I heard about it while reading a book review on Amazon and followed a link to this page . I couldn't sign up fast enough, believe me.
For my first book I chose "Anna Boleyn and The King's Great Secret" by Julia L.A. Kelly. Mainly because I am a Tudor-phile. I've read many books - both fictional and biographical - regarding Henry VIII and his many wives and mistresses.
This book would have been good with a couple of minor things:
1) A good editor - I'm not sure there was any editing involved at all.
2) A change in the introduction from the author's claims.
Let me to elaborate...
Ms. Kelly is a decent writer. But it seemed like she has a serious girl-crush on Anne Boleyn and I felt like I was reading fan fiction on a Justin Bieber site.
I got a bit tired of being knocked over the head with the same idea over and over. The author would repeat the same idea, such as how wonderful or kind Anne Boleyn actually was, 3-4 times within the space of a few pages. Coupled with some very annoying grammatical errors, it definitely made the book less enjoyable for me. A good editor would have helped with the grammar, etc., and may also have been able to reign in Ms. Kelly's fan-girl over-exuberance.
Regarding 2), I have a problem with the introduction and premise of the book on several levels. The very first sentence in the intro states that the book is based on "what little historical knowledge we have regarding the Tudors (the written word)". We actually have quite a bit of historical knowledge regarding the Tudors - and most of it conflicts with what is in this book!
That aside, the premise of the book - which is that Anne Boleyn was not executed, but rather spirited away to live not-so-completely happily ever after in the country with King Henry still her adoring husband - is not a bad idea for a fictional novel. IF it was presented in the same vein as the "what happened instead" types of fan fiction one finds regarding existing television shows, etc.
Even if there is some "unofficial knowledge passed down through five-hundred years of their descendants (the spoken word)" as the intro claims, it wasn't presented with any corresponding evidence or names of these descendants. Therefore, it probably shouldn't be stated as gospel in the introduction. It actually made it more difficult for me to suspend disbelief and enjoy the fictional story.
One other problem I had with the book is the passive, remembrance type writing. It is all first-person narrative - which is hard enough to write in the first place - in flashback setting. No action or conversation. Just a bit boring.
All in all, it wasn't a waste of my time reading this book (or writing about it for that matter) so I would give it ** out of *****. If, in spite of my so-so, nitpicky review, you might want to read this book, you can find it here.
I received a complimentary copy of Anna Boleyn and The King's Great Secret as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit http://www.dorrancebookstore.com/index.html to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.
xoxo
