I own a pretty sizeable collection of Robert Hale novels, most of which are novels about royalty that were published between the 1960s and early 1990s. Seemed to have been a specialty of theirs. As isn't surprising when a publisher starts pumping out large numbers of books on a certain style/subject, the quality varies.
For example, I was favorably impressed by the Eve Trevaskis novel on Piers Gaveston I reviewed earlier this year, and should try another one of hers sometime. Last time I read one of Alison Farely's, it was quite good as well. But I was less than enthused about Beatrice May's Sister to Jane, a novel about Lady Katherine Grey. This week I attempted another novel about her, Jean Evans' An Heir for the Tudor, and put it down after 50 pages. She portrays Katherine as a naive and not-too-bright young woman who's not shy about telling friends and acquaintances that she deserves to be queen instead of Princess Elizabeth. Obviously she hadn't learned anything by her late sister's example. And if you were to believe the plot, you'd think Elizabeth had nothing more to worry about during her reign than make sure her troublemaker cousin never married. Ugh. I own a number of Jean Evans' novels - many are hard to find - but am not sure I'll rush to pick up another.
No point collecting books you don't want to read. We do have limited space around the house...
I'm curious, though - are there any good novels about this tragic historical figure? (I own a couple more, but haven't read them.) She deserves better than the treatment these two authors have given her.
After that failed evening's reading, I've moved on to a historical fantasy novel I'm determined to squeeze into HNR's November issue. (Yes, the official deadline was 9/15, but I'll still be editing over the next week.) Why? Because I requested it via email on a Friday, and the publicist decided to send it via overnight FedEx, so it got here last Saturday. (This is very rare, and expensive, I suspect.) I felt guilty hanging onto it until February when I knew I'd be reviewing it myself, and I hadn't taken anything else for review this quarter. Fortunately, it's a fast and excellent read, so I'm zooming through it, and should have it read - and reviewed - well before my own deadline. And my saying so here will make it so, right?
About Me
- Sarah Johnson
- Collection management librarian, readers' advisor, avid historical fiction reader, NBCC member. Book review editor for the Historical Novels Review and Booklist reviewer. Recipient of ALA's Louis Shores Award for book reviewing (2012). Blogging since 2006.
Right!
ReplyDeleteWhat was the Alison Farely book about?
She wrote a whole series of novels set during the reigns of Kings Henry II, Richard, and John. I've only read one, and I'm pretty sure it was Last Roar of the Lion. Dealt a lot with Princess Alais. It's been a while.
ReplyDeleteLady Catherine Grey is a major character in In the Shadow of Lady Jane by Charles Edward (Macmillan New Writing). The novel stops shortly after Lady Jane's death so it doesn't cover Catherine's later secret marriage and imprisonment in Elizabeth's reign. Catherine is a major secondary character, portrayed as attractive and rather flighty, interested in money and men. I haven't finished the novel yet, because I put it aside to read something else and haven't yet got back to it. So far I'd rate it as all right.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carla, that's encouraging. I'd ordered the Edward novel from Amazon UK a few weeks ago and just got notice that it shipped.
ReplyDeleteThis is totally off-topic - I bought and read The Thirteenth Tale. Loved it. Thanks for reviewing it. I briefly reviewed it on my weblog, but realized I couldn't write much for fear of wrecking the intricacy of the story for anyone who might want to read it. There were several books it faintly resembled - at least in my recollection of the plots of those books - but again, to refer to those would spoil the story.
ReplyDeleteHi Laura - very glad to hear you enjoyed Thirteenth Tale, too! I agree, there isn't much you can say without spoiling the story.
ReplyDeleteI am very amused by this article from the Times Online which credits bloggers for spreading the word about it. I'm not so sure, though. Maybe the enormous marketing campaign (been in your local Barnes & Noble lately?) had something to do with it, too...
I don't know... I'm kind of surprised at the low sales of her book in Britain. We don't have a Barnes & Noble here, just Books-A-Million, and when I went in and bought the book last week, I had to search for it - there was no display, not even on an endcap. It probably depends on where one is, and on the bookstore manager.
ReplyDeleteMy local Barnes and Noble had a whole table devoted to The Thirteenth Tale--must have cost the publisher a pretty penny!
ReplyDeleteMy local (well, 60 miles north) B&N has displays like you wouldn't believe. Mever seen anything like it before. It's a chain-wide promotion, from what I understand...
ReplyDeleteWhat I didn't get was that if credit is being given to bloggers, how it's explained that UK sales are so very low. Question for anyone in the UK - is the novel not being promoted there?
Are sales of The Thirteenth Tale low in the UK? What are the figures? I've certainly heard of it, but I think I first read about it in the Independent or the Guardian or somewhere like that, back when the rights were sold for some astronomical sum. There was a recent article about it in the Independent that was sceptical about the claimed importance of bloggers, if that is any help, but it doesn't have much to say specifically about UK promotion or sales. Next time I'm in Waterstones I'll have a look for it.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Times article I linked to (five comments above) it isn't selling nearly as well in the UK - 600 in one week (UK) vs. in the tens of thousands (US).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link from the Independent. I had seen mention of S&S's offer to bloggers; I didn't participate, as I don't do advertising here, and they never contacted me anyway (this not being a "major blog," I guess!). Only reason I blogged about it was because I enjoyed reading it.