As always, a seamless blending of history and fiction. A pleasure to read.

I hardly ever do this but I am giving up on this book. I have read 251 pages and cannot take anymore marriage debate. This has changed the way I viewed Elizabeth I. This makes her out as something of a vapid twit. No thanks.

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/day-646-the-marriage-game/

Just couldn't get into this one. It felt flat and repetitive. Gave up about 30% in.

I've enjoyed Alison Weir's fiction books before, but I'm really not sure what happened to this one. The marriage games were dreadfully repetitive and the 'will she, won't she' tension it seemed like Weir was trying to build was undermined by the fact that every reader knows Elizabeth doesn't marry. There was also far too much telling instead of showing when it came to Elizabeth's feelings for each of her suitors; we were told time and time again that Elizabeth feared marriage because of what had happened to her mother and step-mother, but always in overt, info-dump exposition.

Even more annoyingly, there are small glimpses of the book this one could have been - Elizabeth and William Cecil discussing their theories about Amy Dudley' death, for instance. I would much rather have had a book about that, it's so ripe for speculation which is usually what historical fiction is about. This book, on the other hand, read like a very dry non-fiction book but with made-up dialogue - oh, and the obligatory saucy bedroom scenes because this is a book about the Tudors after all.

Another great novel from Weir. If you are a fan of the Tudor time period, treat yourself to this sweeping book, filled with historical facts and beautiful settings. An introspective look at Queen Elizabeth's I life and mentality.

Many people seem to be disliking this book because it's not historically accurate. That confuses me because the book is advertised as historical fiction and Weir does clarify in her author's note at the end, what liberties she has taken with the material.

I did not think this book was great compared to the two other historical fiction novels by Weir that I have read though. It was very repetitive. As per the title, it's completely centered around marriage discussion and various suitors and Elizabeth's indecisiveness was portrayed in an irritating way. I did feel that parts of the book were written like fiction and other parts, particularly towards the end, were written more like a series of historical events which lacked emotion. It felt like Weir had run out of things to say about the characters but was determined to include Elizabeth's entire life as queen in the book regardless.

Generally, I still really like Weir's use of language and reading this wasn't a chore, so I've given it 3/5, though I wouldn't particularly recommend it unless the subject matter is of particular interest to you.

I have to admit I got a bit fed up with this. I started off really enjoying it but by about half way, I was bored with Queen Elizabeth's advisors telling her she should get married and her being all stroppy and refusing. Let's face it, I know she didn't get married so there wasn't going be any great surprises!