Book Review: The Queen's Mistake by Diane Haeger

When the young and beautiful Catherine Howard becomes the fifth wife of the fifty-year-old King Henry VIII, she seems to be on top of the world. Yet her reign is destined to be brief and heartbreaking, as she is forced to do battle with enemies far more powerful and calculating than she could have ever anticipated in a court where one wrong move could mean her undoing. Wanting only love, Catherine is compelled to deny her heart's desire in favor of her family's ambition. But in so doing, she unwittingly gives those who sought to bring her down a most effective weapon-her own romantic past.

My Review:
Catherine Howard is getting tired of living with the Dowager Duchess and her house of sin and is thrilled to discover that she is going to Court to serve Anne of Cleves, the new Queen. She throws herself into Court life life and finds a few instant admirers but her heart is quickly won by Henry's dashing servant Thomas Culpepper. Hopes for a future with Thomas are dashed when her ambitious family ensure that the King falls in love with her and she is forced to become his Queen. But her continued feelings for Thomas and her less than innocent past are about to come back and haunt her.

Catherine gets her dubious education living with the Dowager Duchess. The other women living there sneak young men into the dorms each night, drawing her into adventures that endanger her honour and reputation. Her music teacher stubbornly pusues her and the dashing Francis Dereham talks of the couple being betrothed and married, which Catherine views as a bit of a game rather than serious committment. When she arrives at Court she catches the attention of several well connected men including Gregory Cromwell, son of Thomas who despite being married is happy to get involved with the attractive young woman. Despite finding Thomas Culpepper arrogant, Catherine soon finds herself falling for him and contemplates getting her Uncle's permission to marry him. 

Things start going wrong for Catherine when she realises that her Uncle Norfolk  brought her to Court to catch the eye of the King just as Henry was losing interest in Queen Anne. She is unhappy at the prospect of having to give up Thomas for Henry's affections and starts playing a dangerous game in seeing Thomas behind Henry's back with help from Jane Rochford who arranges meetings between them. Thomas Cromwell is aware of Gregory's interest in Catherine and he starts to meddle himself to try and stop the King's initial interest in Catherine, although Gregory is the main Cromwell that we see in the story. I found Gregory to be an interesting character in this author's plot as I never saw him in any other Tudor novel, as these books tend to focus on his father. I liked the focus on Catherine's relationship with Gregory and Thomas Culpepper as well as her 'romance' with Henry.

This author also focuses a lot on Mary Lassells, a woman in the household who is responsible for Catherine's later fall from grace. The plot surrounding her in this book is that she fell for the music teacher Henry Manox, losing him to Catherine who quickly got tired of his advances. Mary then falls for Francis only to lose him to Catherine as well, making her angry and bitter and full of vengeance. In later years after Catherine marries Henry, Mary decides to demand a place at Court where she can watch what is happening and the nervous Norfolks feel they have to bring not only Mary, but a few other girls and Francis Dereham into their service where they can keep an eye on them all. Mary soon decides to pass on her secret information about Catherine's past to Cranmer to ensure Catherine's downfall. I couldn't help feeling sorry for Catherine with so many people who knew her past demanding favours and in place to cause trouble.

My one niggle was having Mary, Henry's daughter, constantly mouthing off to him about his wedding to Catherine being an abomination and unacceptable to her, and slagging him off for running away from her mother to be with Anne Boleyn. I somehow doubt she would have dared to talk to Henry like that, and certainly ranting to him about Anne Boleyn would have made him explode with rage! Henry would have erupted if his daughter had spoken to him like that rather than meekly sit there and let her rant. But really that is just a minor niggle in the book and it did not spoil my enjoyment of the book.

I really enjoyed the way that the author told Catherine's story, putting a different spin on things by introducing Gregory Cromwell, and having the Dowager Duchess arranging for Manox to be there to 'educate' Catherine to get her more ready for Court and seducing the King. I liked the idea that the Norfolks actually sabotaged Catherine's honour in this plot to prepare her to be the seductress she will need to be to snare a King. It was interesting for the plot to have the Norfolks not caring if she messed around at Court until they were sure the King was snagged. This and the focus on Mary Lassell's jealous rage was entertaining. I liked the way that she was hellbent on her personal mission to destroy Catherine, making her a dreadful character! 

The writing was good, the characters were nicely developed and I very much enjoyed the way she presented the story. I'm looking forward to her other Tudor books which are already sitting on my bookshelves!

Read August 2019
4 stars.