BOOK REVIEW - The King's Sisters by Sarah Kennedy

Series: The Cross and the Crown (book 3)

Pages: 320

Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing

Blurb

It is now 1542 and another queen, Catherine Howard, has been beheaded for adultery.  Although young Prince Edward is thriving, and the line of Tudor succession seems secure, the king falls into a deep melancholy and questions the faith and loyalty of those around him. Catherine has found herself in a unique position as a married former nun.  Now she is a wealthy widow.  She has two children, a boy who has successfully joined the young prince’s household and a daughter who lives with her at Richmond Palace, home to Henry’s cast-off fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, now designated “The King’s Beloved Sister.”  Catherine also enjoys the attentions of widower Benjamin Davies, and in the festive court atmosphere, she has furtively indulged her passion for him.  But England has changed again. Anne of Cleves hopes for reinstatement as queen―until questions arise about the finances of the houses she keeps.  Catherine, as one of the king’s “reformed sisters,” is singled out, just as she realizes that she is carrying a third child. The King’s Sisters explores the Tudor court under an aging Henry VIII.  He now has a son and heir, but his two daughters remain players in the political intrigues. The Cross and the Crown series follows the very private Catherine as she is thrust into the scheming.  She is skilled enough to serve a former queen . . . but this may be the very quality that endangers her future.

My Review

The Kings Sisters by Sarah Kennedy is an extremely well written, as well as interesting work of historical fiction, however it was a little slow starting for me. After I had gotten a chapter or two into the novel, it began to pick up for me. The slow start could be due to the fact that it is book three in The Cross & the Crown Series, so I had to figure a few things out, as I have not yet read books one and two. However, I don't feel that it is necessary to read the first two books in order to follow along with what is going on in the novel. The main character, Catherine, belongs to Anne of Cleves household in Tudor England. King Henry VIII is still King of England, and has just recently beheaded his queen, Catherine Howard. The atmosphere is that of intrigue and conspiracy, and the main character finds herself embroiled in one intrigue, and must use her wits to stay out of the grasp of Martin David Martins, who is after more and more money and power.

Ms. Kennedy does an excellent job at staying true to Tudor history with her novel. I really like that she obviously has done a lot of research, and there are no areas in the novel where I had to really suspend my disbelief. The author also is able to take the facts, and turn it into a tale that reads nothing like a history book, but like a fascinating story that takes the reader right into the midst of Tudor England.

I will definitely be looking into books one and two of The Cross & the Crown Series. The only reason I am giving this novel a four, rather than five stars, is the fact that it took a little bit to get into the story. I like to be pulled into a story within the first couple pages, but it took a couple chapters for me to be able to get into this novel.

Praise for The Cross and the Crown Series

“A true page-turner.”—Historical Novels Review

“It is not necessary to read the first novel in the series to enjoy this book, but those finding this their first introduction to Catherine will surely search out the first novel to spend more time with this feisty woman in her richly detailed world.”—Foreword Reviews

“….In City of Ladies Kennedy takes her place with Daphne du Maurier, Anya Seton, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Hilary Mantel as writer of superb historical fiction.”—Suzanne Keen, author of Empathy and the Novel

About the Author

Sarah Kennedy holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance Literature from Purdue University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. The author of seven books of poems as well as The Altarpiece and City of Ladies, books one and two in The Cross and the Crown series, she has received individual artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts, as well as an award for scholarship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She teaches at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia. Her website is http://sarahkennedybooks.com/.

Want to start reading The Cross and the Crown Series? Click below to purchase book 1 in the series, The Altarpiece.

AMAZON

BOOK REVIEW: The Kiss of the Concubine by Judith Arnopp

Blurb:

28th January 1547.

It is almost midnight and the cream of the English nobility hold their breath as King Henry VIII prepares to face his God. As the royal physicians wring their hands and Archbishop Cranmer gallops through the frigid night, two dispossessed princesses pray for their father’s soul and a boy, soon to be king, snivels into his velvet sleeve. 

Time slows, and dread settles around the royal bed, the candles dip and something stirs in the darkness … something, or someone, who has come to tell the king it is time to pay his dues. 

The Kiss of the Concubine is the story of Anne Boleyn, second of Henry VIII’s queens. 

