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. ( )

Historical fiction set in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, when, shortly after her coronation, she is presented with a personal diary kept by her mother, Anne Boleyn, for much of her adult life. It’s presented in secret by a lady in waiting who attended Anne while she was Queen as well as for the week leading up to her execution. Anne gave her the diary with a promise that she would pass it to Elizabeth if she ever descended the throne. Very interesting book and hard to put down. I don’t pretend to be an Elizabethan scholar by any means, but methinks there were probably a lot of liberties taken with this book. I guess that’s why it’s called historical fiction. LOL ( )

First book in a series about Elizabeth I.

Upon becoming Queen, Elizabeth is presented with the hidden diary her mother kept from the time she arrived in Henry's court through her execution. An interesting idea sucessfully completed. Don't waste your money on the other two books. ( )

An interesting intrepretation of the life and death of Anne Boleyn, made all the more interesting by the fact that I'm also watching a slightly different interpretation of the story in "The Tudors".

This story tells of a diary found and given to Queen Elizabeth who reads it and finds some wisdom between the pages. Wisdom she carries over into her own life. ( )