Hunting the Falcon

 Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage that Shook Europe- John Guy & Julia Fox

Bloomsbury

Released: September 14, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is one of the most remarkable in a long courtship followed by a shotgun wedding and then a coronation, ending just short of three years later when a husband's passion turned to such hatred that he simply wanted his wife gone. In Hunting the Falcon, John Guy and Julia Fox examine the most recent archival discoveries and peel back layers of historical myth to present Anne and Henry in startlingly new ways. They show how Anne and Henry's relationship was tied almost completely to the major events of international politics at one of the great turning points of European history, and dispel any assumptions that a sixteenth-century woman, even a queen, could exert little influence on the politics and beliefs of a patriarchal society. Anne was in fact a shrewd and ruthless politician in her own right, a woman who steered Henry and his policies - and whom Henry seriously contemplated making joint sovereign.

Hunting the Falcon sets the facts and some completely new finds into a wide frame, unearthing the truth about these two extraordinary lives and their tumultuous times. It pays particular attention to the seven 'missing' years that Anne spent in France, and explores how she organised her side of the royal court in novel ways that ultimately sowed the seeds of her own downfall. In this feat of historical research and analysis, Guy and Fox offer a sumptuous retelling of one of the most consequential marriages in history and an exhilarating portrait of love, lust, politics and power.

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I've read a number of biographies on Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn recently, and Hunting the Falcon has to be right up at the top. I love how historians John Guy and Julia Fox take the wide view of the relationship. It wasn't ever just about love, or even lust, it was always about power and politics- both on the small family scale and on the European scale.

Guy and Fox do an excellent job of describing Anne's life in Europe before coming to Katherine of Aragon's court and Henry's attention, and how what she learned there greatly influenced what she herself would do when she was queen. She modeled her court on Queen Claude, who she served in France, allowing both women and men into her court. This probably allowed her access to more information than she might otherwise have gotten, certainly made her feel more accessible to those who wanted to ask for favors and knew the Queen was the one to go to, and in the end, helped Cromwell exploit chinks in Anne's armor that led to her execution. We see what Anne did as queen for those around her, the changes she made and those she tried, but failed, to make.  

But more than focusing on the power Anne wielded in England, Guy and Fox help the reader understand the ever-shifting power plays going on between England and France, the pope and Charles (Katherine of Aragon's nephew, Holy Roman Emperor, Hapsburg emperor, etc.). Who sided with who, when, where, and why changed regularly and Guy and Fox do the best job of explaining the players and their motivations (at any given time) that I've read yet. I think that was what impressed me the most in Hunting the Falcon. I always knew that Anne was pro-French, but here we get deeply into why sometimes it was to Henry's advantage to side with Francis and France, other times with Charles, who might support him against the pope, and who's wars in Europe would benefit him the most.

Whether you think you know all there is to know about Henry and Anne, or are looking for a good book to start your exploration of this explosive relationship, Hunting the Falcon is definitely a book I recommend!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Exorcist and the Demon Hunter

 

The Exorcist and the Demon Hunter- Amy Kuivalainen

BHC Press

Release Date: September 26, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis: My name is Jael Quinlan and I’m a freelance exorcist, no matter how much the churches in Melbourne hate it. There’s a darkness growing in my city and my boss Uriel, the sternly handsome and badass Archangel of the North, is expecting me to get to the bottom of it.

The problem is these demons are unlike any I’ve ever seen and they are all giddy about an upcoming apocalypse. On top of that, I’ve been having some crazy visions about a demon hunter on the other side of the world named Mychal. He’s frighteningly scary and has a serious depression problem. 

It turns out I’m caught up in one of those special missions from a higher power (you got to hate those) and I know I’m going to need Mychal’s and Uriel’s help in order to stop two rampaging Watcher angels and Hel’el (the big bad Devil himself) from kicking off a new apocalypse. 

I honestly don’t know what a human exorcist can do in a battle of supernatural good and evil, but all I know is finding out is going to be one hell of a ride.

