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.

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

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.

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!

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

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!

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!

24 weeks

Sorry for the delay but I couldn't find my camera and I wanted to post a belly pic.

I'm doing great. I quit my job and my last day is next week! I can't wait I've hated every single day at the job. I'm so excited to be a sahw and mom. Banks is less thrilled but agreed the stress wasn't good for me or sweetpea and is ok with it.
I'm hoping that now that I'll be home I'll have more time to blog and will do better w/ updates

We're taking our babymoon this weekend and I can't wait. I'll post all about it once we get back.

First trip to L&D but we're fine.

We had the joy of spending most of last week in L&D. I got a bug I couldn't shake and got extremely dehydrated and couldn't keep anything (including ice chips) down.

The previous saturday afternoon I got extremely sick and had to call Banks to come home from playing tennis. I hoped it was a bug that would pass quickly but on Sunday I couldn't keep down water, or ice chips. They admitted me to L&D for fluids and gave me zofran before I was d/ced, and I was feeling better. Unfortunately it didn't last, I was scheduled to follow up w/ the OB on Tuesday and I was as bad or worse so they admitted me again and kept me this time. I spent the rest of the week there getting meds and fluids and feeling like crap. Finally on Friday I started feeling better and I was d/ced again on Saturday.

I'm still a little weak and getting back to normal but all in all I'm better now. I saw the dr. again on Weds for what's being treated as my 24 week aptment and Sweetpea and I are good.

So that's what we're up to. I'll be updating w/ a belly pic in the next couple days!

20 week update

I'm horrible for going silent for so long. Between being miserable in the 1st tri and work chaos I just didn't have the energy to do much of anything.

We had a great u/s and appointment. Baby is measuring 12 oz and is right on track. We decided to not find out the sex so it's still a surprise. We couldn't get any good profile shots b/c the baby kept putting it's hands in front of it's face.

I was just so relieved that sweetpea was healthy and perfect. I can't believe I'm half way through this pregnancy, time is flying by.

We're starting our Bradley Method classes this weekend and I'm excited. I really want to go natural and am hoping to avoid a c-section. I'm looking forward to this and can't wait to start the class this weekend.

Again many apologies for dissapearing. I plan to keep updating more now that work has calmed down and I'm not exhausted and sick. Catch ya soon!

8 week OB appointment and 1st Belly Pic

Sorry it took so long for me to update about the appointment. It went great. Dr. W was so thrilled for us. I really love him as my dr. I know he may or may not be the one to deliver me but he's awesome and he's so calm and reassuring it reassures me. The appointment was really good. I didn't get a u/s b/c they only do them at the main office :( But I will get one at my 12 week appointment which will be awesome.

Dr. said things looked great they did adjust my edd to August 31, 2010 depending on how the baby measures at the u/s. I'm guessing that's going to be accurate or close enough they won't change it, I've measured right at or one day off that edd at the other 2 u/s.

I took my first Belly pic the day of the appointment and thought I'd add it here! I can't believe how much of a belly I already have, I'm still crazy bloated.

I'm starting pregnancy yoga tomorrow morning and I can't wait! I'm hoping it'll help w/ my worrying, and help me be healthy and loose for delivery.

week 8

How your baby's growing:
New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.
-babycenter.com

Things are good, I'm really excited about our first ob appointment on Weds.
My mom has started looking at baby bedding which is cool.
Morning Sickness and just plan tiredness are still hanging around but it's actually reassuring me that everything is fine.
I started using a pregnancy organizer/journal this week and it felt a little weird but I keep thinking at some point I just have to have faith that everything is going to be fine and quit worrying about what might go wrong.
So that's the update for this week!

U/S 2

7 weeks 1 day
I'm finally getting this up. Here's the u/s from Weds. I'll add last weeks tonight.
I'm so glad we get a long weekend this weekend. :)

2nd U/S :)

Was great. Baby is measuring 7 weeks 1 day and the heart was beating away. I'm being released to the OB and have my first appointment next Weds. It's amazing how much the baby had grown in just 1 week.

