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.

“Press a little harder with the pen, Mary. Your letters are all faint,” is the first sentence of Lucy Worsley’s intriguing new YA novel, Lady Mary, which follows the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

The England Tudor period has long been the center of attention in history, especially during the Henry VIII reign. You may remember him for having six wives in hopes to produce a male heir, along with how he formed the Church of England. Ironically, in the end, the throne only passed shortly to his son before passing to his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. In fact, Elizabeth I led England to what is widely known as the golden age or Elizabethan era. Because of this, Queen Mary is often forgotten by history and dubbed “Bloody Mary” due to persecuting many in an attempt to reverse the reformation. Henry VIII and Elizabeth also persecuted many, yet neither of them received the same garish title…

Now enough with the history lessons! The forgotten Queen Mary is why I was so excited to read this book to get a glimpse at her albeit fictional life. I am always curious on how she reacted to her mother’s downfall, the following throng of mothers, and relationship with her father. Even though this book is fictional, it did offer a glimpse within these area.

If you are expecting court intrigue in this book, you will not find it. This book tells the story of Mary’s childhood over the course of her teenage years, meaning she only spent a short time at the court before being exiled by her father. I don’t usually enjoy reading from children’s perspective, but I really enjoyed Mary’s perspective. She was her father’s daughter, but at the same time, Henry always came across as though he had no child. Her mother, Catherine of Aragon, both shielded her and loved her at the same time as Catherine played a dangerous game at the court.

After their separation, Mary was immediately sent away and we could see how much she had to mature and adapt in such a short time; from being a princess, heir presumptive to the throne, she became a prisoner and lady-in-waiting. She learned how to play at court, while maintaining her childhood naivety, as seen through her several missteps throughout the book. But the point is, she learned from her mistakes and showed immense growth by the end of the book.

At the same time, the focus on the character and the chosen time period provided little room for interesting storylines to unfold. Since Mary was in exile, all the intrigue and scheming happened at court with Mary merely a pawn in battle for the Queen’s seat and the war between religions. As the title suggests, this book focuses on her time as Lady Mary and stops after Jane Seymour’s death, which means we never seen her wield her power and position to eventually get that Queen title. There are some historical characters that play an important part in the effort to restore Mary, but they only appear occasionally and other than that, not much happens except for waiting and thinking for Mary.

I truly enjoyed how this book paints a picture of monarchy status and alliance at that time. Catherine and Henry’s divorce was a messy affair due the fact that Catherine is a princess of Spain in her own right, sister of the ruler at that time. Henry’s decision to marry Anne Boleyn, who grew up in France, made the alliance between France and England seem stronger, but at the same time weakened England alliance with Spain and Rome. Not to mention the long time animosity between Spain and France. Add that Catherine’s nephew was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at that time, it seemed the battle lines were drawn between the supporters of Henry and Catherine. If only we could have seen more of Catherine’s scheming somehow.

While I love the focus on characters and inner turmoil of Mary was enjoyable, I had hoped to see more intrigue and scheming, as well as some court richness being shown. The lack of storyline caused this book to be pretty unmemorable to me, as the pages and story blurred together in forming Mary’s waiting day in exile.

However, I still recommend this if you are interested in the Tudor’s era, want to learn more about the era, or just plain curious about the life of Queen Mary!

I really enjoyed this book. It covers the life of Mary I, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon s daughter from when she is 9 years old and a feted princess to the age of 21 and the birth of her brother. The narrative was strong and you got swept away in the storytelling. Mary’s relationship with her mother was incredibly well created and completely believable,
The only weakness in the book I felt was the authors characterisation of Anne Boleyn whose almost caracatured presence detracted from any passage she was in. Likewise I found the portrayal of Henry VIII unbelievable, it is in my opinion the weakest part of the book.
Overall though I enjoyed this very much and would highly recommend it.

This was a refreshing, well thought out book. Cleverly plotted, it maintains focus on Mary Tudor (remembered by history as 'Bloody Mary') as a young woman, and how the breakdown of the relationship with her parents influenced her. Lucy Worsley beautifully captures Mary's relationship with her mother, taking a different approach to many writers and showing instead Catherine as someone prideful and stubborn, who loves like a lioness rather than a mother. I found their relationship to be one of the most poignant and believable aspects of the book.

The pacing was sometimes jarring, there are gaps of years between each chapter, and that sometimes makes aspects of the plot feel hurried or just glossed over. An example would be that later in the book, on learning of Anne's death, Mary thinks of her as someone she sat with many times - but as a reader I had only seen Anne in two scenes! Her presence in the book is as a constant threat more than a personality, which made the scenes after her death feel a little disingenuous.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. Lucy Worsley has found a new way to retell one of the most famous stories in English history, and it's wonderful. It's telling that when I finished, the only real criticism that came to mind was just "isn't there more?"