Sorry but I can’t recommend this book if you’re interested in an accurate retelling of Scottish history. As a keen scholar of Mary Queen of Scots I found it an absurd take on her story.

The Tower, by Flora Carr, is an exceptionally entertaining historical novel. The author writes an enthralling account of the imprisonment of the young Mary, Queen of Scots, in Lochleven Castle. As it’s a historical novel, Carr has to stick to the known facts and there’s no scope to change the outcome. There’s a very small group of characters. But the biggest constraint is that the four main characters – the queen and her companions – spend all their time in the tower and its immediate vicinity on a tiny island in the middle of Loch Leven in Scotland. This is a huge challenge, but it successfully addressed in this remarkable book.

Carr writes brilliantly about the issues that the women face. They are all fear for their lives. The queen has been taken prisoner and is at the mercy of her captors, the Scottish nobles who oppose her reign. She hopes for rescue and to be restored to her throne and to be reunited with her infant son. The truth is that she is completely without power and has to rely on her captors for everything. Her chambermaids have to tread carefully too; not to upset the queen or their captors. They have little in common with each other, but they share a common purpose: to look after the queen as they always have, because their happiness depends on hers. Their captors deprive the women of even the most basic necessities to humiliate them and break their spirits. Mary is stripped of anything that denotes her previous status as queen, even her so-called jewelled ladies – the noble ladies in waiting who attended her at court. Instead, she is allotted two lowly chambermaids, Jane and ‘Cuckoo’.

There’s a constant danger of betrayal and death for all: Mary because she’s important, and the others because they aren’t. There are spies in their midst who report back what they’ve seen and heard, so they need to decide who to trust. The women are drawn together by this common fear. The attendants are still in awe of Mary, her stately bearing and charisma, even though she’s no longer queen. Their devotion and love for her during her terrible suffering is deeply touching.

In an attempt to stave off boredom and depression, the women fill their days with memories of finer times, beautiful places, colour and happiness and they often live in their imagination. The women find ways to express themselves and learn each other’s characters within the constraints of their imprisonment. Men are a distraction from tedium, but they also pose a risk. Any involvement with men or indiscretion could prove disastrous. In general, men are portrayed as self-seeking and cruel but so are some of the women. There are moments of sexual tension and romantic encounters to set the pulse racing.

Much of the action in the book takes place in a claustrophobic space, so you might expect the descriptions of location to be restricted too, but nothing could be further from the truth. The characters observe the changing of the seasons on the loch, where the wildlife often reflects their moods and wishes. The oppressive nature of their prison and their appalling conditions contrasts with the small pleasures that they take when they are allowed brief freedoms outside or a change to better food. Carr chooses the most beautiful, poetic language for the highlights and appropriately stark and brutish descriptions of the privations that the prisoners suffer.

The author makes clever use of foreshadowing to create tension throughout the book, which creates tension. She weaves in each woman’s back story, illustrating their similarities and differences, whether that’s their religion, marital status, land of birth and languages spoken or simply their characters. In places, we are also told that a particular hope or ambition will be thwarted at some point in the future. I don’t think I’ve ever come across this in a book before and it is so cleverly handled that it doesn’t spoil the suspense. I was still keen to read on to find out what would happen to each of them. The Tower is recommended without reservation to lovers of historical fiction.

A different perspective on Mary, Queen of Scots and her incarceration in the tower at Lochleven Castle. Told from the POV of Mary and her ladies, it is an absorbing and compelling tale of their lives under duress.

Very alternative to anything I have read before regarding this period, this story really gets into the minds of the prisoners, and gives the reader a good imagining of what life was like for the women of the time regardless of rank or position. The dips into Mary’s past and future life also helped place the events in context. A very good melding of supposition, imagination and history.

The list of characters was a welcome addition.

Nicely written, without frills and flourishes, a good read.

Thank you NetGalley.

