The Sixth Wife

Interesting take on the life of Katherine Parr. She was the last wife of Henry VIII, and after his death, married Thomas Seymour. But their life together, according to the novel, was not everything that it could have been.

This tale is told from the perspective of her best friend, Cathy, the Duchess of Suffolk, and is one that was interesting. While in the household of Kate, she takes up with her friends husband, and then casts blame onto young Elizabeth when she is about to get caught.
After her friends death, she retreats back to her home, where she concentrates on raising her own boys, and distancing her oldest son from the affections of Elizabeth, both of whom have expressed an interest in each other. Knowing the danger of the relationship, Cathy is not anxious for it to proceed any further than simple childhood infatuation.
After Thomas is arrested for treason, Kate's daughter is sent to Cathy to be raised, until she is older.


This was an interesting and disturbing read. I felt that there could have been more added about Kate, given the title, but as it was told from the perspective of her friend, it was decent. Rather a new view on the life that Thomas and Kate spent together, but then I think that is what the author was going for. Thomas Seymour was always one for self promotion and he went after it anyway he could, whether it was trying to marry a princess, or actually marrying the dowager queen of England. After Kate's death, he tried again with Elizabeth, but then was arrested on treason charges for many other reasons (not only trying to marry again within the royal line). I have not fully decided yet, how I feel on the book, this is one that I need to sleep on and ponder over a bit more.

Interestingly written take on a Tudor woman who never shows up in fiction since she had nothing to do with Anne Boleyn. The author deliberately wrote a style that I wouldn't really call “modern” but it wasn't all “prithee, wouldst thou” - Ms. Dunn explains that we only have letters and documents, so we don't know people actually spoke that way (after all, in modern times we typically don't speak the way we write formal documents). This made the book refreshing and easy to follow.

The story itself interesting - Catherine Parr (the titular sixth wife) is a secondary character despite being the titular character, the focus is on her historical best friend, also named Catherine (called Cathy in the book). She grapples with disapproving of Catherine's choice in a fourth husband and her own complicated feelings in regards to him, before the historic downfall of many of the top players of the court from the end of Henry VIII's reign.

This is of course historical FICTION so there are some plot lines for which there is no historic concrete evidence, including one that ends up being ambiguous - since we don't see anything from Elizabeth's perspective, well...

The book was very interesting and a good read, although I did find the very beginning a little slow. Once I got into it I was reading 3 or 4 chapters a night. Great book!