Lucy Worsley's Lady Mary is a YA historical fiction novel about Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Later known as 'Bloody Mary', who famously exectued hundreds of Protestants while attempting to restore Roman Catholicism in England, Worsley's novel begins in Mary's childhood and covers her parents' divorce, her father's marriage to Anne Boleyn, Mary's fall from grace, time in exile and the hardships she endured throughout and the birth of her half-sister, Elizabeth, who went on to become Elizabeth I, before concluding when Mary is a young adult, aged around 21.

While this isn't a badly written novel, my main gripe is the lack of real plot-line and the overall portrayal of Mary. In this fictional account, largely about her time in exile, Mary is petulant and rather immature, even as she ages in the novel, and I find this characterisation hard to marry with the historical Mary, who fought for her royal position and eventually became queen.

Likewise, the secondary characters are almost caricatures of their historical namesakes. Anne Boleyn is the stereotypical wicked stepmother, forcing young Mary into servitude; Catherine of Aragon, her mother, the proud Spanish queen who wouldn't relent and urged the same of Mary; Jane Seymour the pure, kindly mother-figure Mary yearned for but whose influence was short-lived when she tragically died in childbirth. But there is little depth of any of the women mentioned, each of whose presence in Mary's formative years surely had an impact on the women (and queen) she became, and I found that rather disappointing.

Other characters, like Cromwell, Lady Shelton, the Shelton's servants and Lady Shelton's nephew, have even less character development than the women Henry VIII married, and appear to have largely been added to the novel in order to add intrigue and excitement to Mary's time in exile, whereas in reality it was probably much more of a banal, albeit hard and trying, experience for the young princess.

I also felt there were several missed opportunities that could've made the plot-line a little more interesting: exploring in more detail Mary's relationship with her father, for example, or ending the novel with Mary becoming queen after the hardships she endured in her youth, which could've been empowering to a younger audience.

For a YA title, it isn't a bad read and despite my gripes, I did enjoy the story. I haven't seen (m)any YA titles set in the Tudor period so Worsley's found a nice gap in the market, too. But if you're familiar with the historical figures in the book and the Tudor period, you may find this novel somewhat lacking.

Note: Many thanks to the author, Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this title in exchange for an honest review.

I love Lucy Worsley. I love her documentaries, nonfiction and now fiction. This is a delightful read and I wasn't at all bothered that I was reading a YA book at the age of 26. Worsley shows her passion and enthusiasm through the pages as well as her plentiful knowledge. Can't wait for more!

"I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review"

More than anything Mary just wants her family to stay together; for her mother and her father - and for her - to all be in the same place at once. But when her father announces that his marriage to her mother was void and by turns that Mary doesn't really count as his child, she realises things will never be as she hoped.
Things only get worse when her father marries again. Separated from her mother and forced to work as a servant for her new sister, Mary must dig deep to find the strength to stand up against those who wish to bring her down. Despite what anyone says, she will always be a princess. She has the blood of a princess and she is ready to fight for what is rightfully hers.

Lady Mary was an intense quick read. I have to say I probably would of loved this book a lot more if I hard learnt more about the Tudor history (Yes I know I should know more than I do and after reading this I want to learn more). Learning about Mary as a child and what she went through in this story was heart breaking. This book has me wanting to read more stories regarding Tudor history as I found it quite complex and fascinating.

I gave this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I am enjoyed the story a lot but because I was missing some of the history (my own fault) left me feeling like I was missing something in this book. I will defiantly read Lady Mary again once I have read more about the Tudor history and I will be reading more of Lucy Worsleys novels after reading this one.

Anyone reading this probably knows one thing about this queen: her nickname Bloody Mary. In history lessons, we're taught about this severe woman, desperate to have a child after going through so many miscarriages, and losing the favour of her subjects.

Getting to read a whole book about her, as the overlooked child of Henry VIII, since she came first, was absolutely fantastic. Lucy Worsley manages to create such a three dimensional personality for this historic character that really made the reader look beyond what they thought they knew about her. It's fascinating to have the book span so many years, and getting to see Mary as a child to a teenager - this really helped her characterisation...in fact, I may have preferred the fiction to the reality!