I didn’t finish this book as I don’t think it was quite for me. I really enjoyed the idea though and I might come back to it later. Thank you to the writer, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

The Tower is a visceral read which takes you right into the heart and head of Mary Queen of Scots. Flora Carr brings the smells and sounds and challenges of 16th century Scotland to life as we share Mary’s capture and imprisonment in Loch Leven castle along with her loyal ladies. I live near Kinross and have visited the castle a few times so it was easy to visualise the long year of boredom and captivity. This is a well-written and well-executed novel that deserves success.

The story of Mary Queen of Scots is a familiar one to most of us, a Scottish woman executed by her cousin to protect her English throne. The sheer number of beheadings of leading women in Tudor times means that we often stop seeing them as individuals and they become numbers, just more figures in a procession of hideous deaths. This book uses fiction to bring Mary to life. It covers the year she spent as a prisoner on the island in Loch Leven in Perth and Kinross as different factions sought to control the throne of Scotland. Her third husband, Bothwell, has fled and she is alone with two servants, at the mercy of her jailer, her illegitimate half brother Moray, The history of Scotland at the time, the battles over religion, the conflicts between nobles, the relationship of many of them is complicated but this book manages to lay it out very clearly.

Much of what is remembered about Mary's life is centred about her relationships with men - the early death of her first husband, Francis II of France, the murder of her second husband Lord Darnley, the controversy over Bothwell, her third husband, her son James VI and I, who united the crowns of England and Scotland - but male characters hardly feature in this novel. Instead we concentrate on Mary herself, her servants Jane and Cuckoo, and her companion Mary Seton, who joins them in their prison. We see what little control women have over their lives, their helplessness in many ways against the constant threat some men hold over them, but also the strength of their friendship and ability to stand up to their challenges. Many books recently have claimed to be feminist retellings of older stories, not always successfully, but this one felt far more genuine to me.

The women are all vividly brought to life, for good and bad, with the core four working together but others on opposing sides working against them. Their different positions and ambitions are all understandable and it's a wonderful thing to read a book about women in history that focuses entirely on these women, even though their lives were so shaped by the men around them. There's a real sense of time and place - I grew up in the area and the descriptions of the countryside surrounding it are spot on - and it's hugely atmospheric. It also includes little flashbacks and flash forwards so we learn more about what happens to these women, which I was keen to know. Even though I knew what the end result was going to be, there was still real tension and somehow you hope the four will manage to escape to a quiet life!

I really enjoyed this book and didn't want it to end, it's some of the best historical fiction I've read and I've read a lot!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.
#TheTower #NetGalley

Where do I start? Obviously I know the story of Mary Queen of Scots and her companions, the four ladies in waiting named Mary and her marriages, capture, abdication, imprisonment in England and and her death. I'm a big reader of Tudor/Stuart historical fiction ( thank you Jean Plaidy) and wasn't really expecting anything different. BUT this was such a lovely, unexpected, feminist retelling mainly from the point of view of her companion Jane/Jean /Janet who was with her in the few months she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle and it blew me away with the fresh approach.

The writing is superb with lovely imaginings of how the imprisonment impacted on each of the four women in the tower. I loved the brief asides that trailed what would happen to them and the recurrent bird and colour imagery was beautiful. Attention to detail ( the clothes, the cats, the food) was so good. I read this very fast, it's shirt but still it took me just over a day as I was so motivated to finish it.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. And can't wait for the next novel from this debut author. Five stars!

An interesting and immersive read, detailing the period of Mary, Queen of Scots' incarceration at Loch Leven Castle. It was good to read something about her which wasn't focused on some of the more well-documented periods of her life. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

An impressively executed tale highlighting Mary Queen of Scots, this is the historical retelling I am always looking for. The writing is atmospheric, claustraphobic and really sheds light on the reality of Mary's life, including her captivity in the tower. The dual time POV works quite well too. I really enjoyed this one and will be recommending to my friends that enjoy a lot of Greek retellings and other such histprical fiction books that are popular right now.

