Will I ever grow tired of hearing about pimptastic Henry and his poor wives? Doubtful. This book was fascinating because it spanned the history of them all and, through the eyes of his last wife Katharine Parr who survived Henry and knew him from the time she was a child, showed a really interesting character portrait of him across his lifetime as king. Particularly in his end years when he was obese, ill, paranoid, cruel, and impotent (yet still, as always, magically expecting a son), he is mor More...

This book is ROYALLY irritating. Carolly Erickson is a "distinguised historian turned popular novelist" - I would have hoped the simple task of getting the right order and personage of Catherine Parr's multiple marriages could have been achieved. The lack of getting even these basic facts straight really bothered me in the beginning of the book. However, trying to keep in mind that it is simply a work of fiction helped me read through it for the most part. The truth could have been stranger, and More...

Holy crap, thus far I am completely unimpressed with this book. My first and actually, only beef with it is that it is historically inaccurate. It portrays Catharine as a teenage girl who marries a young man after she begs the king to intercede and prevent her family from marrying her to the young man's grandfather. Um, that is TOTAL POPPYCOCK. In real life, Parr's first husband was, in fact, a very elderly man, the grandfather that she does not marry in the book. Why would the author deviate so More...

First and foremost, the criticism surrounding this book is what drew me in when I first read it- there were apparently many who couldn't get past the historical liberties Erickson took in re-creating the life of Catherine Parr, but I overcame that 'obstacle' quite easily since this was a work of fiction based on historical events. So, if you're a stickler for accuracy and just can't abide by an author taking artistic license with history even in the name of fiction (which I can understand becaus More...

I picked up "The Last Wife of Henry VIII" with high expectations. I love Carolly Erickson's biographies about the Tudors, so I expected a novel in that setting to have similar meticulous detail and evocation of the time period. It wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't up to Parr. Ok, terrible pun, but still. Characters are introduced and in the next mention a couple pages later they are dead. I know it's based on real events and Cat was away from court during a lot of the background action, but it More...

Enjoyable story. It is fiction, not history, and I don't for the most part have trouble with the fudging of fact in the interest of the story, although there were time when this was annoying. As to whether she married Edward Borough the younger or his grandfather, I seem to recall that recent scholarship may indicate that she did indeed marry the younger man, and Erickson makes the story work around this tidbit, in a way that is in fact plausible, whether or not it is how things happened in actu More...

After having read many of Carolly Erickson's other historical fiction novels (and having tossed aside her novel on Josephine before finishing it just last week), I decided to try her foray into the popular Tudor fiction genre. Rather than exploring the dramatic events surrounding Anne Bolyen's ascension to Queen and Henry VIII's breaking with Rome, Erickson decided to tackle the last and least discussed of Henry's wives, Catherine Parr.

We first meet young Catherine Parr at the age of seven, when More...

I picked up Erickon’s The Last Wife of Henry VIII because Barnes and Noble had yet to receive that newest issue of Fangoria Magazine and I did not want to go home. I found myself at a shelf of historical fiction about the wives of kings, a simple endcap with about six books on it. I chose Erickson’s after reading the backs of a few-- I went for Erickson because she had a background in history, which I felt the book would benefit from.

The Last Wife of Henry VIII is about Catherine Parr, the wife More...

For some inexplicable reason I am a sucker for just about anything having to do with the Tudors, and the only reason I read this book was because I was going through withdrawal having seen the final episode of Showtime's cheesy series in which the main characters spent as much time stepping out of their elaborate 16th century costumes in order to hop into bed with one another as they did wearing them. Nevertheless, the series rekindled my love of all things Tudor and so I ended up wandering acro More...

It seems lately that respected historians, previously noted for their excellent non-fictional accounts of various important figures, have taken to writing historical fiction about these same subjects.

I've read many books by Erickson about The Tudors. She also wrote an excellent accounting of the life of Marie Antoinette; "To The Scaffold".

Now, she's turned to historical fiction and, although the work was relatively engaging and I made my way through it quickly, it simply was not as enjoyable to More...

I do not wish to be venomous, so I will say that this book is... fanciful. It is fanciful like a romance novel (oops, for me to say that is venomous).

Next time I take a work of "historical fiction" from a shelf, I will first check for a bibliography. If it has none, it goes back on the shelf.

Mary Boleyn had a half-wit son by Henry VIII? It was Thomas Seymour who committed the crime that Thomas Culpepper was accused of? People were drinking tea in England that year? Lady Rochford flashed the cr More...

Carolly Erickson's book is one that I wouldn't put on my list of all-time favorite historical fiction novels. I think part of the problem is how misleading the title seems to me. Yes, I recognize that Katharine Parr, the main character of her novel, was the last wife of Henry VIII. However, I expected this to focus mainly on that portion of Parr's life.

I thought it would be interesting to get to see the wives of Henry VIII through the eyes of his last queen given that she was, well, the last on More...

This is a historical novel about Kat, the last wife of King Henry VIII. This doesn't just focus on when they were married, the main character is Kat herself so it begins when she's a young child and ends when she dies. There are some historical inaccuracies, but it's historical FICTION not a textbook. Still, it's basically history and no spoiler to say it ended sadly, since anyone can look up the story of her life and know that. This was a very engaging book, the characters were written well and More...

The Last Wife of Henry VIII tells the story of Catherine Parr who is the only one of Henry's wives not covered to some extent in Phillipa Gregory's books. Written from the first person POV of Catherine, the book starts when Cat is a young girl. Her mother is a lady in waiting to Katherine of Aragon and from a very young age, Catherine is familiar with the happenings in Henry's court and also has his favor throughout her lifetime until she finally becomes his last bride. Cat was unique in that sh More...

