In this weeks spotlight is The King's Rose, about poor Catherine Howard. She was just a teenager(and a little empty headed) when her family paraded her in front of the fat, bloated, smelly(he had a leg wound filled with puss) old King Henry VIII. She didn't want to marry the old guy because she was in love with a hot young man named Thomas Culpeper. Too bad for her young ladies couldn't follow their heart.
The story is told from Catherine's point of view.
Here is a summary from Amazon:
Though well aware of her cousin Anne Boleyn’s fate only four years earlier, 15-year-old Catherine Howard acquiesces with her ambitious, conniving relatives’ plans and marries King Henry VIII. He calls her “my rose without a thorn,” but she is well aware of the thorny secrets she conceals: no virgin when she and the king married, she later begins a sexual liaison at court, partly in a desperate effort to produce an heir. Soon, Catherine begins a downward spiral toward madness and despair. An author’s note separates historical fact from conjecture in this account of Catherine’s short years as Henry’s “rose.” Libby offers a convincing, sympathetic portrayal of a young woman who relinquishes her hopes of marrying for love and finds herself doomed by her choices and deceptions. Hardly an active heroine, Catherine falls into a trap early on and, in the end, has little left but her dignity. This one’s for historical-fiction fans who will appreciate this character study of Henry’s fifth wife.
