The King's Pleasure

December 1, 2022

In award-winning debuter Bell's The Disenchantment, unhappily married Baroness Marie Catherine and self-confident Mademoiselle de Conti become lovers in a 17th-century Paris beset by scheming nobility and servants immured in witchcraft (35,000-copy first printing). In The Secret Book of Flora Lea, from New York Times best-selling, Christy Award-winning Henry, Hazel unwraps a package at the rare bookstore where she works to discover a book telling the story she made up for her little sister, who vanished after they were evacuated from World War II London two decades previously. Jackson follows up award-winning nonfiction with To Die Beautiful, based on the life of World War II Dutch Resistance fighter Hannie Schaft, who also figures in Noelle Salazar's recent Angels of the Resistance (50,000-copy first printing). In Morton's latest, Jess has an uncomfortable Homecoming when she returns from London to Australia after the grandmother who raised her is hospitalized; she learns that her family is linked to a horrific unsolved 1959 crime (250,000-copy first printing).New York Times best-selling author Noble tells the story of The Tiffany Girls, who did much of the design and construction of Tiffany's glorious glassworks without credit (75,000-copy first printing). Paul's Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? features Elise St. John, a young Black woman who is startled that she and her sisters have inherited the multimillion-dollar estate of star Kitty Karr Tate; then she learns that Kitty was actually her grandmother, passing for white (100,000-copy first printing). After the celebratedAriadne and Elektra, Saint brings us Atalanta, the story of a masterly huntress who was the only woman to sail with the Argonauts (125,000-copy first printing). A four-time winner of the American Library Association's William Boyd Young Award (for excellence in military fiction), New York Times best-selling author Shaara limns the life of Theodore Roosevelt in The Old Lion (100,000-copy first printing). Working at the Jeu de Paume during World War II after having fled Germany, Sophie executes a Paris Deception in Turnbull's latest; she rescues modernist paintings looted from Jewish families and set for destruction by smuggling them out of the museum and replacing them with forgeries created by her sister-in-law (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). Famed novelist/historian Weir follows up her "Six Tudor Queens" series by reimagining Henry VIII in The King's Pleasure.

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April 15, 2023
He was a ginger-haired second son, the athletic, charismatic "spare" to his overly serious elder brother. Henry VIII, nicknamed Harry in his youth, wasn't born to be king, but he has come down in history as a larger-than-life monarch, known for his marriages and role in the English Reformation. In her newest biographical novel, royal expert Weir explores the viewpoint of this towering figure, beginning with the passing of his beloved mother, the subject of her previous book, The Last White Rose (2022). Henry inherits a wealthy kingdom and indulges in tourneys, feasts, and luxurious clothing, which Weir evokes in detailed scenes of jaw-dropping extravagance. In well-paced fashion, readers view his transformation from fun-loving Renaissance man consumed with his glorious image to an aging, tyrannical king desperate to ensure the succession. Weir meticulously illustrates his significant relationships with not just his six wives but also his political allies and rivals and such shrewd advisers as Wolsey and Cromwell. Readers of her Six Tudor Queens series won't find unexpected revelations here, but this believable tale is a solid choice for historical fiction devotees.

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Starred review from May 15, 2023
Weir regales readers with the life of England's King Henry VIII. What a life to be king, answerable only to God! Full of hormones and high privilege, Prince Henry, barely into his teens, can hardly wait to feel the weight of the crown on his brow and to marry his late brother's wife, Katherine of Aragon. But the "Church, for some unfathomable reason, had decreed that boys could not bed their wives until they were fourteen." Such backward thinking. Finally, in 1509, the 17-year-old ascends to the throne and marries Katherine, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, so they can produce an heir. It's a wonderful life at first. "He was doing his husbandly duty--and pleasure--nightly now, and soon, surely, Kate would be with child." That turns out to be a sticky point, as Kate bears him eight children but no surviving son--her fault, of course. Then after 18 years, he ditches Kate for a series of other women such as Anne Boleyn. He is obsessed with siring a future king, believing it against the natural order of the world for a woman to rule (inferior beings, don't have the wits, etc.). There is much more of course, like his wish for a joint English-Spanish conquest of France. But there is a bigger issue with consequences through the centuries. England is a Catholic country in Henry's day, and his insistence on annulling his marriage to Kate goes down poorly with the pope. That personal issue, as the world knows, leads to the establishment of the Church of England. Meanwhile, Henry (or Harry, as he is sometimes called) takes great pleasure in his adulterous dalliances, in eating and jousting, and in his exercise of power. And don't even think of defying him or plotting against him because you will die. Even predicting the king's death is deemed treason. Weir takes the abundant history and weaves imagined conversations and motivations into a delightful yarn. It's so much better to read about Henry VIII now than to have lived back then. An all-around fun read about a king and a cad.

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April 13, 2023

After highlighting each of Henry VIII's wives in turn in her "Six Tudor Queens" novels, noted historian and author Weir finally allows the mercurial monarch himself to tell his own story. Writing from Henry's perspective allows Weir to broaden her focus beyond his marriages and delve more deeply into his intellectual life, tracing how his vision of an ideal king and queen might have evolved as he faced numerous political, religious, and personal challenges over his 38-year reign. She also demonstrates how different factions at court and an increasingly volatile Henry may have used one another to advance their own goals, even as heads began to roll. VERDICT Even at just over 600 pages, Weir's novel has to maintain a fairly brisk pace to cover all the events of Henry's life from adolescence onward, making this read best suited for those already familiar with the basics of his life and marital history. Tudor fiction written from Henry's perspective is relatively rare, and Weir offers just enough of a different take here to satisfy the era's many enthusiastic fans eager to revisit this fascinating period one more time.--Mara Bandy Fass

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.