My Review:

“The Kiss of the Concubine” by Judith Arnopp was an outstanding read! I absolutely love anything that has to do with Anne Boleyn, and this was definitely right at the top of the list of books I’ve read about her life. I love that the focus was on the positive side of Anne Boleyn.  A lot of books focus  on her ambition, and make her out to be some evil woman, who purposefully went after King Henry VIII with the goal of becoming queen, and that she never loved him, just wanted the crown. This novel gives reader another view of Anne Boleyn. It shows her as a young woman who fell very much in love with King Henry VIII, and although she felt guilty because of what was happening to the king’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, she also was so in love with the king that she really wanted to be with him as his wife. She refused to be his mistress, because she did not want to end up like her sister, who was set aside and forgotten as soon as she became pregnant with the king’s child.

This novel was an easy read, really smooth flowing and interesting. You would think that I would get bored of reading books about Anne Boleyn, but every book about her is different and interesting in its own way. I always learn something new about her life, or get a different look at what she may have been thinking or what she may have gone through.

I would definitely recommend this novel to any historical fiction lovers, especially those who are as obsessed with Tudor history as I am!

I give this novel a FIVE out of FIVE stars!

BUY THIS NOVEL HERE!

INTERVIEW & GUEST POST: Under These Restless skies by Lissa Bryan

Interview with Lissa Bryan, author of Under These Restless Skies

1 – You started by writing fanfiction. How important was this for your writing career? How has it influenced your books and writing?

I wouldn’t be a published author today if it wasn’t for fanfiction, and so it’s made a profound difference in my life and career.

I have always written stories in my head, sometimes taking books and movies and re-writing them to have an ending I liked better, or sending the characters off on new adventures. I had no idea other people did this until I discovered fanfiction. I decided to write out some of the stories that had lingered in my mind over the years. One of them became popular and brought me to the attention of my publisher. They approached me and asked me if I’d be interested in writing a novel.

Without the support and kindness of the fanfiction community, I couldn’t have done this. It was a great place to begin writing, because the encouragement and enthusiastic support gave me the courage to try new things.

2 – Under These Restless Skies is your third book. How did you come up with the idea of “Tudors meet selkies”?

I had explored the selkie myth in one of my fanfiction stories, and I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to try it again, but with a few new twists.

There is an old Celtic fairy tale called “The Selkie Wife,” in which a man kidnaps a selkie bride to raise his children. It’s a very sad story, and it sparked my imagination.  I wanted to re-write it to have a happy ending, but I didn’t want to set it in the modern day. Tudor history has always fascinated me, and so I decided to set it during that time period.

My fanfiction story covered the reign of “Bloody” Mary Tudor. I decided my novel would be set earlier, during the reign of Henry VIII.

3- What was your research process for Tudors and Selkies?

There isn’t much available on selkies, so I took what I could find and built my own legend around them. Selkies were shape-shifters who could assume the form of a seal by slipping into magical piece of fur. If it was stolen from them, they would be bound to whomever took it until it was willingly returned. They could also be summoned by shedding seven tears into the sea. They were said to be beautiful in their human form, gentle-hearted, and playful. I took those characteristics and added a little magic to come up with Emma, the heroine of Under These Restless Skies. Will, the hero, steals her pelt, but she ends up stealing his heart.

As I mentioned before, I’ve always been fascinated by the Tudor era, and I’ve read countless books on Henry VIII and his wives. But despite my basic familiarity, the book was research-intensive, which is why this book took me a year to write. If I was writing a dinner scene, I wanted to make sure every food item I described was correct, and at one point, I even ended up going to NASA to find out the phase of the moon on a certain date. But it was a lot of fun and I ended up learning so much more about the time period.

3 – Why Anne Boleyn and not another one of Henry VIII’s wives?

Anne Boleyn is one of the most slandered and misunderstood women in history. She was also one of the most important women in history, because without her, the English Reformation would not have happened as it did.

Henry’s subsequent wives will be covered in the sequel, which I’m going to start writing in the next couple of months.

4 – Your books are very different from each other, but all of them have a paranormal element. Why is that?

Paranormal storylines interest me because I like to explore possibilities and impossibilities. I’m always asking the question, “What if…?” What if the most unexpected thing happened? How would people react to it? How would their lives change? Who would they become?

