Review: The Queen of Subleties by Suzannah Dunn

Wow, look at me! Reviewing 2 books in one week! I feel so cool!

After reading Flirting With Forty, I decided to change it up a little and go for Historical Fiction. I have always been really into Henry VIII and his crazy life. But more importantly, I have always found the life of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth fascinating. So I knew this book was going to be awesome!

Let me just say, I loved reading about Anne. I feel like Suzannah really read her history and got her attitude and personality right down to a T. Anne is charming, conceited, angry, and ambitious. She's also hilarious and has a great sense of sarcasm, which I loved.

Basically, Anne is writing or thinking about her daughter, Elizabeth, while she is up in the tower waiting to be put to death. She recounts her life and the hardships she went through to finally become Queen. I sympathised with her. I didn't realize that Anne waited MANY years for Henry to finally be free of Catherine (his first wife and mother to his daughter, Mary). Usually, in movies, you assume that their courtship happened over the span of maybe a year or two..but in fact it went on for much longer than that. She also suffered 2 miscarriages, the final being the nail in her coffin, I'm sure. At that time, Henry was already courting Jane Seymour and in the process of figuring out how to get rid of Anne. Of course, Anne never really sees that coming.

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was probably the fact that it went from the narrative voice of Anne Boleyn to the narrative voice of Lucy Cornwallis (the King's confectioner). As Anne is reminiscing about her courtship and marriage to Henry, you are then brought into the more recent "present" of Lucy's life. Each of her chapters is a new season. There is one major common factor between the two, though. That person is Mark Smeaton, one of Anne's favorite musician and someone Lucy inevitably falls in love with.

If anyone knows about this history, then you know why Mark Smeaton is important to the story. I don't know why I didn't enjoy reading about Lucy. Maybe I was just more in tune with Anne's mind and Lucy wasn't as interesting. I don't know. I do think it was an interesting way to write the book though- Different, so that why I appreciated it.

All in all, I'd say it was a good book and a nice read. Suzannah really did her homework and I really enjoyed reading The Queen of Subtleties. It makes me want to go out and buy all books that have to do with Henry the VIII and his many wives.