Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies by Hayley Nolan

Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies by Hayley Nolan

Anne Boleyn has gone down in history as the scheming woman who bewitched Henry VIII into divorcing his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and breaking with the Catholic Church in his mad quest for an heir to the British throne. But was Anne really the cunning woman she was made out to be, or a passionate reformer who married the king, not for love and the crown, but as a way of furthering causes she held near and dear?

327 pages.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

When Dougless Montgomery is left alone and weeping at a church in the English countryside, seemingly abandoned by her boyfriend and his daughter on their tour of England, she wishes for a knight in shining armor to come and sweep her off her feet. However, she never dreamed that Nicholas Stafford, a real sixteenth century knight, would materialize in front of her very eyes. Sent forward in time to change what is set to become his future, Lord Nicholas has much to learn. Fortunately for him, Dougless is willing to help, and together they embark on a journey to prevent a turn of events that, if unchanged, will end with Lord Nicholas's beheading.

469 pages.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I really enjoyed the Masterpiece Theatre production on PBS last year, so tried the novel.  Mantel immerses the reader in the court of Henry VIII with all its subterfuge and jockeying for power, but from the viewpoint of Thomas Cromwell, a person of low birth who becomes his chief advisor.  Cromwell is a master at the game of personal manipulation, but he is also quite the jack of all trades, skilled as a merchant, financier, and master of several languages. While much of the story covers the king's pursuit of a divorce from his first wife in order to marry Anne Boleyn, Mantel also makes clear how much general turmoil was going on not only in England but throughout Europe as Protestants, scientists and free thinkers began to question the dogma of the Catholic Church and its pope.  Excellent scene setting and character portrayal make this a stimulating read, although a bit long.  This book ends with the execution of Thomas More, while the sequel will continue the story of the royal court and Anne Boleyn's fateful demise.  532 pages.

Eve by Anna Carey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was probably a 3.5 for me. It gets the extra 0.5 for being post-apocalyptic and dystopian, which typically appeals to me. I didn't realize that was what kind of story it was when I picked it up. I read it purely based off someone else's recommendation, with no background on the story.

Basically, the majority of the world succumbed to a plague, and Eve grew up in an all girls boarding school that informed her about how good the king was. It turns out he isn't, and Eve escapes into the wilderness to try to avoid a terrible fate.

It gets less than my typically enthusiastic 4 and 5 star ratings, because I was never fully drawn in by this story. I found one of the side characters to be far more interesting and believable than the main character, enough so that I almost wished the series had been about her, instead. I think it would have been far more interesting.

I was also a bit bored with what felt like insta-love, but it could just be that I wasn't a very attentive reader of this book. It's possible all the chaos in my life and mind distracted me from ever really settling in to the story. However, the concept itself is fascinating, and I wonder if the story has potential going forward, which is why I declare it a 3.5 and might continue on with the series, when typically, I wouldn't continue on for any book rated lower than a 4.

YA Post-Apocalyptic/ Dystopian
Pages: 352

The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch

In this  the second book of the 'Hangman's Daughter' series, the hangman of Schongau, Bavaria and his daughter solve yet another murder mystery. The priest of the local church is poisoned, and clues lead them to the Knights Templar, a group of monks that dominated Europe three hundred years before.

What they find leads them to believe that the Knights hid a large treasure in this region when they were being decimated by the King of France. The local priest finds out about it when some work is being done on the church. He writes two letters about what he has found, and suddenly a sinister monk turns up in town, and the priest dies.

The hangman and his daughter follow the clues and the monk all around the region, looking for the treasure and the murderer. Set in the mid-1600's, this is a dark tale of murder, torture, and deprivation.


516 pages