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Amy Kuivalainen is a go-to fantasy author for me, and I was excited by the idea that in this book we would finally get to learn Mychael's full story. Having read the Firebird series, I had some definite theories about him, but that just led to more questions. Cleverly, this book was written enough as a standalone that if you haven't read the Firebird series (which is great, and you should read), you don't come to this one feeling lost. If you have read it, you know there are mysteries surrounding the Demon Hunter before you meet him, but you only have suspicions and aren't actually ahead of any new readers.

The first half of the book was a surprise to me (which I don't mean in a bad way) because it focused entirely on Jael, the exorcist. A freelance exorcist with a rather Buffy-like attitude to authority and tradition, Jael isn't connected to any particular church or religion, but just believes demons shouldn't be possessing people. She has the ability to get rid of them and has been trained since she was a teen by the archangel Uriel to do so, and as far as she's concerned, that is that. Melbourne seems to be dealing with a particularly severe demon infestation and Jael is trying to handle that and understand why those demons are so fixated on her. At the same time, she's trying to hang on to shreds of a normal (or semi-normal) social life to balance her out, and it isn't always working. 

Surprisingly, we don't meet Mychael until about halfway through the book, when things get even worse in the supernatural world. The book changes up at this point: Jael tells her story from the first person, while Part Two alternates between Jael's first-person and different third-person POVs. Mostly it worked, but I was thrown by it once and awhile, especially at first. It took a little adjusting. 

Kuivalainen's other books have all been more Finnish or Russian mythology-related, including the Firebird series with Mychael, so I was intrigued by the idea of her expanding her world-building here to focus on a more  Judeo-Christian theology. Jael isn't specifically of any church or belief, but the monotheistic God of Abraham is clearly the way she feels comfortable relating to the divine, and we are talking to priests, rabbis, demons, and archangels here. I don't know if everyone will be comfortable with this approach, but I thought it worked pretty well.

While her Magicians of Venice series is still my favorite, I enjoyed this book. People who have read the Firebird series will definitely want to read it because it happily wraps up a few loose ends that you thought had just been given endings in the last book. No further spoilers than that though!

Thanks to BHC and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Worst Medieval Monarchs

 

The Worst Medieval Monarchs- Phil Bradford

Pen & Sword

Release Date: September 30, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Stephen. John. Edward II. Richard II. Richard III. These five are widely viewed as the worst of England’s medieval kings. Certainly, their reigns were not success stories. Two of these kings lost their thrones, one only avoided doing so by dying, another was killed in battle, and the remaining one had to leave his crown to his opponent. All have been seen as incompetent, their reigns blighted by civil war and conflict. They tore the realm apart, failing in the basic duty of a king to ensure peace and justice. For that, all of them paid a heavy price. As well as incompetence, some also have reputations for cruelty and villainy, More than one has been portrayed as a tyrant. The murder of family members and arbitrary executions stain their reputations. All five reigns ended in failure. As a result, the kings have been seen as failures themselves, the worst examples of medieval English kingship. They lost their reputations as well as their crowns.

Yet were these five really the worst men to wear the crown of England in the Middle Ages? Or has history treated them unfairly? This book looks at the stories of their lives and reigns, all of which were dramatic and often unpredictable. It then examines how they have been seen since their deaths, the ways their reputations have been shaped across the centuries. The standards of their own age were different to our own. How these kings have been judged has changed over time, sometimes dramatically. Fiction, from Shakespeare’s plays to modern films, has also played its part in creating the modern picture. Many things have created, over a long period, the negative reputations of these five. Today, they have come to number among the worst kings of English history. Is this fair, or should they be redeemed?

That is the question this book sets out to answer.

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This was a really excellent look at 5 medieval English monarchs: Stephen, John, Edward II, Richard II, and Richard III. The author states up front that labeling people (maybe especially monarchs) 'best' or 'worst' anything is fraught with all sorts of problems but since that's the kind of age we live in now, he's looking at five medieval kings who are generally argued to be pretty bad. He explains that they will be looked at in the context of their time and then tells us what kingship meant in that time and how their people would have been judging them. Seems like a concept that should be obvious, but so many don't do this to put us all on a level playing field that I was both amazed and delighted to find this book doing so!

