Customer Reviews
Poor novel from a favored author - By: K. Huff, 05 Oct 2008 
The Other Queen is the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, during a specific period in her life--the time that she spent in the home of George Talbot & his wife, Bess, at Tutbury Castle. It was a period fraught with political turmoil & the threat of another civil war, as Mary attempted to regain her throne. The story is told from the point of view of alll three characters.
I have to say straight away that this was not one of Philippa Gregory' best--a shame, since I was looking forward to reading it. Part of the problem is that I more or less have a preconceived idea of what Mary was like. Therefore, I was a little dismayed by the way that Mary is portrayed in the book; she's arrogant. And that's another problem I had with the book; I feel as though it might have been better had Mary not narrated part of the story herself. Even George & Bess are pretty wooden characters with no distinctive voices of their own; I flipped from one section to the next & thought that the same person was speaking!
Another part of this novel's problem is that it fictionalizes one of the most boring periods in Mary's life. Reallly, couldn't she have fictionalized the Gunpowder Plot or the murder of David Rizzio? Instead, we get pages & pages about how queenly Mary is, how hard Bess worked to get where she is, Cecil is evil, ad nauseum. Essentiallly, if you read the first 100 pages or so, you've read the entire book. I feel as though Philippa Gregory is just following a formula here, one that doesn't entirely work for this novel. It's especiallly disappointing considering I've enjoyed so much of Gregory's work in the past. A much better novel about Mary's life is Mary Queen of Scotland & the Isles, by Margaret George, & a wonderful work of nonfiction about Mary is Mary, Queen of Scots: And the Murder of Lord Darnley, by Alison Weir.
A Dull Book From One of My Favorites ! - By: helen, 03 Oct 2008 I have LOVED many other P.Gregory books but this one drags along with unappealing characters & a tedious plot.
Too bad !
One reason I had always enjoyed her books was because I would always learn something new. All I take away from reading this book is that I will never again pre-order anything...... in the future I will ALWAYS wait for to read the reviews first!
Bleugh! - By: S. Lewis, 30 Sep 2008 
This is SUCH a disappointment. Windy, repetitive, self-indulgent, badly-edited & just plain boring. One of history's most interesting & enigmatic figures is reduced to a twittering moron, & everyone around her comes across as unpleasant or dull or both. Having enjoyed Gregory's previous Tudor books, I was very much looking forward to this one. Just over half way through I hurled it across the room & gave up. Nul points.
Bit of a let down - By: Haz, 29 Sep 2008 I found the book very bitty & sadly lacking in momentum.The chapters were often only a couple of pages long & tended to be very repetitive - I struggled to find any enthusiasm to continue reading it. A great disappointment for a PG!
I just didn't like any of them! - By: Lollypop, 23 Sep 2008 I have to agree with many of the other reviewers. I'm a big PG fan but in this novel I found alll 3 of the main characters reallly hard to sypathise with. Bess is reallly unpleasent & just moans on & on, George is pathetic & Mary failed to win me over. I also missed the presence of Elizabeth in the story, generallly only having her talked about rather than having her interact in the story. As other reviewers have pointed out I feel PG has missed a trick by having most of the reallly intriguing events of Mary's life take place before the book opens. I think there was a better story in here somewhere & its a shame it hasn't come out.
