Gilt by Katherine Longshore

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Oh Gilt. I had such high hopes for you. But unfortunately, you left my boiling need to read you with a lukewarm opinion.

I am obsessed with the Tudors. I am convinced that in a past life I lived in King Henry’s court. So when I found out about this book, I was hitching up my skirts and hoofing it to the library to get check it out. But my high expectations and need for court drama were just not met the way I wanted them to. Admittedly, I do know all about this story and it IS one of my favorites. But I don’t think my previous knowledge had anything to do with my criticisms of the book.

Here’s the thing. It gives me everything I want, dresses, drama and disloyalty. Everything that the Tudor court was known for. But Kitty drove me nuts. And having a poor opinion of the narrator, is just a recipe for disaster. I just cannot relate or understand her undying loyalty to Cat. I mean, come on, Cat is a superficial manipulative bitch. And it’s SO OBVIOUS! Why the hell does Kitty keep coming back to her? When a main character is weak like that, I just get annoyed and it takes away from everything else to book has to offer. Kitty has flashes of understanding and I keep thinking she will redeem herself and yet, she never does. This story is like Sisyphus. We almost get to the top, just to come rolling all the way back down. It drove me bonkers. In the end, Kitty does revive a bit. But it’s only because Cat’s not there to pull her strings anymore so it’s not like our heroine overcame any great mountain or had a great epiphany. Although she does turn down Edmund in the end, it’s to late to see her as anything but pathetic, and weak, and.. well… slapworthy.

If Longshore comes out with a sequel, I would read it. I would like to have my faith restored in Kitty. I just wish that Kitty would have had her “ah-ha” moment three quarters of the way through the book so we could have spent the last part of the book rooting Kitty on not wanting to punch her in her lady parts. But hey. At least she sees the light in the end right? Right.