In this “energetic” (Kirkus Reviews) re-creation of Anne Boleyn’s tragic life — and death — Robin Maxwell offers a pitch-perfect version of a bawdy and exuberant time filled with lust, betrayal, love, and murder.

When the young Queen Elizabeth I is entrusted with Anne Boleyn’s secret diary, she discovers a great deal about the much-maligned mother she never knew. And on learning the truth about her lascivious and despotic father, Henry VIII, she vows never to relinquish control to any man. But this avowal doesn’t prevent Elizabeth from pursuing a torrid love affair with her horse master, Robin Dudley — described with near-shocking candor — as too are Anne’s graphic trysts with a very persistent and lustful Henry. Blending a historian’s attention to accuracy with a novelist’s artful rendering, Maxwell weaves compelling descriptions of court life and devastating portraits of actual people into her naughty, page-turning tale. The result is a masterpiece of historical fiction — so prophetic of our time that one would think it were ripped from today’s headlines.

Although this book took me longer than it should to finish, I quite enjoyed the journey through the infamous Anne Boleyn’s life. This “Secret Diary” took us through Anne’s ascent to the throne, her tumultuous marriage to King Henry and finally, her downfall. She also left a touching message to her daughter, the currently reining Queen Elizabeth to always be true to herself and never allow anyone to come between her ambitions and true nature. From one dead mother to her daughter, Anne left a priceless gift that no one else could: the gift of truth.

Maxwell does a phenomenal job at humanizing Anne and allows the reader, as well as Elizabeth, to realize what Anne really was: an ambitions girl with hopes, dreams and a determined resolve which is the exact opposite of the usual cunning, calculating and bewitching woman she is usually portrayed as.

Even though this novel was a little slow at times, I would definitely recommend it to those who are looking for a different (and maybe perhaps a more accurate?) portrait of the woman who changed all of Christendom. Historical buffs will enjoy this novel and Tudor fans will love it.

My Gemstone Rating:

Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary Alsworthy accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation. She must infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Every spy has a weakness and for the Black Tulip that weakness is beautiful black-haired women his petals of the Tulip. A natural at the art of seduction, Mary easily catches the attention of the French spy, but Lord Vaughn never anticipated that his own heart would be caught as well. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in a treacherous garden of lies.

And as our modern-day heroine, Eloise Kelly, digs deeper into England’s Napoleonic-era espionage, she becomes even more entwined with Colin Selwick, the descendant of her spy subjects.

Mary and Vaughn are my favorite couple (so far). I think it’s because they both don’t claim to be heros. They acknowledge that they are self-motivated and everyone believes that of them (including readers).

But as the story unravels, they are not as conceited as everyone thinks, even to themselves. Willig really put them through the ringer in this book (like no other couple before or after). To date, they are the only characters who have been shot at (well, Vaughn was…Mary had the un-Mary-like task of cleaning him up and saving his life) and blown up.

Nothing like an explosion to profess their undying love for each other. Yes, Mary all beautiful with blood down the side of her face from a piece of shrapnel and Vaughn with a reopened bullet wound through his side chest. Both their faces blackened with ashes. Yet, still sarcastic as ever.

That has go to be one of my favorite “love declaration” scenes in any the book.

In this companion novel to Until They Bring The Streetcars Back, Stanley West transports the reader to 1949 Minneapolis/St. Paul– those memorable days of corner grocery stores, big band music, and filling stations that check the oil and wash the windshield. Against this nostalgic backdrop, West has set his riveting and heartwarming novel, the devastating story of young Sandy Meyer. Bright and outgoing, having grown up through the Great Depression and the World War II years, she is suddenly given a perplexing clue to her past that sets her on an incredible and harrowing journey in search of her lost family– a pilgrimage that brings her face to face with nerve-shattering suspense, unbearable terror, and the magnificent capacity of the human heart.

Surrounded by juicy and wacky characters, and without the support of her adoptive parents, her devil-may-care friends, or the boy she desperately loves, she summons the courage to doggedly follow where the faint trail leads. When she stumbles upon the buried past and long-hidden treachery, she is confronted by an evil that knows her by name and is drawn into a darkness she never knew existed. Tenaciously refusing to quit, she discovers a heartbreaking heroism and an extraordinary triumph that changes her life forever.

As a Minnesota girl I was happy to get ahold of an author who wrote local. I loved the first novel I read by this author. However Finding Laura Buggs I found disappointing. I just could not warm to the book. I am not sure why the prose was good and the story idea itself was sound. However I struggled with the book. Perhaps because Laura put herself in so many dangerous situations and I just wanted to smack her and say STOP doing that! Or perhaps it was for another reason.