The White Queen.

So, when I was at the grocery store... I guess it was last Thursday or Friday I found a book sitting in the lame book section that Safeway has, and I was intrigued. I don't often even stop to look at the book section of grocery stores because they generally aren't very good, but when I saw on the front of the book "By the Author of 'The Other Boleyn Girl'" I couldn't help but stop to take a look.

Philippa Gregory, the Author of 'The Other Boleyn Girl' which I'm sure many of you recognize as the title of the more well known movie, is a freaking genius. As many of you may already know, I am a closet historian. I love history... but more than history itself, I love war history. Why? I don't know. I also have an infatuation with the pre 1600's, so the time of the Tudors and the Plantagenets (for those of you who are unfamiliar with either of those names - it's royal British families between about 1400 and 1650- ish, give or take a few years!) It just so happens that 'The White Queen' by Phillipa Gregory falls into BOTH my historical infatuations - it is both about the Plantagenet family, more specifically Queen Elizabeth Woodville, the Queen Consort to King Edward IV, and it's about the War of the Roses - or the Cousin's War between the House of Lancaster (the red rose of England) and the House of York (the white rose of England).

I will start by saying one thing. I loved this book. I had the hardest time putting it down, and it should be shown by the fact that the book is just over 500 pages long (soft cover sized) and I finished it in about a week. It could have been much faster had I not had a life this past week! It's from the perspective of Elizabeth, Queen Consort, and it follows her life from being a 'commoner' to being the Queen of England, to the end of her reign. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to read it, so I will stop there as far as plot goes! If you want to read a bit about Elizabeth Woodville before undertaking this book, the Elizabeth Woodville Wikipedia page is quite informative, but it does go into quite a bit of detail, so some might see it as ruining the book as the book is based so much on fact. Perhaps reading too much might ruin it for you!

If you're interested in historical fiction, I would definitely suggest this book. Today I went to Chapters and bought several more Philippa Gregory books! I will not be in the process over the next (hopefully) several weeks reading:
The Other Boleyn Girl (again...)
The Other Queen
The Boleyn Inheritance and
The Constant Princess
I think she may be my new favourite author - so if this is your kind of genre, I would DEFINITELY suggest you join me in these wonderful books! She has tonnes, and I'm sure I will get through them rather quickly. I try to pace myself, but you know how a great book just pulls you in...

If you ever decide to read them, let me know! I would love to discuss them. =)

Blog, and be happy!

Kyleigh.