ALL THE KINGS BASTARDS by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

 5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
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How I discovered this book: A favourite author.

In a Nutshell: Alternative history: what if Henry VIII had died from his jousting accident in 1536?  Book #1 of a series.

I love 'what if' discussions and stories, and alternative history generally - I've read a few novels of the genre but this is easily the best.  Gemma Lawrence has excelled herself with this vision of how 16th Century life would have played out had Henry VIII died in the jousting accident that caused a gruesome injury to his leg; in the real world, this plagued him for the rest of his life.  Anne Boleyn was pregnant at the time and Henry had recently began his courtship of Jane Seymour.  Imagine: Anne did not miscarry her baby and he didn't live to marry Jane Seymour, so Edward VI never existed.  Catherines Howard and Parr had a lucky escape - and what of Anne of Cleves?  Most importantly, of course, Anne Boleyn, brother George and various others were not executed as a result of Cromwell's dastardly plot to remove them.

...and there is so much more.  The battle for succession: Elizabeth, Henry Fitzroy, Anne's unborn child, Mary Tudor.  By the end of this book Anne has not yet given birth but already the country is in uproar, with riots and violent divisions.

Ms Lawrence's historical novels are generally told from one first person point of view, but this is totally different, with each chapter focusing on one of a variety of players.  Anne, Mary, Jane Seymour, Spanish Ambassador Chapuys, Thomas Wyatt, Fitzroy and many others.  Insight into the world of the common man is provided through the eyes of Magpye Grey, the young daughter of an innkeeper, and also Thomas Blank, a Moor who once fought alongside Magpye's father; in her notes at the back of the book Ms Lawrence provides an eye-opening insight about the population of people of colour in England in the 16th century, little of which I knew about.  Throughout, there is much more detail about the day to day life of the time, which I loved finding out about (particularly the origin of the term 'straight-laced'!).

What I admired so much about this novel is that Ms Lawrence has considered every aspect of the court and beyond - altered fortunes for Robert Aske, Margaret Douglas, Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury and the rest of the Pole family.  Will Fitzroy still die young, now he is in a different place?  The beginning of the book is fairly quiet, but the fall-out from Henry's death means that it soon gathers momentum, and it got better and better as it went on.  I think that the more you know about the history of this time, the more you will enjoy it; I kept thinking, 'oh, clever!'

Well done, Gemma Lawrence, you have mastered a new genre, and I cannot wait to read the next book!

MARY ~ Tudor Princess by Tony Riches @tonyriches

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie Amber's Book Review Team, of which I am a member, but I would have bought it anyway because I've enjoyed the other books I've read by this author, especially Jasper.

Genre: Tudor historical fiction

Like many people, I have an unquenchable thirst for good fiction about the Plantagenet and Tudor period.  I wondered if Mary Tudor's story in itself would be enough to sustain a novel, but was pleased to see that it added to my knowledge of the Tudor period and I liked the way the author used her story to produce another, interesting perspective on that of Henry VIII, as Mary fretted over the troubles with France and watched the fortunes of her friend Queen Catherine plummet.

There are some clever ideas in this tale of Henry's sister, such as placing the thirteen-year-old Anne Boleyn as her maid, on the night of her wedding to King Louis of France.  Whether she really was or not I don't know, and neither does it matter, though we are given the information that Anne became one of the ladies of Mary's bedchamber.  That the reader knows more about what was happening at court than the protagonist is a smart move, as we turn the pages in anticipation of her finding out; as an aristocratic woman of her time, Mary's life was, of course, subject to the machinations of the men who controlled her.  Later, when kept away from court at Brandon's seat in Suffolk, she knew only what she heard from others, which included very little of her own husband's infidelities.

As is usual with Tony Riches' books, it is clear that much research has been undertaken without it ever seeming research-heavy, a skill I always admire. 

Brandon and Mary/Margaret in Showtime series The Tudors;

for the series, Henry's two sisters were combined into one character.

Given that the story is of a whole life, and a not uneventful one, this is not a very long book and at times I felt that more detail might have made it more absorbing, for instance in the development of Mary's first, brief marriage to King Louis of France, of Charles Brandon's feeling towards her, of the discovery of her husband's infidelity, and the loss of her first son.  I didn't feel I knew Mary until half way through, and at times it seemed the story was being somewhat raced through as new characters emerged, older ones died off until, had I not known a great deal about this time, I might have forgotten who was who; on the other hand, it is written as Mary would have seen it—and novels of Tudor history are always hampered by the fact that everyone is called Anne, Mary, Catherine, Charles, Henry and Thomas!

I did enjoy it and read it in two sittings; I just felt that, on occasion, the story required extra depth to make me feel really involved with the main character and less as though I was reading a catalogue of factual happenings.  It's as well-written as all Mr Riches' books, though, and that I read it so quickly shows that I found it a page-turner.

Mary's death at the end was beautifully executed.  I do love a good ending.  I'd definitely recommend this book as an addition to the library of fellow Tudor addicts.