The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

First off, can forgive me for not posting for like two weeks? I've been busy with work and some other things, so blogging hasn't been high on the priority list.

The Last Queen is the story of Juana la Loca (Juana the Mad), older sister of the more famous Catherine of Aragon (Henry VIII's Wife Numero Uno), and the daughter of Isabel and Fernando, the financiers of Christopher Columbus' journey to the New World. Betrothed to Philip the Handsome of Habsburg, Juana makes the journey to her new home and new husband, who she is delighted to discover is besotten with her, as she is with him. Life starts out happily for the newlyweds, but soon ambition, court intrigues, and other outside influences start to strip away at their idyllic world.

History has portrayed Queen Juana as a nutter, and recent histrorians have agreed that she likely suffered from manic depression, something she likely inherited from her grandmother. However, C.W. Gortner meticulously constructs another version of history, one that is not only plausible, but maybe even likely. While he makes no argument against Juana's possible struggle with depression, he shows that perhaps she wasn't mad, but rather a progressive figure for her day, who instead of being revolutionary was seen as crazy.

The book is beautiful. I don't think I cared for it as much as I cared for The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, but nevertheless it was an interesting, fascinating tale of a tragic royal figure.

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the tale of one of history's most misunderstood women. Told in her own unique voice, Catherine slowly weaves the tapestry of her life, telling the story of how a young Italian girl, a commoner despite her family's vast wealth, eventually goes on to become the Queen of France.

This book read like many of Philippa Gregory's books do, and I really loved the first person telling. CW Gortner gives such character and life to Catherine via her thoughts, and you can tell his research was thorough because so many lovely details that are historically factual show up throughout the narrative.

Something else I really enjoyed about this book was just the setting itself. Through Philippa Gregory and a few other authors, I have read books about the time period and have gotten a feel for some of the politics of the age. However, this was my first book set in France around the same time, and I found it fascinating to see the world of the 1500's from a different setting than what I am used to. So many books are set in Tudor England, which is understandable considering the complete and utter turmoil that Henry VIII and his heirs threw the country into, so I have to admit it was refreshing to see all that and more from France's perspective. A few familiar historical characters also made their way into Catherine's world, such as Mary, Queen of Scots. It's always fun to recognize someone you've seen in another book or even heard about during a history class.

I just started CW Gortner's first book, The Last Queen. This one is about Juana la Loca [Juana the Crazy] from Spain, a sister to Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. So far I'm loving it, just like Catherine's tale. So no doubt you'll see a blog entry about that too!