The White Princess

By: Philippa Gregory

Narrated by: Bianca Amato

Length: 19 hrs

Publisher's summary

The newest novel from #1 New York Times best-selling author and "queen of royal fiction" (USA Today) Philippa Gregory tells the passionate story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of the White Queen, who gets caught in the middle of a battle for the crown of England.

The White Princess opens as the news of the battle of Bosworth is brought to Princess Elizabeth of York, who will learn not only which rival royal house has triumphed, Tudor or York, but also which suitor she must marry: Richard III her lover, or Henry Tudor her enemy.

A princess from birth, Elizabeth fell in love with Richard III, though her mother made an arranged betrothal for her with the pretender to the throne: Henry Tudor. When Henry defeats Richard against all odds, Elizabeth has to marry the man who murdered her lover in battle, and create a new royal family with him and his ambitious mother: Margaret Beaufort, The Red Queen. But, while the new monarchy can win, it cannot, it seems, hold power in an England which remembers the House of York with love.

The new king’s greatest fear is that somewhere, outside England, a prince from the House of York is waiting to invade and re-claim the throne for the house of York. Fearing that none of his new allies can be trusted, Henry turns to his wife to advise him, all the time knowing that her loyalties must be divided. When the young man who would be king finally leads his army and invades England, it is for Elizabeth to decide whether she recognizes him as her brother and a claimant to the throne, or denies him in favor of the husband she is coming to love....

©2013 Philippa Gregory (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

Yorkist Sympatheizer

Clearly, Ms. Gregory has no love for the Tudors, especially Margaret Beaufort and her son Henry VII.

The beginning of this book drove me batty. It was the same conversation from the same viewpoints over and over again. I got frustrated with the words "I don't know." The end was far more interesting, though Henry Tudor never once became a decent human or did ANYTHING decent. I hope to God that he was more redeeming than Ms. Gregory made him out to be, with good and bad qualities like most people.

loved it!

this was my first book i read by her and my first audio book

Beautiful story

I really enjoyed this book! I have seen the tv series but the book is Better!

Another Masterpiece

Philippa Gregory is masterful in her portrayals of the herstories of long lost queens that jave enthralled me for the last 12 year's.

Historical fiction.

Loved this story! Philippa Gregory creates a wonderful tale of historical fiction. This book is a good mix of storytelling from a fictional stand point mixed with real historical facts and details of 15th century court living. Very entertaining.

Excellent Performance, Unfavorable characters

After having read The White Queen, and subsequently watching the Starz series about the book and loving them both, The White Princess seemed a shoe-in considering Starz now had a series for this book too.

The performance of this audiobook was wonderful- but the story line itself I struggled with. In the end, none of the characters are particularly endearing, and some of the main ones which I felt were meant to inspire pity were the most loathsome of all. Overall it just wasn't as captivating as The White Queen, and I felt like I listened to hours of repetitive angst that was more annoying than poignant. Hoping the Starz series will be better- considering this is supposed to be about a strong female line.

Must read

Love the book. Really wish starz show was more like the book definitely did not do it justices. Enjoyed listening to it.

Philippa and Bianca are the Best!

I don't normally take time to write reviews because I'm such an audiobook junkie I just don't have time in between to share my thoughts. I can't write reviews while listening to the next book, unfortunately. I listened to this book a while ago and happened to be browsing by because I'm currently watching the new Blu-ray series based on this book. I was taken aback by the lack of an overwhelming positive response by reviewers. Nearly every book I see on Audible has all five-star reviews regardless of merit so it's really noticeable when reviewers pan a particular book. Damning with faint praise and even some ridiculous one-stars. All of Philippa's Tudor/Plantagenet books are not merely OK but sublimely excellent, and I don't recall this one being any kind of exception. I devoured all of them almost back-to-back. They really are together an amazing, umpteen-volume mega-novel of which this is only a single chapter. It took me a long time to take the plunge originally because from the outside looking in it looks like an impossible task. Audible isn't even consistent in listing the books as a single series. Where do you even begin? (Currently The Lady of the Rivers unless Philippa writes some kind of prequel in the future.) I finally took the plunge when Audible had all the Tudor books on sale. At the time I was mad at Audible because I already had 50 unlistened-to books but as soon as I started Philippa eclipsed everything else. I bought all the sale books and less than a year a later I've listened to every single Philippa book on Audible and some that are not (you can have the Kindle robot read in a pinch when there's no Audible version). The only books of hers that were at all a disappointment were the Order of Darkness series, and that was only because they were YA-oriented. The Plantagenet/Tudor you novels you can happily binge through from start to finish. I don't know what these other reviewers were thinking. I hope they don't discourage anyone from discovering some of the very finest audiobooks available.

Always wondered what happened to Prince in Tower

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would and I have and they have enjoyed this book too. Is worth a re-listen actually.

What other book might you compare The White Princess to and why?

The White Princess puts a nice ending to the White Queen series. Very interesting information. Long, but very fun.

Which character – as performed by Bianca Amato – was your favorite?

Probably Elizabeth

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would have liked to listen to it in one sitting, but it was way too long.

Starts strong, then becomes repetitive

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is the 4th book I've read in this series. I thought it started great and was very interesting but then became repetitive about half way through. It felt like it just kept repeating the same plot point over and over again.

If you’ve listened to books by Philippa Gregory before, how does this one compare?

I liked her other books a bit more, both the White Queen and the Red Queen.