The Tudor Court, a vibrant testosterone-fuelled maze of manners, duty, politics and sex. To be a woman in such an environment requires guile, luck and loyal friends – a princess needs these even more. To her father she was a disappointment, a bastard, a whore, to her sister a threat and to her stepmother she was Beth. The girl who became Elizabeth I, the woman with the heart of a lion, her heart beat like a woman’s nonetheless and her desires were no different. Martha D. Jones’s Best Served Cold dips into the secret world of Elizabeth I, the indiscretions she witnesses, the confessions she must make as a result and the cruel justice visited on those who threaten the crown. Though Elizabeth will become a powerful woman her desires are simple and it is through these desires that she will hide the greatest secret of them all.
My Review
When I first received this book from Austin Macauley I was very sceptical. I’ll be honest, I judged this book by its cover and page count and was not looking forward to reading it.
When I opened the book and began to read I was pleasantly surprised and was hooked from the first page. Little did I know at the time that I wouldn’t be able to put the book down until it was finished. I finished the book in an afternoon.
I do not remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much. I could not wait to see where the story would lead me and started thinking it would make a marvelous television series.
Where do I even start? I adored the explanation of Elizabeth’s feelings toward her father and what led her to them. The explanation of how Katherine Howard, who she called, ‘Katherine Two’, sealed her fate and what led to her execution was mind-blowing. I enjoyed the road that Jones took me one.
What I probably liked the most was the love story that Elizabeth has always deserved. One that did not include any man that the history books have left us with. This man was the only man that Elizabeth truly loved….and with him she had finally made the family she always deserved.
There was also a part about Elizabeth’s relationship with Thomas Seymour, which for someone like me who is sympathetic toward Thomas was hard to read yet was perfect for this story.
I could go on and on about?this book but what I would really like to say is….READ IT! It’s under 200 pages long and is well worth the short time it will take to read it.
I would rate this 6 out if 5 stars, if that was possible, but since it is not I’ll have to settle for 5 stars.
-Rebecca
—