You don't have to be an expert on the Tudors to enjoy this book, but by the time you're finished, you'll be dying to open at least the Wikipedia page for this monarch!

Lady Mary follows the life of Mary Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VIII, starting from her engagement and the downfall of her mother (and hence, the introduction of Anne Boleyn). As a young adult book it simplifies things a little, and perhaps some sections would even be suitable for advanced middle grade readers if there is interest there, but overall it is an engaging piece.

At Princess Mary's engagement to the french Duke, it is noted that there's the possibility that her parents aren't in a blessed marriage... using the evidence that as they haven't had a son (as in, a 'real heir'), then clearly God doesn't think they should be together. Soon after this her father aquits his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marries Anne Boleyn instead. From here, everything gets far worse for Mary than she could have ever imagined - she is removed from Court, forced to be a servant to her new sister Elizabeth, imprisoned... yikes.

One of the strengths is getting to see them as a family unit at the beginning. Mary is about 11 or so, and her father pulls funny faces and ruffles her hair to make her smile. You really get a sense of place with the descriptions of the places they live, the reasons they have to keep moving around (basically they eat the food the small village has to offer and then they move on so they can continue to live their lavish lifestyle), and just how many servants they consider necessary.

Overall, I enjoyed this, however not as much as Worsley's previous historical fiction books. In previous books where her main character may have seemed childish or whingy it could easily be put down to the character really being thought of, or accounted to be, exactly like that in history. In this, though... Mary seemed a little unaccountable.

Parts of this are a little slow, but it is quite a task when sharing the life of someone who is waiting in exile for a significant part of the book. I think for that it does really quite well.

I love historical fiction, and I was really interested in seeing the divorce from a new angle, but this book wasn’t really YA, I thought - more like MG? It was still enjoyable and interesting, but it read a bit young and immature. However it was evident that Lucy Worsley is a talanted author, and historian.

This was a middle grade age for me; definitely not for teenagers or young adults which is what it was initally described as. It follows the story of Mary's marriage and demise from a new viewpoint - which i did enjoy.
It can get quite tedious at times though.

A refreshing story about Queen Mary. Worsley's writing revealed sides of Mary that I didn't know. The writer's expertise was evident throughout Lady Mary.

Lady Mary follows the story of Mary Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VIII, during her tumultuous teenage years as she falls from grace during the breakdown of her parent’s marriage and beyond.

I would definitely describe this as younger adult. We follow Mary from the age of 11 until 21, yet her tone and behaviour never seem to mature beyond that of a child. She’s petulant and naive, prone to fainting and just generally acting quite immaturely. The writing is also sometimes overly simplistic in its presentation too, and lacked any real emotional complexity. Things are just described or explained ‘as is’ eithiut any subtlety.

Secondary characters are also very black and white, almost cookie cutter images of their real historical counterparts. Anne is described as the ‘wicked lady’, forcing Mary into servitude and despair, while her mother is the proud Spanish queen. There’s no development of these characters beyond this, which I was disappointed by. Other characters are introduced before being suddenly removed from the plot incredibly quickly before we can get to know them, (namely Lady Shelton’s nephew) and felt almost like accessories to drive the plot or create some small amount of drama to make the many years of Mary’s confinement more interesting than it probably was originally.

I would have loved to see more of the relationship we see between Jane, Mary and Henry towards the end of the novel. The idea of some weird ‘family’ dynamic, having a queen so close in age to Mary and her struggles to accept and gain friendship from this woman who clearly just wanted to please the king and her new stepdaughter. Unfortunately these scenes were rather rushed after spending so many chapters seeing Mary locked away, which again I found disappointing. I also thought there was a missed opportunity to see a future Mary seize the throne after her brother’s death, which would have brought some much needed action and strength of character to Mary. Ending where it did was a little lacklustre.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this period of history, and because of that I did enjoy this. But I just found it lacking in quite a few key areas. If I was ten years younger, I probably would have lapped this up and I do think there’s a large gap in the market for historical YA of this era. It would a pleasant change of scene for me to read, it flowed well and was rather light and innocent in tone which I liked. There’s also so little written about Mary that isn’t negative that this felt very refreshing.

