Author - Margaret Irwin
Series - The Elizabeth Trilogy/Good Queen Bess
ISBN - 9780749012427
Page Count - 393 Pages
Genre - Adult > Historical Fiction
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Paperback
Where You Can Find It? - Goodreads - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US
Young Bess centres around Elizabeth I (Tudor) from a young age and growing up in court and out, falling in love and dealing with the repercussions of that act. She must navigate a world where everyone thinks her mother a witch and a whore, and is commonly known as the Little Bastard and her strained relationship with her father makes sense for who she falls in love with for the rest of her life. Bess is one of those characters you will either hate to love or love to hate she is such a rotten, jealous, evil child at some points and she will have you somewhat hating the main character of this book, Irwin's writing is a perfect example of well written Historical Fiction Novel.
So Young Bess was one of those books that i literally didn't get into to start with but then about 50 pages in i was hooked it creeps up on you slowly but sometimes that is an amazing thing because before you know it you have finished it and you want to read the next book as soon as possible i love books that have a timeless feel to them books that you cannot tell when they have been written by the dialogue used or the way the author writes i knew when reading this book that it was published in 1939 but you cant tell and that is the sign of a truly good author and book.
Young Bess was told in the 3rd person so it was a little different than most books i have read about Bess but it was actually a really good way of telling the story that way even thought we mainly saw Elizabeth we did occasionally get some other characters on their own. I really didn't like Bess' character at all i feel like she will grow up in the next books but in this one she was acting like a jealous 3 year old at 15 and she was such a bitchy bully to Jane Grey and many other characters.
All i am going to say about Thomas Seymour is he was a complete and utter idiot (No spoilers, but c'mon its history) and he would have been considered a paedophile in today's society because he was not forced to marry her like so many others have been but he chose to do what he did. (or didn't do, historical people don't kill me).
Not much was mentioned about Mary Tudor or Anne Boleyn apart from whispers of Nan Bullen (i had to google that one) but personally i think she was very much influenced by her mother and i think she would have been more curious about her and she was hardly mentioned. Also Mary we didn't get much of her either but i think we will be getting a lot more of her in the next two books so I'm not to worried about that but that was my only qualm was i really wanted a more curious Elizabeth about her mother and whether she was really guilty.
I finished this book so quickly it was unreal once i started i couldn't stop it had so many elements, as i have said before that make this a brilliant historical fiction novel and it has become one of my favourites and i cannot wait to read the next book next month (FEB 2016) and also review it.
Until Next Time
Happy Reading
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