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| Headline Review May 21 2016 My thanks to the publisher for the invitation to review this book |
A Boleyn woman is no stranger to secrets...
At twelve years old, Kate Carey attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Horrified by what she witnesses, Kate is convinced that King Henry VIII has sent an innocent woman to a terrible death.
As the Boleyns fall from favour, Kate serves her now motherless cousin, the young Lady Elizabeth. Bound by Boleyn blood, the two girls are like sisters, until Kate marries for love - and leaves a jealous Elizabeth behind.
At court, Kate cannot ignore the sly looks thrown her way, nor the whispers behind her back. Only when her mother, Mary, lies dying, does she learn the life-shattering truth that the Boleyns have been hiding for years.
It is a secret that will haunt Kate throughout her life, as her family flee into exile, only returning home when Elizabeth becomes queen. But the bond between the Boleyn cousins will never be the same again..
📖 My Review..
I have been privileged to read several new Tudor inspired novels this month and I am pleased to say that whilst the Tudor period in English history has been covered extensively in fiction, there is always something new to enjoy.
This latest novel by Alison Weir gives us the story of Katherine Carey who, after Anne Boleyn’s tragic death, was placed into the household of the Princess Elizabeth. Katherine Carey grows up in the shadow of the Tudor crown, her mother, Mary Boleyn, lives her later life in relative obscurity however, Katherine starts to move in court circles when she is placed as Lady-in-Waiting to Henry’s new wife, Anne of Cleves. It is Katherine’s proximity to the Tudor monarchs and her role within it, both as a young woman and later as a wife and mother, which forms the premise of the story over a long timeframe.
As always, with this historian’s fiction work there is fine attention to historical detail, the place and people are well described alongside what it might have been like living through such a turbulent time in history. My only criticism is that the book felt over long, granted there is a lot of information packed within the story, especially about Katherine’s eventful personal life as the mother of sixteen children and wife to Sir Francis Knollys who was a respected Tudor courtier. The Boleyn secret at the heart of the novel is one which has long been speculated over and whilst I knew what the secret would reveal it didn’t stop me enjoying the novel as an interesting look at yet another side of the Tudor court particularly as we go through the years of Tudor rule and Katherine’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth I.
About the Author
Alison Weir is a bestselling historical novelist of Tudor fiction, and the leading female historian in the United Kingdom. She has published more than thirty books, including many leading works of non-fiction, and has sold over three million copies worldwide. Her novels include the Tudor Rose trilogy, which spans three generations of history’s most iconic family – the Tudors, and the highly acclaimed Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII, all of which were Sunday Times bestsellers. Alison is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces.
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