Guest Post by Lissa Bryan

I’ve been writing stories for about three years now, and I’m sort

of a genre-hopper. I’ve done everything from sci-fi to Gothic romance. I guess the best way to put it is that I like to explore possibilities as a writer, and there’s just too many to confine myself to one genre.

Decades ago, I read Margaret George’s magnificent Autobiography of King Henry VIII. One of the characters is Will Somers, the king’s jester. He’s not a main character in the novel, but the real Will seems to have been very important to the king, more of the king’s confidant than a comedian. Over the years, I’ve wondered what Will must have thought watching the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, and all the wives that came after her.

For my third novel, I decided to write Will’s story. We don’t know much about the life of the real Will Somers, except that he was likely born to a farming family in Shropshire, and likely had scoliosis, which twisted his back and made him walk with a limp. There’s no record he ever married. At the time, people with physical imperfections would have a difficult time finding a spouse. Will is an unusual choice for a romantic hero, but I like a challenge.

I’ve already written an online story set in the Tudor era, based on the old Celtic fairy tale, “The Selkie Wife.” Selkies have fascinated me since I heard first heard that terribly sad old story, and I wanted to write a version of it that had a happy ending. But even after I completed that story, I knew I wasn’t done writing about selkies. The legends still captivated my imagination.

 Unlike the aggressive supernatural characters like vampires and werewolves that have been explored so much in fiction, selkies are gentle creatures whose powers stem from love. In the old legends, they could be summoned by a lonely maiden shedding seven tears into the sea. In their human form, they were beautiful and warm-hearted, though they could be fierce protectors of the weak. The women made excellent wives and mothers, which was why the men in the old legends wanted to capture them.

I wondered what it would be like if Will Somers, rejected all his life because of his back, suddenly encountered a chance to have a wife of his own? What would happen if an innocent, soft-hearted creature like a selkie was suddenly brought into the glittering, cutthroat court of Henry VIII? That’s how Will and Emma came into being in my imagination.

Aside from the paranormal elements, I wanted to try to be as accurate as possible with the story of King Henry and Anne Boleyn. Anne is such a maligned figure, especially since much of what we “know” about her comes from the reports of her enemies. Writing this book required a lot of research, but it was a lot of fun. I’m starting work on the sequel in a few months, and I can’t wait to see where that story takes me.

Click here to purchase Under These Restless Skies!

The Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

Blurb:

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, obliged to return to court, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII, who dispatches his love rival, Seymour, to the Continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two

executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry and become his sixth queen.

Katherine has to employ all her instincts to navigate the treachery of the court, drawing a tight circle of women around her, including her stepdaughter, Meg, traumatized by events from their past that are shrouded in secrecy, and their loyal servant Dot, who knows and sees more than she understands. With the Catholic faction on the rise once more, reformers being burned for heresy, and those close to the king vying for position, Katherine’s survival seems unlikely. Yet as she treads the razor’s edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love.

My Review:

The Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle was an all around, excellent book. I loved the author’s writing style, and also how she portrayed Henry VIII's sixth queen, Katherine Parr. I also enjoyed reading about the lives of the two people closest to Katherine, Dot and Meg. I’ve read a few novels about Katherine Parr’s life, and prior to this book I viewed her as the ‘boring' one of Henry VIII's six wives. Elizabeth Fremantle was able to really bring her to life in this novel. I also love how she brought Dot’s story into the novel to show how the normal people who inhabited the world of kings and queens lived. Dot’s character was easy to get attached to, because she was very likable, and it was sweet to see her love affair progress.

The author’s writing style was fantastic. She was so descriptive, and used a lot of figurative language as well as imagery in her descriptions of people and places. As an English teacher, I can appreciate good use of figurative language!  I applaud the author for staying as close to historical fact as possible, yet still keeping the novel extremely interesting. I love when an author of historical fiction relies more on fact than fiction, but is still able to really bring the characters to life for the reader. I really enjoyed how the novel was ended, it gives the reader something to think about, kind of a 'what if' scenario.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It’s a wonderful read for lovers of historical fiction, especially those who enjoy reading about the Tudor era.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about the past.

I give this novel FIVE out of FIVE stars!