Brazen by Katherine Longshore

Title: Brazen

Author: Katherine Longshore

Type: Young Adult

Genre: Historical

Tea: Silver Needle, maybe not as popular as or well known, but equally as good.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

"Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she’s married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court’s inner circle. Mary and “Fitz” join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court’s strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed…but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?" (Goodreads.com)

Brazen is my second novel my Katherine Longshore and it does not disappoint! It is about the lesser known Mary Howard, betrothed to Henry FitzRoy, son of Henry VIII. I did not know much about Mary Howard before this novel, but it made me want to research her!

Katherine Longshore's novels, which historical and informative, also read like popular fiction. One of the best ways to describe it would be a cross between Gossip Girl and Philippa Gregory's Tudors series. The story line is intriguing and makes the 500 pages fly by. I liked Katherine Longshore's portrayal of Mary. She gave her a voice and brought life to a very interesting part of that time period. Mary was one of the only women that sought to have her own life, her own place to live, not surviving off a man. She's an inspiring woman that more people should know about.

Katherine Longshore admits that she takes liberties with Mary and Fitz's relationship, but in this context, that is totally fine. Also, there isn't any written information saying that she is wrong about their relationship either. This book actually made me cry, which I was not expecting. Mary is a likable main character and you want to see her succeed. I enjoyed this novel more than the first one I read by her, Gilt, for that very reason. The one of the main characters in that one, Catherine Howard (yes, they're related), was not a nice girl. I couldn't feel any sympathy for her and just kinda wanted to get it over with. I did enjoy the historical information though, and the other main character, Kitty, was someone I wanted to know more about.

If you like the Tudors, or don't know much about them and want to, check this out! It keeps your attention and teaches you about the characters and time period without sounding like a book report.

Katherine Longshore's novels don't have to be read in any specific order (they are companion novels), but if you want to read them in order of when each queen was in power start with Tarnish (I'll be reviewing that as well), then Brazen, and then Gilt.

Can't wait to see what, or rather who, she writes about next!