THE SWAN MAIDEN by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

 5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: a favourite author

In a Nutshell: Book 2 of The Surface and the Deep, the story of Anne of Cleves.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which starts with Anne's journey to England to meet Henry, and ends shortly after the annulment of the marriage.  The main body of it shows Gemma Lawrence at her best, when she writes solely about her character's own life and experiences, from inside her {the character's} head.  She has a truly exceptional talent for this, and I was completely engrossed, reading the book in the early hours when I needed to go to sleep!

Anne is portrayed exactly as I've always imagined her, as a dignified, kind and clever woman.  Her wise choice of accepting the annulment without complaint was aided, of course, by the fact that she was no more enamoured of Henry than he was of her, but there are some marvellous passages when she talks about her survival being far more important than any notions of foolish pride.

'...these things we create and take inside ourselves, these things we cling to and call pride and honour, they are meaningless... these things, they have meaning only if we think they do.  They are baubles, shining so bright we think they are the sun but the are shimmering surface reflecting only candlelight.  They are shadows.  Their light is a lie created by man, reflected back at us to dazzle our eyes and confuse our minds.'

Also, when she saw how the monasteries had been destroyed mainly to serve the greed of those already in possession of great riches, her take on another of the Seven Deadly Sins: avarice (or greed).

'...Yet these men did not know the truth, that this sickness for gold could never be cured by adding more gold to their purses or hands ... once within the veins of a man it did not feed him, it sucked the essence of his soul, the sickness of greed leeching all from that man until greed was all that possessed his mind.  It was a demon which crept into the skin of a person...'

I loved her impressions of the English culture and customs, as opposed to those of her own country, her observations about what was really behind the deterioration of the King's character, and his dislike of her.  I very much appreciated how Ms Lawrence has placed the spirit of Anne Boleyn in the shadows, too; a warning from history.

I expected the series to end with this book so was surprised when it didn't, but I researched a little and discovered that the story of Anne the Survivor has more strings to its bow than I realised, so I very much look forward to reading about her take on the marriage and reign of Mary, in particular.

High recommendation!