, it actually made me cry and I had to take a break from reading. It's really not particularly graphic or tragic, I was just really moved by this young boy who was completely alone in the world, with no context for his life or mentors to hold on to. It just hit me at a weird time, and I guess that speaks to the author's ability to get a reaction out of a reader. I wanted to stick with it, but as it went on, I felt less and less inclined to pick this back up. As with almost everything that I don't finish on Netgalley, this book is going to find its perfect readers and others are going to love this. There is so much here for a history buff to adore, an immersive world and interesting set pieces. It's just not for me!