Perfect for younger teens interested in a queen often overshadowed by her father and younger sister.

I got my Bachelor's degree in History (concentration in European History), so this book seemed right up my alley. I love historical fiction, and the Tudor period is incredibly interesting to me.

I think if I were younger, I might've enjoyed this a bit more. The story follows Mary Tudor (the woman who would become known as "Bloody Mary") from the age of nine until the age of twenty-one. The ages are written no differently, however: twenty-one year old Mary thinks and acts almost exactly the same as nine year old Mary. There is rarely any character development, and the small amount that does occur takes place mostly in the last couple pages.

The plot or characterization weren't a huge problem, however; the main issue I had was with the writing. Sometimes it was written simply, to the point of being overly simple. But, as this book is supposed to be for Middle Grade readers, that wasn't a problem. But then the author would throw in a complex word or phrase like "marshy quandary"and "palaver," and I stared in confusion when there was this sentence:

"That woman," he said, "is a bitch. A bitch of the highest order."

What happened to Middle Grade??????

Overall, while it was interesting to see Mary Tudor's story told from a unique perspective, I felt the writing slightly let down the book, with too much focus being on the historical aspect and not enough focus on telling a story in a way that flowed.

The Mary in question here is Mary Tudor but not as a queen but as a Princess. This book is written for younger readers so Mary's age reflects this - at the beginning she is nine years old and knew herself to be beloved by both her parents. We then see the efforts of Henry VIII to end his marriage to Mary's mother, his marriage to Anne Boleyn, the religious changes and deadly politics of the period from the point of view of a young girl. This is shown well - Mary is frequently afraid and feels abandoned by both her parents at some point, she has an understanding of the politics of power (she has been taught by the example of both Henry and Katherine) but not of the more adult passions. I did sometimes feel that she was shown as being younger than her age - she is, after all, over 20 when Anne Boleyn dies - but her whole girlhood is extremely sheltered. It is also increasing harsh as her father and step-mother gradually take away all those privileges she enjoyed as a Princess. Even, as the title of the book suggests, the name of Princess.

The book is a way to tell younger readers about the life of a famous woman from history. I'm not entirely sure what age group I would aim this at - there is no graphic content which would make it totally unsuitable for a child of nine who had an interest in the subject (I'm so thinking of me at that age...) but the emotional toll on Mary is not negligible. Like many books which span the 9-12 to teen ranges it is more about the emotional maturity of a child rather than their reading ability - and, of course, because Lucy Worsley is a historian the facts are sound (and the speculation, because there are always huge gaps in the historical record, is justified in the afterword).

An absolute joy. Combining my favourite historical period and my favourite Historian, I couldn’t ask for a better book.

Thank you Netgalley for my review copy.
Yet again, Lucy Worsley pulls off the historical time travel adventure. The author has a real flair for setting the scene as if you are there yourself and the characters show such roundness that it is hard to beleive that they are based on real royal characters. I like the 'guts and glory' attitude that Mary Tudor is given in this book and it portrays her actually as a real teenage girl and not just the tyrant that everyone thinks she became. in history. The writing is a little simplified and the chapters short but that is to be expected in a childrens/young adult book and it is refreshing.
I look forward to any more that Lucy may write as I really enjoyed this one.

Lucy Worsley to me is the queen of History and I was really happy she was writing books, fiction or non-fiction, I hoped that how she talks about her work is how she does in her books and I wasn’t disappointed. The story of who would become ‘Bloody Mary’ is a great one.

I like the writing style Lucy uses in this book, considering the era in which this book is based, she keeps it light but also real. Though this book is aimed at a younger audience she still discusses who Anne Boleyn is to Mary’s dad for example and sometimes young fiction books can be sanitised, but I’m glad she keeps it to history in this book but still delivers it for the right age.

