Three Sisters, Three Queens Philippa Gregory Simon & Schuster | 560 pages

Game plot, Tudor history has guts, gore, sex, incestuous politics, romance and more. It’s no surprise then that the work of historical novelist Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl, is so popular. In her latest novel, Three Sisters, Three Queens, Gregory introduces Margaret Tudor, the elder of King Henry VIII’S two sisters.

Through first-person narration, we witness the interplay of Margaret, her younger sister Mary, who became Queen of France, and England’s Queen Katherine of Aragon (Henry’s soon-to-be-ditched wife). Royal women of the age, while educated to a point, were often pawns in international politics. As Margaret’s story unfolds, she becomes Queen of Scotland and then Regent following her husband’s death in battle – and, unusually, she ends up in power.

Not knowing a dime about Scottish history, I waited for Margaret to steadily hold the reins of a country of feuding noblemen, showing the lads how it’s done. Instead, she embarrassingly falls from grace with a lusty nobleman whom we can never quite trust.

That story echoes my view of this book: a slow-burning disappointment. I’d hoped that Margaret’s life had been chosen to showcase a woman flourishing in the face of adversity. Instead, she comes across as a spoiled Tudor Princess, easily manipulated by ambitious men and never realising her inner power or potential.

Despite all its promise, and the author’s ability to bring Tudor archives to life, this sorry tale lacked the intensity of her previous books. As for a Game of Thrones plot, her Margaret Tudor is more Sansa Stark’s victim complex than Daenerys Targaryen’s Queen of Dragons.