Bradford kept on delighting me by taking each monarch and giving a brief summary of their lives, then following how chroniclers treated their legacy, how they were viewed through the centuries, and how that view could shift (occasionally dramatically) through time depending on what different historians were trying to prove. Which usually had more to do with the historian and their viewpoint or propaganda than the monarch and his original life. How has popular culture treated each king? And then Bradford's final verdict on whether the king deserves to be known as among the "worst" medieval monarchs or not. 

I loved the sections where Bradford follows the king's legacy through the centuries and how historians have argued over them and used them to show different angles. Likewise, the sections on popular culture really help you understand how, while some kings aren't hurt by it, others are forever branded in popular opinion in certain ways. No matter what historians may decide, poor King John is never going to be seen in popular culture as anything other than the easy villain of Robin Hood stories. Almost more a stereotype than an actual person. And let's not even talk about Shakespeare and Richard III!

Well-researched, well-written, with arguments clearly expressed for you to agree or disagree with (or inspire you to read more about), Bradford does an excellent job of presenting pretty balanced accounts for each king. His emphasis on placing each man in their historical context to be judged in medieval context alone was excellent, and something I wish was done more often when it comes to history.

I definitely recommend this book to history lovers, those looking to start exploring medieval times and their monarchs, and people just looking for a good book!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes

 

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes- Kate Strasdin

Chatto & Windus/Vintage/Pegasus

Release Date: February 23, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes.

Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages.

Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry.

This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

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This was a book I was excited to read since I first heard about it through social media. Author and fashion historian Kate Strasdin was given an album, a 'dress diary' in 2016. The album consisted of swatches of fabrics from the 1830s through about the 1870s and, with the exception of brief captions identifying the fabric in a way only the album's creator would have recognized, there was no writing. Strasdin spent years researching the people named in the captions and the stories she could connect to them and their fabrics. The result is the fascinating book The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe (called The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe in the US). 

Anne Sykes grew up in Lancashire, the daughter of a cloth merchant in a part of England focused at the time on the cloth industry. She married a cloth merchant from a family of fabric printers, so needless to say Anne understood the importance of fabric in daily life- both as fashion, gifts, and probably the basis for family economics. Anne and her husband Adam traveled to Singapore for his work and lived there (and briefly Shanghai) for nearly ten years before returning to England. Strasdin scoured records, newspapers, ship's logs and more for hints of the Sykes and other names that appear in Anne's diary, often with surprising success. While no letters have been found from Anne, Strasdin helps us discover what her life in Singapore might have been like through letters of other women who lived there at the time, and who knew Anne and donated fabric to her album.

But this book isn't just a biography of a middle-class cloth merchant's wife. It is a history of the textiles and fashion in England during Anne's lifetime. From the textile mills of northern England to the machines that increased production and put hundreds of employees out of work; to a chapter on how the patterns were created (which I'd always wondered about!) and how the printing of cloth changed over time; the change in colors with the discovery of aniline dyes in the 1850s and 1860s (along with the associated poisons for both the workers and occasionally the wearers of the material); and the fancy dress costume balls that became the rage in both England and Singapore, Strasdin connects each chapter of fashion history to swatches of fabric in Anne's diary. The fabric acts as a starting point in each chapter for something Anne would have known about or been affected by, from mourning clothes to Singaporean pirates (there's a piece of a pirate flag in the album that an admiral gave her!)

The Dress Diary of Anne Sykes and Kate Strasdin proves beyond a doubt that fashion history stands as a part of the social history of any time period that must be considered when we truly try to know a time and place. Women were hugely influential in the choices connected to fashion, letting us find some of their stories within the shadows of "important" history as so often focused on by men, but Strasdin reminds us in this book of the huge web of social and global economic influences a phrase like "fashion history" truly means. Not something to be scoffed at, it is a growing field of study that should be both celebrated and encouraged.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the social or fashion history of the Victorian era. It is a great adventure that Strasdin allows us to share along with her.

The Love Plot

 The Love Plot- Samantha Young

Berkley

Release Date: August 29, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: There's a magnetic attraction when a happy-go-lucky gig worker agrees to a fake relationship with a rich, uptight New Yorker in this steamy romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young.

