Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles

by Margaret George

Reviewed by Coral

She was crowned the Queen of Scotland as a child. She was briefly the Queen of France and had a claim to the English throne. She was Mary, Queen of Scots, and hers was a story full of love, betrayal and tragedy.

I’m not sure if the author intended for us to like the character of Mary, but I found it hard to be sympathetic with her character. She was impulsive in her decisions, never seemed to learn from her mistakes and trusted the wrong people all the time. I know there’s not a lot of leeway to change her actions, as what happened is a matter of history, but I was hoping for an exploration of those actions that would at least try to offer a sense to them. Nothing that Mary did, particularly at the end, made any sense at all.

Weirdly enough, I don’t think I hated the book. I was more disappointed than anything else.

Grade: C