The plot is Mary’s life and we know who she becomes, I suppose this is the middle grade, real life version of Heartless by Marissa Meyer and it’s really nicely told, telling the story of Mary’s life up to the arrival of her brother, Edward.

An informative and elegant read, if you want an introduction to The Tudors, this might be a good book to start.

Lucy Worsley does it again! This book was amazing and I had trouble putting it down. Amazing detail about little known facts that Lucy puts into the story of Mary. I always find the Tudors fascinating but Lucy takes it to another level with her writing. For me personally this book humanised Queen Mary in her early life and I never realised the struggles she went through before she was finally accepted back into court. Really fascinating. I would thoroughly recommend this book for anyone interested in history and the Tudors.

This book is beautiful! A tale of bretryal, love and grief. Mary is portrayed accurately, but with an impressive, yet realistic voice, which engages the readership. Mary’s vulnerability is juxtaposed with her strength, which is excellently presented by the writer. I would recommend to all young adults and to those who love the Tudor History.

Set in 16th century England the daughter of Henry VIII, Mary is nine when we join her story. I liked this book a lot it is a different view of what we are taught about in school. We just hear about the king and his wives and not much of his children until they were kings & queens themselves. This story came as a bit of a shock to me as I never realised how badly Mary was treated when her father divorced her mother Catherine. I always thought the children, were protected but unfortunately this was not the case especially as she was a girl. Henry even said he had no children while Mary was sitting right next to him!! Even though through the story you could tell that he did love her in his own way and did come to realise in the end what a great woman she had become. I think through all her trails, it made her a much more formidable queen. As Lucy said Mary is made out to be ‘Bloody Mary’ because of all the deaths of protestants but if your think of all the catholics that her father killed when he introduced the Church of England, is it not one in the same?
I love all things historical to do with the monarchy and this book is a fabulous retelling of Lady Mary’s early life.

I was so excited to pick up this book by Lucy Worsley as i am a huge fan of her as a historian and as a writer. I love the Tudor period especially and this book did not disappoint. She carefully showed how the fight for accession and her parent's divorce affected her and the way that political order played a part in her life. I loved how Worsley made mary come alive and the way that the first person tone made the story come alive. A great historical fiction for all ages!

I'm having a real Tudors moment right now - I can't get enough of them, so when I saw this young adult retelling of Mary Tudor's story by renowned historian Lucy Worsley, I couldn't resist. One of my favourite things about historical fiction is the chance to rethink how certain figures and events were taught to us at school; I don't know about you, but I left my Year 5 Tudors class with a less than favourable impression of Mary Tudor and we certainly weren't encouraged to think too deeply about how horrific Henry VIII's treatment of his wives (and children) truly was; the 'divorced, beheaded, died' rhyme is more of a comical anecdote than a searing inditement of the king's behaviour.

And so, the touching tale of Mary's early life told in this book was eye-opening and thought-provoking as well as entertaining. We all know the bare bones of this story, of how Henry replaced his first wife, Catharine of Aragon with the younger, hotter Anne Boleyn before accusing her of witchcraft and sending her to the Tower to be beheaded - but what was that like to live with as his first born daughter? On the one side, Mary has her fierce and loving mother encouraging her to 'play the game' and on the other, her fun and funny father, who would never do anything to hurt her. Right? As she navigates the complex political landscape and tries to stand her ground, I was totally taken with Mary - and I'll never look at this period of history the same again.

The much maligned Mary Tudor is given a fair shake in this novel by Lucy Worsley. It covers Mary's teenage years, during which she was separated from her mother and forced to sign away her succession to the throne by her father. The prose is really accessible, which I found appealing and I think this would be a great book for children to get their teeth into. The story is fascinating and Worsley's enthusiasm for her subject shines through, making this a really compelling read. I do think that Mary is the most misunderstood of the Tudor monarchs and Worsley does a great job of providing us with another side to her story. There are times when Mary still comes across as a bit of a whiner and she certainly has a selfish streak, but given her situation and upbringing, this isn't surprising. All in all, this was a fun and easy read that kids should enjoy.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.