This is an well crafted historical novel which tells the story of Mary Queen of Scots at the time Mary is held in captivity living in a tower in the middle of a loch in Scotland.
In addition to this, there but are sections that I told in flashback and a few flashforwards towards the end of her life. These brief insights into the rest of her life, allow us as readers to put the story in context to the known historical facts.
The family history is complex, and it might have been helpful to have a family tree in the book right at the beginning, as well as a list of characters which was included . I found myself googling Mary’s family.
The captivity gives the story a feeling of claustrophobia, which is increased by the fact that she is kept mostly with women and the bickering and friendships between them forms a large part of the story.
I loved the way that the story is confined to such a brief period of time it really focuses the storytelling and allows it to become more immediate and allows the reader to see Mary more as as a troubled woman, rather than a historical royal figure . Do you have a method that the author use as well to do this is that she focuses more on the women living with Mary rather than Mary herself.

The author uses beautiful poetic language right from the start and I found that this contrasted well with the bleakness of the setting, and the situation that Mary found herself. I very much enjoyed the reading experience.The author’s writing style raises his novel from being a historical novel to a literary novel.
I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley UK. The book is published in the UK on the 7th of March 2024 by Random House UK Cornerstone.

This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, Goodreads, my books of bionic, SarahS books.wordpress.com, and after publication on Amazon, UK.

I like that this dials down the usual drama associated with Mary Queen of Scots and concentrates on her middle period at Lochleven with her Marys. There are a few 'historical writing' tics but generally this doesn't stray down those lush and flowery paths of the genre.

I find Mary Queen of Scot’s fascinating and have read many books on her life so was pleasantly surprised to find some facts that I didn’t already know. Focus is usually on the murders of David Rizzio and Darnley so it was interesting and different to read something solely covering Mary’s time at Lochleven. The Tower is well-researched and well-written making the reader feel they are trapped alongside Mary and her women. I enjoyed the authors writing style and look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Thank you Netgalley, Flora Carr and Random House for this ARC.

"The Tower" by A. Flora Carr is a spellbinding journey into the heart of 16th-century Scotland, where the confines of a towering prison become the stage for a gripping royal family drama. Carr's remarkable storytelling prowess transports readers back in time to the tumultuous year of 1567, where the fate of one of history's most iconic queens, Mary Queen of Scots, hangs in the balance.

From the very beginning, Carr's narrative is a visceral experience. The novel opens with three women crossing a loch, their destinies intertwined as they approach Lochleven castle. The tension is palpable, as one of them is pregnant and all are anxious about the unknown. Once inside the towering walls of the castle, readers are drawn into a world where courtiers thirst for power and revenge, and where Mary's fate seems bleak.

The true strength of "The Tower" lies in Carr's ability to make the reader feel as if they are right there with the characters, imprisoned in the tower alongside them. The vivid descriptions and rich character development create an immersive experience, allowing us to empathize with Mary's maids, the Frenchwoman Cuckoo and the watchful Scot, Jane, as they become Mary's only allies in a world where they are at the mercy of both their keepers and the volatile Scottish politics of the time.

Carr skillfully weaves together multiple perspectives, from the imprisoned Mary to Queen Elizabeth, who claims to be able to do little but write, to Margaret Erskine, the shrewd jailor-courtier, and Lady Seton, whose arrival brings a glimmer of hope. The intricate web of alliances and shifting power dynamics keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, wondering who will risk everything to save their beloved queen and which woman's loyalty runs deepest.

"The Tower" is a triumph of historical fiction, blending desire, resilience, divine power, and cunning in a tale that captivates from start to finish. A. Flora Carr's storytelling prowess shines brightly in this novel, making it a must-read for fans of historical fiction and anyone who craves a gripping narrative that transports them to another time and place. This book is a testament to the enduring power of queens and the women who loved and served them, and it will leave readers moved and deeply impressed.

A very well written historical novel about Mary Queen of Scots, that I enjoyed for its descriptive qualities as well as some information about this Queen that I did not know. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book.