Katheryn Howard: the Scandalous Queen; The Second Home

I have to admit, I was disappointed with the fifth book in Weir's series about Henry VIII's wives. It felt flimsy and full of cliches. Katheryn was supposedly not well educated, Weir makes the point time and time (and time) again about how hard reading and writing were for her, yet in her interior thoughts she uses sophisticated language that just rang false with me. She also didn't delve into Lady Rochford (Thomas Boleyn's widow, who accused him and Anne of adultery and incest and got them both killed) at all, just had her skulking about like a weirdo. Katheryn wondered time and time (and time) again why Jane was being so nice and helping her carry on her affair with Culpepper, but never took it farther. I know the girl wasn't too bright, but come on, really? She was that dumb? At least it was a quick read, so I didn't waste too much time on it.

I got an ARC of this book a few months ago and read it, and then forgot to blog about it when it was published earlier in June. I didn't care for it, either. It sounded like a good premise: Ann and Poppy and their parents spend every summer at their Cape Cod home. After Michael's mother dies, their family adopts him and he comes along to the Cape. The first summer is pretty good. Then during the second summer, Ann gets a job babysitting for a wealthy family. The slimeball husband/father rapes her and she ends up pregnant. He then manipulates Michael into taking the blame and running away. Fast forward fifteen years, and Ann and Poppy's parents have died without a will, and Ann is determined Michael not know about the house, since he's an heir.
These kinds of books bug me sometimes. Where everything could have been avoided if the two main characters had talked to each other. Why did both Michael and Ann believe what the slimeball said? Neither one of them confronted the other, they just believed his insane lies and ran with them. It just felt really false to me. They were friends, and they turn on each other because of some guy they don't even know?