Brazen

Brazen by Katherine Longshore, 524 pages

This is the fictional story of Mary Howard, who married Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of King Henry VIII.  The author has used as much factual history as possible, but only a small amount is known as fact about Mary so some of the story is completely made up.  This is more about Mary’s feelings, her love and anger at her father, her hopeless anger at her mother, her love and worry for her brother and her friends, and her ambivalent feelings towards her husband.  Theirs was an arranged marriage and the two barely knew each other.  Even after they were married, the King said they were too young to consummate the marriage and never legally did.  However, the author presumes that they did end up loving each other.  Whatever the truth, this was a fascinating story told from a minor character in the Tudor saga and teen fans of historical novels will probably like this book.