D.L Bogdan’s The Forgotten Queen tells the little known story of Margaret Tudor, elder sister of King Henry VIII.

Margaret is married as a young girl to James IV, King of Scotland to keep the peace between the two countries. Throughout her life she battles between her two great loyalties -to the proud Tudor family and England and also to Scotland as a Scottish Queen. These are troubled times and at many junctures in her life she finds that these two cannot both be honoured, with often devastating results.

D.L Bogdan has done a great job of capturing the historical period in a genuine way. Her characters are multi-dimensional and the dialogue is believable and compelling. At times her use of dialect jarred with me slightly (though as a Scottish reviewer I am trying to be unbiased!) but overall, the prose was excellent.

This novel tells the story of an often forgotten historical figure and the author has served us well by revealing her compelling story of changing times and a life composed of difficult choices and painful losses.

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Kensington Publishing

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  2 religious exclamations, 5 derogatory names.

Violence/Gore:  Some implied occurrences of violence; a character dies in battle with some description; a rape is referred to; many children die in infancy of natural causes; a character nearly dies in childbirth on two occasions with some descriptions of blood loss; a character self-flagelates with some descriptions of the scarring and injuries inflicted. 

Sex/Nudity:  Characters kiss and touch; implied sexual activity between characters; three scenes of sexual activity without explicit details; a rape is reported but not described.

Mature Subject Matter:

War, arranged marriage, death of a spouse, death of a child, marriage infidelity, abandonment, rape, racial conflict.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Wine is drunk with meals.