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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.











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title: The Boleyn Inheritance


author: Philippa Gregory

genre: historical fiction


published: 2006


pages: 518


rated: 4 1/2 stars

I rise from my great chair with the gold canopy over my head. On either side of the box the curtains billow in the Tudor colors of green and white, my initials are everywhere, my crest is everywhere. The other initials of all the other queens are on the underside of the curtains only and they don't show. To judge from today, there has only ever been one queen: myself.

It seems every time I pick up a Philippa Gregory book, I cannot put it down. Since reading The Constant Princess, I have been hooked on her books and find myself totally absorbed in her storytelling. The Boleyn Inheritance was no different.








The story is set between 1539 and 1542 after Jane Seymour dies and King Henry VIII decides to marry once again. This time he marries a German princess, Anne of Cleves, making her his fourth wife. After a bad first encounter with Anne, Henry quickly begins to hate her. Once Anne is in England she finds herself alone and barely able to speak the language, with a husband who will not consummate the marriage and who dislikes her from the start.






The story is told from the points of view of Queen Anne, Katherine Howard who is a lady in waiting, and Jane Boleyn, who is George Boleyn's widow. Jane's own testimony helped send her late husband and his infamous sister Anne Boleyn to the chopping block.




The young, beautiful and silly Katherine Howard has captured the kings eye, who is already looking for a way out of his new marriage.



The Henry in this book is old and obese, no longer the young, handsome, charming prince he once was. He is nearly fifty years old and a tyrant, twisting the law to serve himself and having innocent people killed.

A fat old man, a vulgar old man, like a drunk sheep farmer on market day. His face is terribly bloated, like a great round dish of dripping; his hair is thinning and gray; he is monstrously fat; and he has an old injury in his leg that makes him so lame that he rolls in his walk like a sailor. Without his crown he is not handsome; he looks like anybody's fat old grandfather.

Katherine Howard made me laugh a few times with her self-centered comments and observations. She was definitely vain and flighty, and had no clue about the danger she was putting herself in. I pitied her since she was just 14 years old when she arrived at court and 16 when she was sentenced to death. Katherine became Henry's fifth wife and he called her his 'rose without a thorn'.

The king is on his throne looking powerful and fatherly, and Lady Anne is as pretty as she can be (given that awful dress) beside him. She might as well just have thrown the sables in the Thames and have them sewn on that taffeta tent. I am so distressed about such wonderful furs all but thrown away that it almost dims my pleasure for the moment.

Jane Boleyn is back at court after helping send her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. She was constantly sneaking around, eavesdropping and following them in The Other Boleyn Sister. But in this book she misses them and keeps thinking about how much she loved them, that didn't make any sense to me. Towards the end of the book she somewhat admits to herself that she was insanely jealous of the bond between George and Anne Boleyn.

The two of them used to ride together, racing, neck and neck like lovers, and I could hear their laughter over the thudding of the hooves as they went flying by. Sometimes, when I saw them together, so rich, so young, so beautiful, I couldn't tell which of them I loved more.

I liked Queen Anne, and I pitied her. Her marriage to the king was doomed from the start. Once she knew that Henry was trying to find a way out of the marriage, she just hoped and prayed her life would be spared.

There is a silence between us, as we both come to realize the simple truth that is being spoken. We are two women who have recognized that we cannot control the world. We are players in this game, but we do not chose our own moves. The men will play us for thier own desires. All we can do is try to survive whatever happens next.

I enjoyed this book very much. The Boleyn Inheritance has been the perfect read on a cold winters night. There was drama, romance and plenty of interesting characters. I was completely hooked on the last few chapters and was up until late into the night reading.

Everyone tries to forget that Henry is a ruthless man. Henry himself tries to make us forget. When he is being charming, or setting himself out to please, we like to forget that we are playing with a savage bear. This is not a man whose temperament is tamed. This is not a man whose mood is constantly sweet. This is not a man who can manage his feelings; he cannot keep constant from one day to another.

The Tudor Book Challenge

From January 1st, 2010 to December 31st, 2010 The Tudor Book Challenge challenges you to read books about or inspired by the Tudor era of the English monarchy.

1.The Boleyn Inheritance

title: The Other Boleyn Girl


author: Philippa Gregory


genre: historical fiction

pages: 661

published: 2001

first line: I could hear a roll of muffled drums.

rated: 5 out of 5




First off, I need to start by saying that this book was excellent. I enjoyed every minute of it, and it was a real page turner. It is a bit hard for me to review, I think mostly because there is so much going on in the story, but I will summarize it a bit.




Young Mary Boleyn catches Henry VIII's eye and with the plotting of her family, she leaves her husband and begins a courtship with the King. There is much jealousy between Mary and her older sister Anne. The two sisters look as different as night and day, Mary being the fair one and Anne being the dark one. Anne is the one who is in charge of helping Mary seduce the king. She tells Mary how to act and what to say around him. All the while the two sisters have a love/hate relationship. Anne hates being Mary's servant and helper, she has plans and ambitions of her own.





In time Mary has a daughter by the king, then later on a son. Being the king's mistress has it's rewards, her family members and her own husband are granted gifts and power in the king's Court. But, while Mary is pregnant the second time, she is having a rough time, so the Boleyn family appoints Anne to flirt with the King and keep his attention on the Boleyn women. Of course, Anne takes it as far as she can and winds up becoming the King's mistress herself. After that, ambitious Anne decides she wants the king and the throne as well. Anne will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and tries to get the king to divorce his wife, Queen Katherine, and marry her instead.

The lines between Anne and me were now clearly drawn. All our childhood it had been a question as to which of us was the best Boleyn girl, now our girlhood rivalry was to be played out on the greatest stage in the kingdom. By the end of the summer one of us would be the acknowledged mistress of the king; the other would be her maid, her assistant, perhaps her Fool.

This book was full of drama and plenty of backstabbing. I found Anne and Mary's relationship to be the most interesting. These two sisters both hated and loved each other. I though George, the Boleyn brother, was another very interesting character.
I found this book hard to put down and it kept me up late at night reading. I enjoyed every minute of this one and highly recommend it. But before reading this one, I do suggest reading Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess which is about the Princess of Spain who later becomes Henry's wife. It's not necessary to read that one first, but I think it's nice to get the storyline behind Henry and Queen Katherine's marriage.




The writing in The Other Boleyn Girl was great, the plot fantastic and the characters are well written. The story is narrated by Mary and you can't help but feel bad for her, she is thrown into a life of lies and deceit at an early age. You also wonder how she continues to put up with Anne and be loyal to her. I liked the dialouge between the three Boleyns; Anne, Mary and George. Just when you think the plot can't thicken, it does.




Here are a few of my favorite passages:

There was nothing I could do but take second place and smile. The king might bed me at night, but all the day he was Anne's. For the first time in all the long while that I had been his lover I felt like a whore indeed, and it was my own sister who shamed me.

"I didn't want you to come back to court to be my rival," I said sulkily.

"I was born to be your rival," she said simply. "And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we?"

Anne and father were delayed by spring storms and I found myself hoping, childlishly, that her boat would sink and she would drown. At the thought of her death I felt a confusing pang of genuine distress mixed with elation. There could hardly be a world for me without Anne, there was hardly world enough for us both.

Jane and I kneeled side by side in the queen's chapel and listened to the Mass celebrated before the altar of the church below us.


"Jane," I said quietly.

She opened her eyes, she had been far away in prayer.

"Yes, Mary? Forgive me, I was praying."

"If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out."

The Other Boleyn Girl was made into a film in 2008.

I did see the film version and enjoyed it. However, I liked the book much better. There's many differences between the two.