The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory

The Kingmaker’s Daughter – by Philipa Gregory 409 pages

Book Blurb:

The Kingmaker’s Daughter is the gripping story of the daughters of the man known as the “Kingmaker,” Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick: the most powerful magnate in fifteenth-century England. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters, Anne and Isabel as pawns in his political games, and they grow up to be influential players in their own right.
At the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne grows from a delightful child to become ever more fearful and desperate when her father makes war on his former friends. Married at age fourteen, she is soon left widowed and fatherless, her mother in sanctuary and her sister married to the enemy. Anne manages her own escape by marrying Richard, Duke of Gloucester, but her choice will set her on a collision course with the overwhelming power of the royal family and will cost the lives of those she loves most in the world, including her precious only son, Prince Edward. Ultimately, the kingmaker’s daughter will achieve her father’s greatest ambition.

My Review: 3.5 stars

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I’ll start my review with stating my error in believing this was a stand alone novel, not the fourth in the Cousin’s series. It is however the first story about sisters since The Other Boleyn Girl and therein lies my mistake. That being said, it didn’t bother me one bit and it can be read without previously reading the earlier three. As I always do when I read one of Gregory’s books, I feel like I’ve taken a crash course in fifteenth century history and I loved every minute of it. Re-learning how kings overtake kingdoms to soon be usurped by yet another heir or so-called heir is fascinating. Learning how Anne Neville marries for love adds a bit of warmth to this medieval chess game. Every birth, death, murder, harlot and page is a pawn during this time. This book was a great change of pace. Not as good as The Other Boleyn Girl, but certainly entertaining and revealing history into the War of the Roses.

Quotes I liked:

When will we see my father?” I ask Mother. It is only the thought that he is victorious on the other side of these seas that makes me feel I dare set sail. I so want to be with him, I want him to know that I have done my part in this great venture, I have wedded and bedded the prince he found for me, I did not shrink from the altar nor from the bed. My husband never speaks to me and does his duty on me as if I were a mare that must foal. But I have done all that my father asks, and when I call the bad queen “My lady mother” and kneel for her blessing I do more than he asked of me. I am ready to take the throne that he has won for me. I am his daughter, I am his heir, I will cross the seas that are so fearsome and I will not fail him. I will become a queen like Margaret of Anjou with a will like a wolf.”

– “I learn that to love a man whose interests are mine, whose passion is given freely and openly to me, and whose battle-hardened young lithe body lies beside me every night as his only joy, is to utterly change my life. I was married before; but I was never shaken and touched and puzzled and adored before. I was a wife but I was no lover. With Richard I become wife and lover, counselor and friend, partner in all things, comrade in arms, fellow traveler. With Richard I become a woman, not a girl, I become a wife.”