This is the second book of Eleanor Hibbert’s, aka Jean Plaidy, that I’ve tried, and I have to say, I stop here. The King’s Secret Matter is just the same as The Shadow of the Pomegranate, there’s no change in style or quality. Plaidy’s historical fiction novels seem to be characterised by incredibly dry, unimaginative, dull writing that add nothing to the genre. Historical events are vastly oversimplified or skipped over entirely. Historical personages are reduced to one-dimensional stock caricatures. The book is peppered with obvious and immensely boring info dumps, and the writing is just overall flat and sleep-inducing. There’s no attempt at any depth or sophistication, there’s nothing that grabs my interest here, it just feels grey and devoid of spark or life. I’ve read far worse, for sure, I’ll give Plaidy that – but at least some of those truly terrible books held my attention by being so bad that they were absurdly funny. Plaidy’s novels are about as enjoyable as eating shredded cardboard instead of cereal in your morning milk – and they’re far from memorable. They provide only the absolute basics of events – if this hadn’t been published in 1962, I’d almost think that Plaidy had spent ten minutes on Wikipedia in research time, maximum, before sitting down and churning out a manuscript in a day or two, her works are really that sketchy and loose, offering only the basic facts, regurgitated as simplistic narrative but offering nothing more. It just doesn’t have life or imagination at all, and what little story it has is thinly sketched at best. I’m done with Jean Plaidy as an author. Again, nothing against the late author personally, and I have definitely read far worse, but I just find Plaidy’s writing so dull and lifeless, I’m not motivated to ever pick up one of her books again. I gave it two books to draw me in, and I'm finished - Plaidy's just not my cup of tea.3 out of 10.
Review - This book was particularly interesting because it was quite good to see the juxtaposition of Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon, and the differences in how they interacted with Henry VIII. This is what Jean Plaidy is good at - showing the similarities and differences in characters and how they interact with each other. It was also interesting for me personally because I've read a lot around the divorce, and it was eye-opening to see how fiction writers see the great matter. Many people know of the divorce but this is the first book I know of that deals with it as an individual matter, instead of as a larger whole. A great effort.Genre? - Historical / Drama / RomanceCharacters? - Henry VIII / Katherine of Aragon / Anne Boleyn / Thomas Wolsey / Thomas Cromwell / Thomas More / Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk / Francis I / Charles V / Thomas Boleyn / George Boleyn / Henry Norris / William Brereton / Mark Smeaton / Elizabeth Boleyn / Mary I / Elizabeth ISetting? - London (England)Series? - Tudor Saga #4Recommend? - MaybeRating - 15/20
What do You think about The King's Secret Matter (2006)?
I give this 3.5 stars, because the story is a pretty interesting story and Plaidy adds some nice dramatic flair to the last chapter of Katharine of Aragon's marriage to Henry VII. But by the end of the book, I was thinking, "Please let Katharine die already so that she and I can both be done with this business." The ending dragged on way too long for my liking. The book emphasizes Katharine's point of view, so not as much time was spent on Henry's decision to split from the Catholic Church. I recognize that this isn't a history book, but the schism between England and Rome sent shock waves through Europe at its time, and it gets just a passing mention in this novel. Overall, I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to keep reading the Tudor novels.
—Rebecca
Ms. Plaidy is (was) so good at weaving facts into a strong, cohesive story without embroidering too much. I do, however, wish she had not used the word "plump" so often in this one. For the first half of the book, I believe the word appeared on every other page, basically whenever discussing the face or fingers of King Henry or the bosom of one of his mistresses. Good gosh, had she never heard of "pudgy", "chubby", "full", "ample", etc.? Besides, when we've been told once about these characters' larger-than-average body parts, it's really enough... but this is turning into a nitpicky ramble...Anyway, it's a decent read.
—Angela Joyce
I've read a good number of books on Anne Boleyn and yet I never tire of finding a new portrayal of her. This one was good and I love the writings of Jean Plaidy. However, I felt that she didn't entirely do justice to Anne. Her portrayal of her as a young girl was of a somewhat meek woman, eager to please her Mistress at the time (Henry Tudor's sister, Mary). The transformation from this child to the woman we all know to be vibrant, bold and haughty was not well documented. It's like suddenly one day Anne woke up and realized she had a spine. Otherwise, the story flowed well and the writing, as always with Jean Plaidy, was beautifully done.
—Jennifer
