Review of The Queen's Mary by Sarah Gristwood

Goodreads Summary: Who would have thought it? That captivity could be liberty? That service could be freedom?
In 1548 four little girls, all called Mary, set sail from Scotland for France. Five years old, they are already primed for the work of their lifetime - to serve another little girl called Mary.

Mary, Queen of Scots.

Thirteen years later, the five return to an unwelcoming Scotland, and as Queen Mary struggles to take control of her turbulent country, her famous ‘Four Marys’ are at her side.

The queen finds herself set on the path of violence and disaster which will lead eventually to her tragic end. But what of the other four Marys, bound inexorably to their mistress’ fate?

Of the four, it is Mary Seton who serves the queen longest, and whose loyalty is most severely tested. Through a maze of shadows - of treachery and even witchcraft - how can she find her own way ahead?

Goodreads Ratings: 3.67 stars with 46 ratings

Genre listing: Historical Fiction, European Literature, British and Scottish culture

Get the book: Amazon, Book Depository

Amazon giveaway

Unfortunately, no one entered the giveaway I was hosting for a $20 Amazon gift card, so there is no winner. Maybe another time!

Book Review:

I finished The Queen's Mary by Sarah Gristwood a few days ago, and I've been having trouble getting my thoughts together. In the beginning, I really enjoyed Mary Seton's story, but the farther into her life it got the harder I found it to read. Most of it read like it was just her internal thoughts and sounded like rambling to me. 

Of the four Mary's, I don't know that Seton was the best choice for a story. She was very much invisible and didn't seem all that intelligent or heroic. She was loyal, but there just wasn't enough to make me care about her plight. I think the main reason I stayed interested in the story was that I was hoping that she'd rebel or something would happen to her that would make her a noblewoman worth reading about. 

Truthfully, this post regarding The Queen's Mary is going to be short. It just wasn't that memorable for me. It was moderately enjoyable while I was reading it, but there wasn't really anything that made me love it or hate it. The couple of points I mentioned already were my cons for it, and what made it enjoyable was the history shown in it. It's not terribly long, under 300 pages and it's on Kindle Unlimited. I feel like I'm cheating you all out of a review here, but honestly, it was about as middle of the road for me as it could get.