A compelling period piece which brings to life the early days of one of history’s greatest monarchs.
Wertman’s novel follows the unlikely rise to power of Elizabeth Tudor.
At the outset of Wertman’s first novel in her forthcoming Regina series, 11-year-old Elizabeth Tudor is deep in study with the private teacher her family hired for her brother, Edward, the heir apparent to their father Henry VIII’s throne. At this young age, Elizabeth is already far more compelled by her education than the machinations of royalty, a preference which is only underscored by her feelings of isolation from the rest of the court as the “illegitimate” daughter of the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. After her father’s death, Elizabeth’s younger half brother ascends to the throne, and Elizabeth is somewhat cast off, living away from the court, albeit in luxury with a governess and a beloved staff. Though unmarried, rumors swirl around the kingdom about Elizabeth’s potential suitors, one of whom is Thomas Seymour, husband to the late Katherine Parr (a close confidant of Elizabeth’s). Though Elizabeth did nothing to encourage Thomas Seymour, his lust for her is well documented, even going so far as an assault in her younger years, and it’s no secret he wishes to marry her. When Seymour becomes enmeshed in a treasonous plot to usurp Edward, it’s assumed by the king’s council—a group of royalty who are leading in Edward’s stead because he has not yet reached the age of maturity—that Elizabeth must have been involved. From there, Elizabeth is officially set against the family which controls her, a position that becomes all the more dangerous when her sister, Mary, succeeds the throne after Edward’s untimely death, vowing to restore Catholicism to the kingdom after Henry VIII’s schism with the church. Meticulously well researched, Wertman’s novel manages to capture some of the sumptuousness of English royal life: “The roses at Hatfield were at the height of their lasciviousness, calling out to random passersby with their shocking colors, enticing them closer with scents as heavy as incense. They were rich and gaudy and showy.” Elizabeth Tudor remains a fitting character for the 21st century, and Wertman does well to keep her story accessible for the modern reader, weaving together a pleasing tapestry of history, character, and great storytelling.
A compelling period piece which brings to life the early days of one of history’s greatest monarchs.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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