BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from C. W. Gortner’s The Queen’s Vow.
Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, has been for centuries an enigmatic figure shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C. W. Gortner challenges the myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand.
The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amid her parents’ ruthless struggle to unify their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus’ s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents’ strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII.
Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Habsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a battle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to secure her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything.
With brilliant, lyrical prose, novelist and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era, and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.
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Sexual Content - 3/5
3/5
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Violence - 2/5
2/5
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Language - 1/5
1/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 3/5
3/5
Summary
The Last Queen by CW Gortner is an intriguing read about Juana of Castile, third daughter of Isabel and Ferdinand of Spain¬¬yes, the ones who financed Columbus's voyage to America. She has gone down in history as Crazy Juana, but I wonder if author, Gortner hasn't presented circumstances that will cause his readers to question that offensive moniker and instead see her as maligned. Gortner brings alive these fabled characters in such a way that the reader is totally embroiled in their lives. There is so much history that can be learned from a book such as this: understanding that Spain at this time wasn't even a united kingdom, but two smaller kingdoms, Castile being the greater and more powerful, and Aragon. Also, Queen Isabel was the part of the royal duo that had greater power. It is disturbing to read how children of royalty were used as pawns by their own parents, and thus Juana's story begins. I found myself so wrapped up in the strength of her personality and what she endured; frankly, it is appalling to me how women where treated not much better than chattel. Gortner masterfully draws the reader into Juana's story, and leads them fall in love with her and hate those who would use her. An enjoyable read with the exception being the gratuitous descriptions of sex that could have been dealt with less explicitly and still gotten the point across.
Voilence: Throw away your \"fairy tale\" ideas about royals . . .
Language:
Sexual : Violent in its nature. This aspect is what lowered my rating of the book. It really wasn't necessary to describe in the kind of detail that it did. The nature of the act could have been conveyed without the description.
Drug & Alchol: