The King’s Witches by Kate Foster
Book Review
Kate Foster has done it again. Making me fall deeply in love with historical fiction. If like me you have found in the past, historical fiction to be not relatable or bogged down with so much detail it makes your head swim. You too will adore The Maiden and The King’s Witches.
Kate is no witch (as far as I know) but boy does she weave magic with her words in her books. Making these three women become so real to me I know they will be ghosting me forever whenever I am in the old town of Edinburgh. Violet already does from The Maiden.
The year is 1589 and we meet Anne of Denmark as she is preparing to travel to Scotland to be in a handfasting with King James VI of Scotland. In North Berwick we meet young Jura who’s mum has died and who is looking for new work as a maid. Alongside AoD is her lady’s maid Kirsten, she has some ties to Scotland in some way but we don’t know how or why (in the beginning).
These three women come to life across the pages of The King’s Witches. Each with a different character and each with their own story to tell.
We see AoD grow from a young teenager to a woman almost overnight as it is her duty during the handfasting. AoD realises quickly her lack of options and that her opinion doesn’t seem to matter. It was both skunnering and funny to read the letters from her mother. The pressure she put on Anne was terrible and very selfish.
I don’t think I have read a book that has made me gasp and say OH MY GOD as much as The King’s Witches did. I was so absorbed into the characters that when things happened to them, I felt it too. I cried and laughed with the book.
The women’s needs of the 15th century are not very different from present day. Their core needs to be loved, to be healthy and respected is the same now. It is a human need that has never and will never change. Kate Foster breaks down the walls of time and makes the women come alive and you care about them as you read their journey.
The trials of the witches were so farcical and led not by the fear of magic in my opinion but by the greed of men in power. A way to kill off people they didn’t like or an easy way to make a mistress vanish. The women were tortured heinously and they just had to confess to awful things to make it stop and when people complained about the torture they switched it to mental torture. For example not allowing them to sleep. It really was beyond any logic.
I really enjoyed learning more about it and I will continue to study and find out more about that time.
Kate Foster’s writing draws you in and makes you pay attention.
All the stars and more for The King’s Witches it is an emotional and worthwhile journey. So get your copy and come and meet my three pals. They have such stories to tell you.
I was kindly gifted a physical book from Chloe at Panmacmillan in exchange for an honest review.
My Vision Board for The King’s Witches
Kate Foster Signing My Book
Kate Foster Reading – Blackwells Edinburgh
Blurb
The King’s Witches by Kate Foster is a compelling and beautiful historical novel that gives voices to the women at the heart of the real-life witch trials in sixteenth-century Scotland.
Women whisper secrets to each other; it is how we survive.
1589. Princess Anna of Denmark is betrothed to King James VI of Scotland. Before they can wed, Anna must pass the trial period: one year of marriage to prove herself worthy of being Scotland’s new Queen. Determined to fulfil her duties to King and country, Anna resolves to be the perfect royal bride. Until she meets Lord Henry . . .
By her side is Kirsten Sorenson, her loyal and pious lady-in-waiting. But, whilst tending to Anna’s every need, Kirsten has her own secret motives for the royal marriage to succeed . . .
Meanwhile, in North Berwick, young housemaid Jura practises the healing charms taught to her by her mother. When she realizes she is no longer safe, she escapes to Edinburgh, only to find herself caught up in the witchcraft mania that has gripped not just the capital, but the new queen . . .
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