![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Book Review
Oct. 1st, 2013 12:17 amThe Boleyn King
by Laura Andersen
This short alternate history novel imagines what Tudor England would have been like had Anne Boleyn delivered a healthy boy instead of miscarrying in 1536. The novel opens when Henry IX, called William, is 17 and nearing his majority. The main character, however, is Minuette, a lady in waiting to Princess Elizabeth and lifelong friend to both Elizabeth and William. Dominic Courtenay, a young courtier and good friend to all three, rounds out the quartet of protagonists. The main plot concerns a murder mystery, Catholic plot against William, and a love triangle. The characters are likeable and the plot moves along nicely. It was a good period story, well-written, and would work equally well for YA and adult readers. However, I thought Andersen could have done more to explore the way England and even the rest of Europe would be different had Anne provided Henry with an heir. It often seemed as if Andersen was motivated more by the fact that real history would not accommodate the story she wished to tell than by a desire to work out what would follow from one key change to events. It is the start of a trilogy, though, so this small issue may be rectified in the next two books.
(I received this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.)
by Laura Andersen
This short alternate history novel imagines what Tudor England would have been like had Anne Boleyn delivered a healthy boy instead of miscarrying in 1536. The novel opens when Henry IX, called William, is 17 and nearing his majority. The main character, however, is Minuette, a lady in waiting to Princess Elizabeth and lifelong friend to both Elizabeth and William. Dominic Courtenay, a young courtier and good friend to all three, rounds out the quartet of protagonists. The main plot concerns a murder mystery, Catholic plot against William, and a love triangle. The characters are likeable and the plot moves along nicely. It was a good period story, well-written, and would work equally well for YA and adult readers. However, I thought Andersen could have done more to explore the way England and even the rest of Europe would be different had Anne provided Henry with an heir. It often seemed as if Andersen was motivated more by the fact that real history would not accommodate the story she wished to tell than by a desire to work out what would follow from one key change to events. It is the start of a trilogy, though, so this small issue may be rectified in the next two books.
(I received this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.)
