Rating: 9/10
Favorite Character(s): Mary Boleyn and William Stafford
I loved this book. As someone who is a huge historical fan of books that involve court politics but is also a die-hard romantic, this book was the perfect mix between sweet and cynical. All of the characters are very complex, with several motivations to most things they do. The book draws a very poignant portrait of what it was like to be a woman in the Tudor period. Both Anne and Mary deal with the lack of control the have over their lives as women in different ways, revealing the discrepancy in power between the genders. This book draws an intriguing picture of a period of huge change in England from the people at the very center of the controversy. The story explores just what a relationship with the king might cost a woman. In the end, the story follows Mary’s life as she charts her course through the increasingly troubled waters at court. She is the one who begins the Boleyn’s rise to power due to the king’s favor, and despite the odds, she manages what was even more rare among her peers at that time; she falls in love, building a life for herself with which she is content. This story is a wonderful way to learn about a fraught time period in England’s history, as we see it through Mary’s eyes, and is utterly captivating.
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