Saturday, October 26, 2013

The Boleyn Deceit

Written By: Laura Andersen

The Boleyn Deceit is the sequel to The Boleyn King

The Boleyn Deceit

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory, Alison Weir, and Showtime’s The Tudors, The Boleyn Deceit is the captivating new novel set in the imagined Tudor court of King Henry IX, son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, who must navigate a terrain rife with palace intrigue, impending war, and unbridled passions.

The regency period is over and William Tudor, now King Henry IX, sits alone on the throne. But England must still contend with those who doubt his legitimacy, both in faraway lands and within his own family. To diffuse tensions and appease the Catholics, William is betrothed to a young princess from France, but still he has eyes for only his childhood friend Minuette, and court tongues are wagging.

Even more scandalous—and dangerous, if discovered—is that Minuette’s heart and soul belong to Dominic, William’s best friend and trusted advisor. Minuette must walk a delicate balance between her two suitors, unable to confide in anyone, not even her friend Elizabeth, William’s sister, who must contend with her own cleaved heart. In this irresistible tale, the secrets that everyone keeps are enough to change the course of an empire.

-summary from amazon

In the Boleyn Deceit we begin with two major events, an eclipse and the arrival at court of John Dee who has done astrological charts for the four main characters. Laura Andersen uses this to set up the primary conflicts in the novel, desire versus duty, loyalty versus personal happiness. She also skillfully integrates real history and characters into this historical what if. Including a flirtation between Elizabeth and Robert Dudley.

This was a wonderful follow up to the Boleyn king which takes the initial story and progresses it to the next step. I enjoyed reading about the characters navigating the politics at court while each having their own secrets and desires.
This is a very strong sequel that keeps the reader interested and anticipating what will come next. 

I thouroughly enjoyed this book and am now anxiously awaiting the conclusion to the trilogy. I give The Boleyn Deceit a solid 4.5 stars and recommend it to anyone who enjoys Tudor historical fiction.




Saturday, September 14, 2013

Tudor: The Family Story

By: Leanda De Lisle I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review of the book.

  Disclaimer: I am not being in any way compensated for this review outside of getting to read the book before it's released on October 8, 2013. 

Beginning not with Henry VII taking the throne but with the death of Catherine of Valois and the history of her marriage to the squire Owen Tudor, Leanda De Lisle takes the accepted story of the Tudor dynasty and gives the reader a more complex and detailed history.

 She goes on to discuss Margaret Beaufort and her role in the Tudor ascendancy, as well as the more well-known elements of the Tudor history, such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

 She then proceeds to write a fascinating and factual book that reads like a novel. While Ms. De Lisle provides the dates and details of the history of the Tudors, she also gives life to the events and people that keep the story interesting.

 I've read many books on the Tudor family, and this is definitely one of, if not the best. It is well researched and referenced while remaining accessible to someone new to reading historical nonfiction.  Tudor

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Weightless Wednesday #1

Starting/current Weight: 125.5
Goal Weight: 115


What I'm doing to achieve my goal:
Using my fitness pal, and exercising 5 days a week alternating cardio with yoga. It's working when I stick to it and I've lost 9.5 lbs so far.

Goals other than weight:
Get back into a size 6
Increase my odds of a successful VBAC (85% at 115)
Be better able to keep up with Sweetpea.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Busy, Busy

Sweetpea is all about climbing right now. She's managed to climb on the coffee table but is too short to manage the couch yet and that drives her crazy.
A lot of my day is spent helping her on and off the couch or telling her to sit down on the chair/sofa/whatever she's climbing or standing on.
We're starting "home school" this week and doing some early learning. I'll post more about it but basically we're introducing letters and colors.
I love being a SAHM but we need some mental stimulation so we're trying this out!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Putting the cart before the horse...

I want to get into blogging again so I'm setting a goal of posting every Sunday.
Sweetpea is wonderful, she's 16 months and a normal happy busy toddler. She loves Yo Gabba Gabba, Dogs, and Mama.
She's a complete Mama's girl and I love it.
I'm so happy being a SAHM, we've found a great Mom's group and we have a blast doing library time and mommy and me class.

I've got baby fever bad and can't wait to try for baby #2. With a little luck sometime this spring/summer we'll be able to try.
I got ahead of myself and I bought the hypnobabies set this weekend, I stumbled across a fantastic deal buying it from someone and went for it.
After the farce that was Sweetpea's delivery I'm starting early in preparing for a VBAC birth next time.
I want my next delivery to be a much calmer simpler affair. I want to learn from some of the choices I made and have a much better experience the next time.
I attribute Sweetpea flipping to the hypnobabies flip breech baby track that I listened too. So I'm using that program for natural birth. Plus Banks was useless as a labor coach so with HB I can just listen to the tracks and not need much from him.
As the title says I'm getting ahead of myself but I'm still in the positive thinking stage. ;-)
I'm adding a pic of Sweetpea

Saturday, December 11, 2010

One Year Ago...

We had our transfer that brought us our beautiful daughter.
I'm sorry for not updating but I got lazy and then busy w/ my
darling daughter.
Birth Story
DD was breach at our 38 week appointment and I wasn't a good
candidate for a version so a c-section was scheduled.
We get to the hospital at 5 am on delivery day and baby
had flipped head down. I'm 2 cm and having a few contractions
So an induction is started. Things go smoothly except for a few
decels on the fetal monitor and by early afternoon I'm 10 cm and
ready to go. Unfortunately sweetpea does not handle pushing
well and gets stuck.
We're taken for a c-section and our beautiful baby girl is born.
It was an amazing day. She is the light of my life and I
Couldn't be happier!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

30 weeks! Frustration and a little vent

I had my 30 wk appt and it went really well. Baby and I are doing great and right on track. I go back in 2 weeks and the only kinda bad thing is he strongly recommends/prefers continuous fetal monitoring which I wanted to avoid but I'll trust his judgment and go w/ it. He also said to bring in my birth plan and we'd discuss it so we're on the same page.

Since I want to go med free there are some things I'd prefer that should make it easier, at least based on what I've learned/read. Of course the only thing that matters is the baby is born safe and healthy. Once I've hashed it out I'll post my final birth plan and any changes the Dr. recommends.

My frustration comes from the fact that we still don't have the nursery set up or even started. FIL is supposed to help Banks paint the nursery but he keeps putting off coming over. I can't convince DH to just do it already. It wouldn't be as big a deal if we didn't have a ton of gifts and nursery items stuck in the guest room. Everyone was very generous at our first shower and I have nowhere to put the baby items and it's driving me crazy. I might could deal if my Mom and BFF weren't coming out for my 2nd shower but the guestroom HAS to be ready by the time they come out which is ~ 2.5 weeks from now.

I keep telling DH that the EDD is a guess and the baby can come anytime from 38 wks to 41+ weeks but he seems to think that the baby won't be here until Aug. 31st and we have all the time in the world. I'd love to have things settled and set up by 35 wks so that whenever that baby comes we're ready. Not to mention I know I'm only gong to get more tired as time passes.

Anyway, that's what's up w/ us!