Star Shine Meadows is all about freedom, thanks to the hippie parents who raised her. Juggling her jobs as a professional costume character actor and a line sitter, she believes in no expectations, no stressful ambitions, and no-strings-attached relationships. So when she meets a birthday girl's grumpy uncle while working a princess party, she can't help but needle him. She'll never see him again, and honestly, he's pretty hot.

Rafe Whitman may be a veterinarian with a great bedside manner, but that doesn't mean his patience extends to anyone with opposable thumbs. His family will not stop nagging him about finding "the one," so when he runs into obnoxiously cheery Star again, he makes her an offer: He'll pay her more than she would make doing her odd jobs if she'll pretend to be his girlfriend at family gatherings. She can stop sitting in line waiting for someone else's new phone, and he'll get his family off his back.

When the tension between them heats to a breaking point, Star's desire for "no strings" is tested against Rafe's staunch stability. They say opposites attract, after all....

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Possibly the most grumpy-sunshine of relationships I've seen since Good Omens 2, Star and Rafe are total opposites, and accidentally perfect for each other. She always looks for the positive in things, doesn't think a career is for her so has two unconventional jobs, doesn't do long-term relationships because she doesn't think she can do committed, and her greatest goal in life is to be happy. He went the conventional route, likes animals more than people, and is going crazy because his mother and sister-in-law are aggressively trying to set him up without asking him how he feels about it. When they meet at Rafe's niece's birthday party, you could not find two more different people. Rafe's idea to hire Star to be his pretend girlfriend has predictably surprising and entertaining consequences: his parents like her, and Rafe discovers he likes Star more than he expected. They do say opposites attract. . . .

Star is a quirky, delightful, believably flawed and wonderful person. Her parents are self-proclaimed hippies who taught her not believe in committed relationships, careers, or tying herself down to anything long-term. While that works in the short-term, and Star is quite happy with her jobs as a character actor and line-sitter, Rafe and his stability start making her question if she's limiting herself. I love how Star works to see something positive in people, gives them the benefit of the doubt, and to put happy out into the world to improve the lives of others. She practices what she preaches. The times when she tries to be something she isn't, she's miserable, reminding both Star and us that being our authentic selves is the best life.

I can best describe Rafe as a Mr. Darcy- only more outgoing when he's happy. Shy and quiet around strangers, better with dogs than people, it's no wonder that he's going crazy with his mother and sister-in-law throwing random women at him! He's a guy who believes in commitment if he's going to be in a relationship, so he and Star come at pretty much everything people-related from different angles. But I loved how he doesn't just dismiss Star's views based on his own experiences, he listens to her thoughts and frequently found himself changing his mind because of her viewpoints. They'd catch themselves in arguments and try to explain what the problem was exactly because they came at things so differently. I don't think I've ever read that in a romance before, where the main characters so continually work like real people to make a real relationship happen and I really enjoyed it. Even when they mess things up, it is real and relatable. 

Rafe's rich family doesn't know what to do with Star and her bohemian ways and polyamorous friends at first. Do they change her to fit with them or do they accept that she makes him happy as is? I loved how Rafe stood by Star when she dealt with her family crisis and started facing her defining childhood, and how she was willing to do anything to ensure he didn't break with his family because of her. It was clear they loved each other long before they admitted it, but that was kind of the point. Star has lots to teach Rafe and his family, but they have some things to show her as well. 

This was a lovely, funny, heart-warming book and I definitely recommend it, not just to Samantha Young (Much Ado About You, A Cosmic Kind of Love) fans, but to anyone looking for a beautiful romance.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Medusa's Sisters

Medusa's Sisters- Lauren J.A. Bear

PenguinRandomHouse/Ace

Release Date: August 8, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were unique among immortals. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god's love is a violent one.

Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from sea-born origins to the outskirts of the Parthenon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.

Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.

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This was a powerful retelling of the story of Medusa and her sisters, and is kind of what I'd looked for in Natalie Haynes' Stone Blind but didn't get. The story alternates between Stheno's first-person narrative and a limited third-person narrative for Euryale, which took some getting used to. At first I found it jarring, but I got used to it the longer I read. As I didn't really like Euryale, I was happy not to be in her head for her chapters.

