Why do we read historical novels centered on real people? If the answer is to get insight into their interior lives via the license of a novelist to attempt to reconstruct it, this book is not a good choice. Queen Anne was deeply shortchanged in life--her father, James the turd deliberately educated her as a country squires wife rather than a potential heir to the throne, her bad eyesight made self education difficult, and her status usually meant that she was acted upon rather than a decision maker, even up to her elevation to the throne. Someone who could show us what this was like would have a terrific book, but Limberg has chosen a style in which she can't manage to both give the background of complex Restoration events like the Titus Oates affair AND Anne's limited view of them, and she lacks a sense of her subject past dull, over emotional fat girl. Still waiting for a good novel about Anne.

This ended up being my first DNF of the year. I found the story really hard to get into and the narrative felt very disjointed. I only managed to get about 30% through before giving up.

As a huge Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies fan, I was really looking forward to reading Joanne Limberg's A Want of Kindness about Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch but unfortunately for me the book did not live up to this billing. I enjoyed discovering the historical story of a lesser known monarch but I found the book quite heavy going in parts and frequently had to refer to the Dramatis Personae to remember who was who and who they related to. I found the narrative style to be quite detached so I never felt that I properly understood Anne, for example, I couldn't understand the dramatic breakdown in the relationship with her Stepmother (other than the Catholic question). The first half of the book was also rather episodic and slow going and generally I felt that Joanne Limberg expected a better historical knowledge of period than I have and sometimes the narrative was too subtle for me to pick up on all the implications. The second half of the book was more engaging and I really did think that Joanne Limberg conveyed the enormous sadness that Anne must have felt over her lost children, miscarriages and stillbirths. I could not believe that she died childless after a lifetime of constant pregnancies/births and found it truly heartbreaking when her son, William, Duke of Gloucester died so suddenly when he seemed to have overcome health problems to become a healthy young man. The relationship between Anne and her sister Mary was also well drawn and a 'want of kindness' is certainly an apt description of the relationship between the toe woman in their adult life. The book certainly provided food for thought and gave me insight into the life of a lesser known monarch.
This review is of an advance reading copy, received from Realreaders.co.uk

Three and a half stars, if I could...

A Want Of Kindness was a nice little surprise for me when it came clattering through my letterbox. It’s part of The Real Readers review system from the lovely team over at New Books Magazine (which I receive quarterly) and their companion web site http://www.nudge.com so many thanks to them for the opportunity to read this novel. My first impressions were definitely favourable it being a historical fiction title, a genre which I thoroughly enjoy and it tells the story of Queen Anne, one of our least known monarchs from history here in the UK. My own knowledge about Anne is incredibly hazy I have to admit and I relished the chance to learn more about the last Stuart monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The story is told in chronological order from Anne’s childhood through to just before she ascended the throne with a lovely family tree at the beginning which was very useful as more characters came into play and I flicked backwards to remember where they fit in the scheme of things. As a fictional account it is quite slow going at first but becomes a lot more interesting when Anne’s father, James II is toppled from his throne because of his Catholic faith in favour of Anne’s sister Mary and her Dutch born husband, William. Anne would continue to feel guilty for the manner in which her father was deposed for the rest of her life but is devoted to her Protestant faith.

During her sister’s reign the relationship between Anne and Mary becomes increasingly strained and immediately before Mary’s death, the sisters have barely met or spoken at all. This is mainly down to Mary’s insistence that Anne’s beloved friends should be removed from the inner circle at court, something Anne is adamant will not happen as she relies on them unequivocally and would be distraught without them. Her status and finances are also challenged to the point where the sisters become completely estranged. This is represented beautifully by the author in the form of letters between the sisters (taken from actual letters in the royal archive).

William and Mary died leaving no heirs to the throne and Anne feels under great pressure to produce children. One of the saddest parts of the book for me was the trauma that Anne went through after seventeen pregnancies with her husband, Prince George of Denmark resulted in miscarriages, stillbirths, infants that died shortly after birth or those that died in early childhood. She managed to have one son who lived to the age of eleven but who then succumbed to what was believed to be smallpox or scarlet fever. The way in which Joanne Limburg presents Anne’s struggles with each loss is admirable and no-one can help but be moved by the way in which Anne deals with her grief and tries to move on.

Anne herself was quite a sickly creature and a bit too fond of the sweetmeats and other rich foods available to her which led to her putting on quite a bit of weight. She also suffered from gout, survived a nasty bout of smallpox and had frequent pains in her limbs all of which led to her becoming quite lame on bad days or unable to move at all. She died in the August of 1714 after another bout of ill health but the author does not take us as far as this choosing to end the novel just before Anne begins her reign as Queen.

Overall, I thought this was a clearly well researched and interesting historical novel. I don’t think I could compare it to authors such as Philippa Gregory or Alison Weir as the style of writing was quite different which I found both an advantage and a disadvantage as a reader. I loved that the chapters were short and snappy, some of which only amounted to half a page and as mentioned above, I did enjoy that a lot of the novel was made up of letters. Unfortunately, in my copy I found the font used for the letters quite difficult on the eye and it made reading them more of a chore then it should have been.

There were occasional periods also when the writing felt a bit too stilted as it moved from chapter to chapter which led to the story not flowing as well as I would have liked. It would also have been lovely to read a bit more about Anne as she finally becomes Queen as I was starting to become very interested in how her life would pan out. However, if you’re a fan of historical fiction and, like me, curious about the life of one of the more mysterious monarchs it’s a great read. Warning, be prepared for a rush of emotions as one by one, Anne’s children and potential heirs to the throne pass away – it definitely made an impact on me!

A Want Of Kindness was published on 2nd July by Atlantic Books and is available from all good book retailers now.

Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.com

I liked that it brought this period and people to life but... it felt too much like life in that events just happened. There didn't seem to be a reason, either character or plot based. Even the Revolution didnt feel very urgent. Maybe because of the use of Anne as narrator?

A wonderfully readable and well researched historical novel, cleverly interspersed with letters etc written by Anne, so you really get an insight into her personality and into life at the royal court. For me and I'm sure for a lot of people she seems to have been completely overlooked by history and I know that before reading this book the only thing I could have told you about her was that she gave her name to a style of furniture.

I now know that she lived through incredibly turbulent times in British history. Niece to Charles II, daughter of James II and sister of Queen Mary whose husband was William III, she learnt how to walk a veritable tightrope of family and religious loyalties. She suffered many personal tragedies and as she grew older suffered ill health as a result, it is no wonder she died at a relatively young age.

I found this book to be very engaging as we follow Anne from a young Princess in the court of Charles II up until the point where she is on the brink of becoming Queen. The court intrique, religious tensions between Protestants and Catholics and Anne's family relationships are brought wonderfully to life. The only thing that has stopped me from giving this book a five star review is the abrupt ending. I would have liked to have seen the story continue into Anne's reign as Queen instead of stopping before she was crowned. That aside, I really did enjoy this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel and also to anyone who just enjoys a really good story.

I just loved it. There was so much I didn't know about Anne, and her relationship with her family. And the way it was written, from different POVs just added to the joy. And Joanne Limburg's way of expressing Anne's innermost thoughts, inspired