I am a big Philippa Gregory fan - she's basically the only historical fiction author where I've read a good number of their books. However, I do struggle with her books that are historical but outside of her main Tudor ones centred around the lives of women. This has sat on my shelf unread for years, and if I'm honest I'm really not sure it was worth picking up at all.
The book takes place around the time of Cromwell's rise to power and Charles I's downfall. The main character, John Tradescent, is gardener to the king, but when his loyalty to the King's cause comes into question, he flees England to avoid making a decision. The story is told across two continents, following John's split love for England and for Virginia in the US.
I really struggled to get on board with this book. The main character John is incredibly unlikable: we first meet him in Virginia where he's travelled to source rare plants after his wife has died, leaving his kids motherless and fatherless without concern. He grooms a 13 year old Native girl, and it feels like Gregory justifies this by suggesting that he is not attracted to her right now but can see how e.g. her breasts will grow to make her attractive in the future (but yes, it does come across as horrifyingly creepy as that sounds). There's a whole lot of weird vibes around his eventual life with the Powhatan tribe in Vriginia, where the girl, now a woman, agrees to marry him and the tribe accept him as part of their group, despite the fact that white colonizers from England are trying to kill them at the same time, and he refuses to pick a side.
The storyline was incredibly slow and I just struggled to warm to any of the characters at all. It eventually got a little bit more interesting in the lead up to the king's beheading, but the book isn't something I'd recommend at all.
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