The White Queen

June 29, 2009
The queen of British historical fiction (The Other Boleyn Girl
) kicks off a new series with the story of Elizabeth Woodville Grey, whose shifting alliances helped the War of the Roses take root. The marriage of 22-year-old Yorkist King Edward IV to 27-year-old widow Elizabeth brings a sea change in loyalties: Elizabeth's Lancastrian family becomes Edward's strongest supporters, while Edward's closest adviser, the ambitious earl of Warwick, joins with Edward's brother George to steal the English crown. History buffs from Shakespeare on have speculated about this fateful period, especially the end of Edward and Elizabeth's two sons, and Gregory invents plausible but provocative scenarios to explore those mysteries; she is especially poignant depicting Elizabeth in her later years, when her allegiance shifts toward Richard III (who may have killed her sons). Gregory earned her international reputation evoking sex, violence, love and betrayal among the Tudors; here she adds intimate relationships, political maneuvering and battlefield conflicts as well as some well-drawn supernatural elements. Gregory's newest may not be as fresh as earlier efforts, but she captures vividly the terrible inertia of war.

August 17, 2009
Gregory applies her romantically written fictionalization of history to the powerful story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first English born commoner to become Queen of England. Her marriage to King Edward IV became part of the aristocratic battle of kin against kin for the crown during the turbulent and tragic years of the War of the Roses. From the fairytale-like introduction to the loss of her two young princes in the Tower of London, Elizabeth tells her own tale of joy and grief. Bianca Amato narrates the story with little vocal embellishment. It is a reading rather than a performance, and, in this instance, wholly successful. Rather than a creating a host of character voices, Amato uses her strong, haunting and cultured tone and accent so that listeners hear Elizabeth herself. A Touchstone hardcover (Reviews, Jun. 29).