May 15th, 2012 ∙ Viking Juvenile
Source: Author (Thank you!)
Format: ARC
Page Count: 398
In
the court of King Henry VIII, nothing is free—
and
love comes at the highest price of all.
When Kitty Tylney's best friend, Catherine
Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII's heart and brings Kitty to court,
she's thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and
elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat's shadow, Kitty's now caught between
two men--the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is
also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat's
meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good
friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.Review:
After recently falling in love with historical stories, I’ve been eagerly anticipating any book that falls under that genre, Gilt especially. I opened the book to page one, read a few sentences and was already giddy as I knew I was in for treat!
In the beginning I found myself a tad disconnected from the story due to the language, but found that reading a few sentences or a page out loud quickly transported me right back into the story. This only occurred for a short period of time at the start, after that I had no trouble as I grew more familiar with the speech.
Set in the 1500’s, Katherine Longshore has painted a real, yet honest picture, which allows readers to get a better understanding of what it was really like back then and a behind-the-scenes look into Court.
Gilt isn’t just about glorious gowns, feasts fit for a king, jewels, glitz and glamour. It’s so much more. It deals with the challenges which females faced back then, expectations which they were supposed to meet and consequences if they disobeyed the rules, their husbands or acted unruly. And under the microscope of the Court, allowing everyone to see your mistakes, if you acted up it was even worse.
The further into this book I got, the more engrossed I became. I literally had to drag myself away as I didn’t want to stop reading.
Katherine Longshore has done a remarkable job bringing the setting to life, making it picture perfect to imagine.
If you’re a historical buff or interested in the Tudor era, I completely recommend Gilt!
Brilliant.
4/5
EEEEEE! I am so excited to read this book! I love the sound of it and your review absolutely convinced me that I need to read Gilt!
ReplyDeleteAwesome review, Rebecca! <3 So glad you enjoyed it!
Lovely review, Rebecca! I'll definitely have to check this one out. :)
ReplyDeleteThis book seems awesome, can't wait to read it. I love historical novels so it should be right up my street.
ReplyDeleteAh...the Tudor Age. I have absolutely no idea about it, but that's seriously all I know and need to know about Gilt. :P I really enjoy historicals, so I'm not really selective with them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you eventually adapted to the writing style. Sometimes I don't connect to a story at all just because of that.
Great review! I would've commented earlier but I have a habit of just starring reviews so I get back to them (which I almost never do!).
FANTASTIC review, Becca! I'm not kidding, it's brilliantly written, and I'm SO fascinated by the book, now! I've read NO historical YA (only historical romances), and they're mostly set in regency England... the Tudors? Uh, wow. AMAZING!
ReplyDelete