Absolutely loved this book! Imagine if Anne Boleyn kept a diary that was secretly handed down to her daughter, Elizabeth Tudor, who was raised beleiving her mother to be an adulteress and a traitor. I thought the book really made these historical figures come alive, and it was so fascinating I hesitated to put it down at all! Of course, we all know what happened to Anne, but reading her "diary," gaining insight into how she might have felt and what she thought, I still hoped for a happy ending for her. I look forward to reading more from this author. ( )

http://thebookwormslibrary.com/?p=479... ( )

One of the better Anne Boleyn novels. This book offers a nice juxtaposition between Anne's life and that of her daughter Elizabeth. Recommended for all lovers of Tudor historicals. ( )

I had my doubts about this book because Anne Boleyn (based on the impression I've got from history and fiction) doesn't strike me as diarist, therefore falling into the category of fictional characters (or characters based on historical people) that I just can't seen as first-person narrators. But I was curious enough to suspend my disbelief and read the book, and once I'd started I just ploughed through. The depiction of Elizabeth didn't particularly appeal to me either. ( )

Overall I enjoyed this book, although I was not as fond of Elizabeth’s storyline, perhaps because she simply did not have as much of one as did her mother. This was a very sympathetic portrayal of Anne. The reader could see her harden and turn into the woman oft vilified, could also see how this was almost forced upon her as she tried to keep her head above water in this dangerous age. There were a couple of things that sort of shook me out of the story, however. At one point there was a sentence about Henry that said something to the effect of “…his father dying and his brother dying thereafter.” The way it was written was a bit more ambiguous than that, but it certainly seemed (to me anyway) to be saying that Henry VII died before his son Arthur, which would have made Arthur king between Henry VII and Henry VIII. Since Arthur predeceased Henry VII by about 7 years and was never king, that really brought me out of the story. More minor was a reference by Anne to Judas denying Jesus three times. Peter was the apostle who denied Jesus, Judas the apostle who betrayed him for silver. Although, since the Bible was not widely available in English at the time, it is possible that Anne would have made such a mistake. ( )