It's starting to seem like this is really going to happen.

The best part was that JK had her baby Monday and I was able to be 100% happy for her. There wasn't even a little part of me that was sad or less than thrilled. It was so wonderful to be able to fully enjoy that w/ no IF crap spoiling it.

I'll try to actually put up the u/s pics tonight. Sorry I failed last week but I'll try to get one of those up too.

Week 7

How your baby's growing:
The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.
- babycenter.com

As for symptoms morning sickness has hit. It's mainly in the evening though so it's all right. It's actually reassuring. I can't wait to go back for our next u/s.

I switched to PEO this week and OMG it's so awesome. It's so thin it doesn't sting and I get to use a much thinner needle. I love it. That's it for now!

We have a Heartbeat!

U/S went great, we saw a nice heartbeat, we didn't get bpm but it was flickering away.

Baby was measuring at 6 weeks, had a nice yolk sac, and gestational sac looked good according to the Nurse Practitioner.

I can actually breath now. It finally feels like this is really happening!

I think I've been waiting for this to get REALLY excited. Anyway, off to try and focus at work, don't see it happening but I'm going to try!

ETA: I scanned the us pics at work but they're in pdf and won't upload so I can't put them up. I'll take a pic or something and add them later today!

U/S tomorrow!

Since we’re supposed to get snow and ice Friday and I panicked at the possibility of the clinic being closed Friday and us not getting our U/S (not to mention just being impatient) and I moved it up to tomorrow.

I’m really scared, excited, and everything else. On the one hand if we see the heartbeat it’ll be a huge relief, but if not…

I’m thinking positive that we’ll see the heartbeat and I’ll be able to relax and enjoy the National Championship Thursday night w/o worrying which will be great. I keep telling myself that everything’s going to be fine and I’ll just get to relax a couple days early.

Anyway, good thoughts/prayers/ppv for a healthy heartbeat appreciated!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Things are fine here, at least as far as I know. I’m antsy and nervous about Friday of course. I have no reason to worry but I’m SOOO scared we won’t see a heartbeat Friday. I think part of it is I’m just so tired, We went non-stop from the weekend before Christmas to this past Sunday.

I finally got a day at home to just relax yesterday which was nice but not enough. I’m trying not to think about it too much b/c worrying is pointless but I can’t help it.

I really wish I could just fast forward to Friday already and know. I’ll breath so much easier once we see the heartbeat. I really hate the 2ww, remind me that waiting till Friday when I’m 6weeks 6 days is the smart thing to do, cause right now I’m dying to move it up to Weds since the clinic just said someitme this week and sent an undated lab slip.

Week 6

How your baby's growing:
This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.

5 weeks

Week 5 of Pregnancy
Deep in your uterus your embryo is growing at a furious pace. At this point, he's about the size of a sesame seed, and he looks more like a tiny tadpole than a human. He's now made up of three layers — the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm — which will later form all of his organs and tissues.

The neural tube — from which your baby's brain, spinal cord, nerves, and backbone will sprout — is starting to develop in the top layer, called the ectoderm. This layer will also give rise to his skin, hair, nails, mammary and sweat glands, and tooth enamel.

His heart and circulatory system begin to form in the middle layer, or mesoderm. (This week, in fact, his tiny heart begins to divide into chambers and beat and pump blood.) The mesoderm will also form your baby's muscles, cartilage, bone, and subcutaneous (under skin) tissue.

The third layer, or endoderm, will house his lungs, intestines, and rudimentary urinary system, as well as his thyroid, liver, and pancreas. In the meantime, the primitive placenta and umbilical cord, which deliver nourishment and oxygen to your baby, are already on the job.
~taken from babycenter.com
http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-5-weeks_1094.bc

We're telling our parents tonight so I am beyond excited. As for symptoms, nausuea, fatigue, sore bbs still around. I'm so nervous about the sonogram on Jan. 8, everything is going great so I shouldn't worry but I can't help it, I'm so scared that something will be wrong. Anyway just counting the days until the u/s. I'll post about the parents reactions soon. :)