I love history and I love fiction, so historical fiction is always a bonus for me. Often times something recounted in history includes only the facts (which it should), but the beauty of historical fiction is that it makes those bare facts come alive--suddenly a short biline in an encyclopedia becomes colorful and storied and exciting! This book profiles the life of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII sixth and last wife. The story is interesting--so much paranoia and intrigue and vying for power! Ericks More...

I don't know if I am just not as into historical fiction anymore or if it was this book itself but overall I was just not impressed. First of all... I didn't feel like it really enmeshed me in the historical time frame. I feel that there could have been more added to the narrative to really get you into the story. The thing about historical fiction is you assume that parts of the story are untrue and that they have had to create feelings and emotions that aren't necessarily accurate to truly get More...

I really liked this book. There is no secret that I like period books. But they differ. I have this weird fascination with the Tudors period, I have watched movies, the television series and read books from around that time.

I don´t think all of the wives of Henry are interesting and some of them I have not really given a second thought about. The last wife was one of those. In this novel the last wife is portrait as a headstrong, resourceful and a romantic woman who will do almost anything for More...

I guess I did things a little backward and got into the work of Phillipa Gregory after I discovered Carolly Erickson. "The Last Wife of Henry VIII: a novel" follows Katherine Parr, who is pursued by the king following his dispatch of Catherine Howard. As a member of the court, Katherine has witnessed first-hand the demise of his past wives and determines to avoid marriage to the King. Finally, forced into acceding to his wishes, she is able to garner a writ from Henry, which does not allow her t More...

I listened to this on CD over the last week. It's hard to say whether the writing is melodramatic, or if that's the reader's style. Even so, it was an intriguing listen. I think Catherine Parr may be the least known of Henry's six wives. She survived Henry and went on to marry Thomas Seymour, a relative of wife #5. For all that happened to her, and the fact that she had a total of four husbands, Catherine's life was short. She died at 37.

This story is written as an autobiography, in the first pe More...

I'm new to historical fiction and this is my first non Philippa Gregory. How did the writing compare? I prefer Gregory, only because I enjoyed her portrayal of King Henry The Eighth over Erickson's. It seemed more historically accurate (from what I've read about King Henry). Other wise, the book was okay. Enjoy able enough, but nothing I was excited for. The biggest disappointment was the lack of chemistry between Tom Seymour and Catherine Parr. Even though the romance is a small part, I was exp More...

Loved this book!

I read this one in practically one sitting...with breaks for laundry, etc. I am a fan of historical FICTION, and particularly drawn to this era (1500's). I can't say if the book was historically accurate, but it has made me want to learn more about the royal families of England to find out how accurate it is. A good story showing many facets to the main characters, both negative and positive. This book expanded my view of King Henry the VIII, making him a more 'human' character More...

It's a decent book about a fascinating character. Though I understand that it's a work of fiction, I think the author (as a historian) could easily have stayed true to the basic facts of Catherine's life while weaving the fictional story of how she felt/her motivations/what she said/what others said to her around those core facts. To change the facts of her life and her many marriages ruined a bit of the interest for me -- it's no longer truly a story about Catherine Parr, the last wife of King More...

This is one of my favorite Carolly Erickson books. Although like all of her works, she took many historical liberties to enrich the story; it worked. The novel is rich with imagery, emotional context, and personifications.

Yes, some of the timelines and facts are a bit off and the readers whom read history book on the Tudor times will notice these instantly but hey, so did "The Tudors" on TV and you still watched that! In fact, this books reads sort of like an over-dramatic episode of The Tudors More...

Henry VIII is one of my favourite historical figures, love to read stories about his life

Sparked my interest in the actual history of Henry VIII and his wives. It's been a distracting (and fun) novel for my spring break. Seems that this fictional story is not quite up to 'Parr' (haha) according to other (history buff) reviewers, but I came to the story with few expectations... and the bits of research I've done since completing the book...seem to reveal mostly insignificant historical liberties taken by the author. It wasn't a life changing work of literature for me, but it was an e More...

Courageous, attractive, romantic, intelligent, Catherine Parr became the sixth wife of Henry VIII. Her story, as Carolly Erickson re-creates it, is page-turning drama: from the splendors of the Field of the Cloth of Gold to the gory last years of the outsize King Henry, when heads rolled and England trembled, Catherine bestrode her destiny and survived to marry her true love.

Catherine Parr attracted the king’s lust and, though much in love with the handsome Thomas Seymour, was thrown into the in More...

An excellent read. Historically accurate, descriptive, and exciting. I hadn't read a whole lot about Catherine Parr prior to this book, aside from her bits in Alison Weir's Tudor books, so it was fun reading a different perspective on Henry VIII's reign. This is the first of Carolly Erickson's books that I have read, as well, and it inspired me to check out her other work. Very excellent read for anyone who loves Henry VIII, but also seems like a good read for someone who isn't familiar with thi More...

I read this one in one day, but it was an enjoyable read. Catherine Parr was the least likely person to become confidant of the King, and eventually his sixth wife. It was not a role that she relished and if she had been honest with him, she would have rather married another, but she held her tongue and did as the King commanded. One has to wonder though if she ever really got what she wanted out of life, before it was to late to enjoy it. Her last marriage to Thomas Seymour was one of love. She More...

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I generally love anything to do with the Tudors, and I enjoyed the author's book, The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, so I had some reasonable hopes for this one. Much as I tried, though, I couldn't get into it. I would read, and read, and read, come up for air and find I had only managed to read a few pages when it felt as if I had been reading forever. There were times when it showed promise and I felt a little more engaged. I think my problem with i More...