Wednesday, August 1, 2018

The Boleyn Reckoning

The Boleyn Reckoning by Laura Andersen     416 pages

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Boleyn Reckoning heralds the triumphant conclusion of Laura Andersen's enthralling trilogy about the Tudor king who never was: the son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn--Henry IX--who, along with his sisters and those he holds most dear, approaches a dangerous crossroads. 

Meh. The ending of this series was overly dramatic and ultimately blah. It just solidified my dislike of love-triangles. Not only was a love-triangle the sole plot of this book, but it ends up taking over every character's actions and what you get is a sopping mess of drama, rage, revenge, grief, despair, and on and on. It gets a little tedious.

I absolutely love Tudor history, but this story makes it less interesting when it focuses on indirect Tudor characters - Minuette and Dominic are nice and all, but their love is not as interesting as the rest of this alternative history unfurling. And the ending - I don't know what to make of <spoiler> Elizabeth threatening Minuette about her child's probable lineage (as William's) to get her to do what she wants. That seems oddly out of character for this series so I don't know what Andersen was trying to do there. And she couldn't have just left it a mystery as to who the father is? I'm just dissatisfied with it ultimately being Williams.</spoiler>.

Dissatisfied and not likely to pick up Andersen's follow-up series about Elizabeth I.

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