Innocent Traitor the title didn’t match the overall story

“Innocent Traitor,” by Alison Weir was Alison’s first time writing historical fiction rather than writing historical biographies. The novel is about Lady Jane Grey the teenage girl who would become Queen of England for 9 days and then executed for treason even though it wasn’t her fault, her family forced her into this role. This book came out in 2006. The writing was excellent but I felt like the title was misleading hence the title of this review. Then again not every book an author writes can be a hit. After “Innocent Traitor,” Alison has written better books as you’ve seen previous reviews of mine gushing over them.

Pros

I like the fact that the novel was written in first person narrative rather than third person/omnipresent. It was nice reading things from Lady Jane’s point of view as well as the other characters points of views. As Alison makes you feel as though you’re back in that time period with all the important players in history. I did like the fact that we see Jane’s childhood which was very sad since she had more love from a maid Mrs. Ellen (who may or may not be fictional) than her own parents. Her childhood was abusive. Jane’s mother Lady Francis Brandon saw the error of her ways too little too late madam.

Cons

I felt like the book dragged on a bit and I know Alison had to do some dragging considering that Lady Jane Grey lived such a short life but it didn’t work out so well. We went back and forth from Jane’s point of view to her nursemaid Ellen’s point of view, to her abusive mother Francis Brandon’s point of view, to Katherine Parr’s point of view to Queen Mary’s point of view to finally the point of view of the executioner who felt sorry for Jane. If the novel was named The Tudors and the Greys maybe I would have liked it a little bit better or maybe I wouldn’t. In my opinion to name the book “Innocent Traitor: A novel of Lady Jane Grey” misleading since there’s multiple points of views from different people rather than from strictly Jane’s point of view.

Overall

Overall it wasn’t Alison’s best. Was it the worst book I’ve ever read though? Nope. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, especially by Alison Weir its worth reading once just know its not the best.