King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn (Ladies in Waiting, Book One)

author: Sandra Byrd

genre: historical fiction

published: ARC/ August 2011

pages: 332

source: Historical Fiction Book Tours

first line: There are many ways to arrive at the Tower of London, though there are a few ways out.

rated: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars









blurb:

Meg Wyatt has been Anne Boleyn's closest friend ever since they grew up together on neighboring manors in Kent. So when twenty-five-year-old Anne's star begins to ascend, of course she takes Meg along for the ride.


Life in the court of Henry VIII is thrilling...at first. Meg is made mistress of Anne's wardrobe, and she enjoys the spoils of this privileged orbit and uses her influence for good. She is young and beautiful and in favor; everyone at court assumes that being close to her is being close to Anne.


But favor is fickle and envy is often laced with venom. As Anne falls, so does Meg, and it becomes nearly impossible for her to discern ally from enemy. Suddenly life's unwelcome surprises rub against court's sheen to reveal the tarnished brass of false affections and the bona fide gold of those are true. Both Anne and Meg may lose everything. When your best friend is married to fearsome Henry VIII, you may soon find yourself not only friendless but headless as well.


A rich alchemy of fact and fiction, To Die For chronicles the glittering court life, the sweeping romance, and the heartbreaking fall from grace of a forsaken queen and Meg, her closest companion, who was forgotten by the ages but who is destined to live on in our hearts forever.

About:

Best friends Meg Wyatt and Anne Boleyn grew up together in Kent. When Anne is sent to live at King Henry VIII's Court, Meg follows soon after.




Meg herself lived a difficult life at home, her father having been a harsh man and often beating her. She falls in love with Will Ogilvy, but when he is sent off to become a priest, her heart is shattered.


Not before long, Meg's father arranges a marriage for her, to a man who is decades older and whom she could never possibly love.


Life at court is tantalizing as well as dangerous, and when Anne gets herself into trouble, Meg follows her best friend in her downward spiral.






My thoughts:


The Tudor period is my favorite era. What historical fiction I've read concerning the Tudors has been by Philippa Gregory. I am so glad to have had the chance to read Sandra Byrd. She is a fantastic storyteller and superb writer and I enjoyed reading To Die For from start to finish. I was instantly transported to England in the 1500's and could easily envision King Henry VIII's court, with its luxury, scandal and drama. We all know how the story of Anne Boleyn plays out, but here we get to see her best friend alongside Anne. Meg's story takes a life of its own and I was really interested in what would become of her.


Meg and Anne were very close, and I could imagine the two of them living life in the King's court.

The first young man trained his eyes on me and smiled flirtatiously. I was unused to courtly manners. Did he intend to pay me such intense attention? Or was this a part and parcel of the illusory world of the court, where nothing was as it seemed?

p.56, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn

Meg is truly heartbroken over Will. You can feel her pain as you read. Her heart breaks when Will tells her his plans to join the priesthood.

"I loved him to the point of anguish."





I liked seeing some well known people in this story; George and Mary Boleyn, Jane Parker and King Henry himself.


I recommend this one to fans of historicals and Tudor fiction, or to anyone looking to get swept up in a great story with plenty of drama, glitz and heartache.
Actually, I think To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn is a must read for Tudor fans.





On a final note, I really like the cover on this book. It suits it perfectly.
To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn (Ladies in Waiting, Book One) will be on my top reads for 2011.











Special thanks to Historical Fiction Book Tours for making this possible.




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title: Queen By Right

author: Anne Easter Smith

genre: historical fiction

published: May 2011

pages: 494

source: Historical Fiction Book Tours

first line: A scream pierced Cecily's dreamless sleep.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars








About:

Cecily Neville is duchess of York and is also known as Rose of Raby and Proud Cis.
As a child Cecily was betrothed to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and married by age thirteen. Although the marriage is arranged, the two actually fall in love.


They become involved in what is known as the War of the Roses, a period where the York family and Lancaster family are fighting for the throne of England. This was also known and the Cousins War, since cousins and in-laws were fighting on opposite sides.

As Richard fights for the throne, he has Cecily's support.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Cecily as she reflects back on her life right after her beloved Richard dies.




My thoughts:

I love it when I read a book and am immediately swept into a storyline filled with descriptive passages and interesting characters. That's exactly what happened when I picked up Anne Easter Smith's Queen By Right.



This was my first time reading about Cecily and I enjoyed getting to know her.
As a child she'd dress up as a boy and go out riding with her father, which was really frowned upon and considered a sin for a female to dress as a male. Cecily had a mind of her own from the start. Richard takes a liking to her as soon as he meets her and astonishingly enough, the two actually fall in love.



There was plenty going on within this story, but it never got overwhelming and I found no dry spots and I stood up late into the night reading. I felt like author
Anne Easter Smith took history and blended it with fiction perfectly bringing these characters to life. I liked both Cecily and Richard. And I must mention again, the setting and time period, I was perfectly swept away into the story.


I can definitely imagine this one being made into a mini-series.




This is a book to sink your teeth into and I highly recommend it, especially to fans of this genre. Romance, history, love and war all make for a juicy read!
Anne Easter Smith has become a new favorite author.