The first third of the book or so was a little slow for me. They are born and growing up and not much is happening except to show us immortality, the relationship between the sisters, their mother, and a few of their other relations. As the sisters (who can pass as human at this stage) decide to travel and learn about humans things pick up. Other stories are woven in and we learn the sisters' personalities as they learn about humans. Stheno is the protector, Euryale the self-absorbed flirt, Medusa the ever-curious and innocent. 

This story probably has the best reason (if you can call it that) for why Athena cursed the sisters after Poisidon raped Medusa of any version I've read. Certainly the most personal, selfish, and heartbreakingly awful one. The author doesn't shy away from reminding us that Greek culture, like the myths, didn't place much importance on women and rape was a regular thing that men were not usually held accountable for. Or that women were generally blamed for. There is certainly victim blaming for Medusa. So consider most of the book a trigger warning, if you hadn't already assumed that by the idea that this was about Medusa and her sisters. The author doesn't gloss over much.

Without giving away spoilers, I can't get too specific on much. I was surprised to learn this was a debut novel- the writing was mostly better than I expect from debut novelists (although there was a lot more "if I had but known" writing than I needed). At the same time, I'm not sure the author had quite figured out how to end the book and it seemed to get a little awkward again towards the end.

The women take their stories back here in ways you expect and also in stories and ways you don't expect. Medusa's death and what comes after are powerfully and emotionally written and actually brought me to tears in a few places. This is definitely one of the most powerful retellings I've read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Royal

 

The Royal (Game of Chance #2)- Susan Stoker

Montlake

Release Date: August 8, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Former military man and member of a royal family Callum Redmon can’t deny his sense of responsibility. So when his cousin’s latest love interest claims to have a stalker, Cal reluctantly meets with the young woman and her mother. He wants to write off the situation as a complete farce—if only his feelings for another member of the household could be as easily dismissed.

Since her father’s death seventeen years ago, Juniper Rose has been at the cruel beck and call of her stepmother and stepsister. Her fantasies of escape mean leaving behind her father’s beloved home, but enough is enough: when Cal offers her a way out sooner rather than later, June takes the leap.

Cal’s home in Maine with his military brothers seems like the safest place to start fresh. But as Cal and June’s fairy-tale romance blossoms into something real, they find that the dangers stalking them may have been real all along.

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I'm always a sucker for a Cinderella retelling and this was a great one! June has been a servant in her own home since her father's death, thanks to the emotional abuse of her stepmother and stepsister. Seventeen years later she's gotten the courage to try and leave when fate brings Cal Redmon to the house. He's been strongarmed into going there to check out a stalker situation for his cousin, who has been "dating" the stepsister, and while it takes about a day to see through that ploy, it takes less for him to become fascinated by June.

She's observant, calm, intelligent, and Cal wants to help her out. So when he leaves he convinces June to go with him. What starts out as just helping turns into more on both sides. Both have massive insecurities- both emotional insecurities and body insecurities- and are convinced the other won't want to be with them long-term. It was really interesting to see Cal so hung up on his body since we don't usually get men in romance books who are so unsure of their looks. Connected the way it is with the torture he went through and you can understand how painful and self-conscious he feels about it and you feel so bad for him. I was so happy June was able to see straight to the heart of him and what a great, caring guy Cal is. She seemed to instinctively know just the right things to say, even if Cal wasn't always quite ready to hear them, which I thought was great. She knows it isn't about the outside- her steps are gorgeous women and horrible- though she never quite internalizes that for herself. 

This was more a book about finding yourself and internal healing for both Cal and June, and Cal freaking out about falling in love, than it was a fast-paced mystery or thriller the way some of Stoker's books are, so you have to go into it with a bit of a different expectation. You don't have to have read The Protector first, though all Cal's friends show up again so you see familiar faces if you did read it. I loved how protective the guys are of each other and how they embraced June once they were sure she was right for Cal. And we get a tease for the next book that promises major action ahead!

An enjoyable, lovely romance with Cinderella vibes that were just enough for me without being over the top, great friends turned family, and two damaged people learning to trust themselves and each other enough to fall in love and admit it. 

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review