She stared into the darkness of her curtained bed, seeing again the magnificent hall and reliving that special day in her life. All her senses were satisfied that night by the delicious taste of delicate dishes, the pungent aroma of roasted meat mingled with the heaved scents liberally applied to the throats and wrists of the ladies, the myriad of colors of silks, satins, damasks, and the velvets adorned with every precious gem known to man, the sweet sounds of gems-horns, viols, lutes and recorders. And then there was the touch of Richard's hand as he led her out to dance.
p.76

Queen By Right is on a virtual book tour. For a complete list of tour links, click here. You can check out reviews as well as other guest posts, interviews and book giveaways.




Special thanks to Historical Fiction Book Tours for making this possible.

Today I'd like to welcome author Anne Easter Smith as she kindly stops by my little corner of the web to do a guest post. Anne is the author of Queen By Right, which I will be reviewing on May 26th.



About the book:

From the award-winning author of A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, and The King’s Grace comes another masterful historical novel—the story of Cecily of York, mother of two kings and the heroine of one of history’s greatest love stories.

Read on for Anne Easter Smith's interesting take on Protagonists in her novels....








Guest Post by Anne Easter Smith

Protagonists in AES Novels


While I was writing Queen By Right, people would ask me whether Cecily Neville was anything like my other protagonists. Certainly all of them were not afraid to speak their minds, except perhaps for Grace, until she was pushed. I like my medieval women feisty, history tells us they were--to a point. I confess my ladies are probably a little too contemporary in their behavior for the academic medievalist, but that’s why fiction is such fun.



Studies of the texts from the period tell us that men thought we had a greater desire for sex, that we were easily led, prone to unfaithfulness--especially sexually. That’s why men felt the need to control us. Fathers, priests and husbands thought it was their duty to keep us virtuous and threatened our reputations if we were not. A sullied reputation often meant no one would marry you, and that was a disaster.



Bold-speaking in women was a vice, so the men said, and there was nothing worse than being a “clatterer”! (Magpies, jays and women were dubbed the three clatterers, so droned on the men.) You could be punished for gossiping or scolding by being put on the cucking stool barefoot with your hair hanging down (very humiliating). It was a chair to which a woman was tied and left outside her door or in a public place, and some even had wheels so the clatterer could be clattered over the cobblestones around the neighborhood. (It is similar to a ducking stool, but no water is involved.) I know Kate Haute should have been put on one for sure! Margaret and Cecily were royalty, so I expect their husbands chastised them in private instead.



Another question I am asked is which of my “heroines” I like the most. Of course, I love them all, but here is what I love about them individually.

• Kate Haute because she was my first and, I thought, my only (and because I wasn’t expecting to write another book). I grew as a writer with her, so she’s special. And she is modeled on my younger daughter, Kate, who in puberty and teenage years mostly definitely would have been on the cucking stool a lot!

• Margaret of York is the one I related to the most as I was living with her. She was a rebel at heart, she was her father’s favorite, and she left her homeland for a new life (just like I did). She was also tall for a woman (like me) and loved books (like me).

• Grace is probably my antithesis. Petite, quiet, gentle, but I loved that she gave her heart in the wrong place at first (like me). I admired her tremendously for rising above her convent upbringing, being a bastard, being invisible at court, and yet managing to find herself among her beautiful and strong-minded siblings. I loved her loyalty to Elizabeth Woodville and John of Gloucester, and I loved the way she gently kept the peace and sorted out the mystery of who was Perkin Warbeck.

• Cecily is the woman I admire the most, and whereas I’d love to sit down to lunch with Margaret and have a natter, I’d be a bit intimidated by Cecily. This is no simpering miss! I am in awe of her strength, amazing health (she lived until she was 80), and her political savvy. She was lucky enough to experience one of the love matches of her century with Richard, duke of York, and her story is so colorful and dramatic it took me two years to tell. Cecily was in Rouen when Joan of Arc was tried and executed, she gave birth to a dozen children, she had a passionate marriage, she watched her husband fight his way to the throne to claim his right which eluded him in the end with his death at the Battle of Wakefield. And she watched her son, Edward, crowned in June 1461--550 years ago.

I invite you to dive into Cecily’s world with Queen By Right. I have been told by the wonderful woman who owns our local bookshop that this is my best book and she could not put it down. And Michelle Moran, author of Madame Tussaud, said “it kept me up for most of one night needing to know how it all wrapped up." It is my hope you will all be up nights reading it.



For more information please visit Anne Easter Smith’s WEBSITE and FACEBOOK PAGE.

*photo above is from the authors website*







“Thank you Naida, for hosting me here at The Bookworm”.


– Anne Easter Smith






Thank you so much for stopping by Anne! Queen By Right does have me up into the night reading, I'm finding it hard to put down.

I enjoyed reading a bit about your other heroines and where the inspiration for them came from.
It really is hard to believe that women were put on a 'cucking stool' in order to punish and humiliate them. How far we have come!


That is one of the reasons I enjoy historical fiction so much, you learn as you read and are very much entertained in the process.





Blog visitors Queen By Right is on a virtual book tour. For a complete list of tour links, click here. You can check out reviews as well as other guest posts, interviews and book giveaways.












Special thanks to Historical Fiction Book Tours for making this possible.