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Between Two Queens (Secrets of the Tudor Court)

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Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens by Kate Emerson

Historical Romance-Jan. 5, 2010

4 stars

Between Two Queens is an interesting peek into the Court life of the Tudor reign as seen through the eyes of the brash and young Anne Basssett. Nan Basset was a real person and Kate Emerson does a wonderful job of bringing her to life.

From the moment Nan Basset is chosen as a Maid of Honor to Queen Jane she hopes to use her position to find a young, wealthy and well-connected husband and further the ambitions of her and family. But her plans are thrown into turmoil when Queen Jane suddenly dies after giving birth. Nan is left adrift, she no longer has a post and she struggles to find a way to stay at court, the seat of power. But her drive is derailed with the attentions of King Henry VIII and constant intrigue that keeps her on her toes. Can Nan find love and navigate her way through court while still helping her family?

This was a fascinating look into the Tudor Court that felt real and alive. Greed and power drive much of the action in this story as the characters try to find favor with either the King or Queen. It is really a tale of a young woman's coming of age. Nan is determined to have a life away from her overbearing mother. But when she first arrives she is unprepared for the danger, intrigue and excesses of court life. Nan quickly learns and is soon planning and manipulating her way through the often malicious court life.

This book sometimes did feel a little like an autobiography although the author does an excellent job of making Nan more accessible. I often had the feel of reading a Philippa Gregory historical but for me it lacked a little of the emotional connection I've had when reading Philippa Gregory's stories.

Although I did find the story absorbing, the one weak spot for me was that I never really warmed up to Nan. Nan's self absorption and cunning made for good reading but I never felt very sympathetic towards her. It would have been nice if she rose above some of the actions of the other court players and was not so devious or self-centered but I believe the author showed her actions to demonstrate the reality of Tudor Times and the need for survival.

If you love historicals, (especially books by Phillippa Gregory) and thrill at dangerous intrigue this is a solid book you will not want to miss!

Reviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

This is the first novel I've read by Kate Emerson and I found myself pleasantly surprised by the story and the writing. I have to confess I am one who often judges a book by it's cover and I didn't care for this one. So, if you have a similar reaction I would urge you not to judge this book by it's cover.

I enjoyed this story and appreciated that the author included a family tree, two maps and a list of historical characters as resources for her readers. It's clear that Emerson has done her research on the period. I thought she did an excellent job of illustrating the politics in King Henry VIII's court and wove interesting bits of historical information into the narrative as well.

I would caution readers that there are spoilers written into the descriptions of the historical characters in the back of the book. So, if you are like me and don't want to know how the story ends until you read it you may want to post-pone reading that portion until you've finished the book. I also liked the way Emerson started each chapter with a passage from actual letters from the period that were about the historical figures in this story.

I know some readers might not care for the ambitious nature of the heroine's character but I think that it was a realistic portrayal of how many courtiers behaved. I thought the story was well paced, well researched and compelling. At first I wasn't sure I was going to be able to relate to the heroine because of her affection toward King Henry and I was concerned that the author was going to paint a picture of Henry VIII that would be inconsistent with everything else I've read about the man. But I thought she did a very good job describing the danger of being in King Henry's favor and painted a consistent portrait of the man himself.

While some readers will think it a negative to be compared to Philipa Gregory I have to say that this reminds me of 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'The Boleyn Inheritance', both of which I enjoyed. It also reminds me of 'Innocent Traitor' by Alison Weir and it made me want to read 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel.

Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens by Kate Emerson

In Kate Emerson's second book in her "Secrets of the Tudor court" series; she has taken letters about one of Jane Seymour's Maids Of Honor and tries to bring us a story of many layers. It is a novel filled with court intrigue, treachery, treason and scandal and political and religious machinations. She has chosen a time towards the end of Henry the VIII life when his health, looks and charm were on the wane. She has also chosen to make Anne (Nan) Basset a strong woman who has always made her choices reflect on what she can gain both for herself and her family.

Unfortunately for me this book just reminded me that history never fails to repeat itself, whether with our politicians or with the nouveau riche - sadly, I could never seem to get the picture of Donald Trump out of my mind whenever I was reading about the King!

Between Two Queens opens with Nan being chosen as one of the Maids of Honor to a very pregnant Queen Jane. When Jane Seymour dies after childbirth Nan captures the Kings eye and he hers. At the same time another younger, poorer man (Ned) has become smitten with Nan. Nan chooses to have a dalliance with Ned, getting pregnant in the process and instead of marrying him, decides to give up her child and to encourage the Kings roving eye and dreams of becoming Queen.

The characters of Anne and her "friend" Ned were never convincing to me; they were shallow and manipulative and while that may have been what really went on during this reign, I felt that they could have been painted just a little bit more human and made to be a bit more interesting.

Much of the story had deep gaps and some parts even seemed to have been added after the fact with the author sometimes not even completing a plot thread. The so called mystery and intrigue really wasn't mysterious or intriguing. It was more boring than anything. I admit that I really do not know anything about this time period nor do I have more than a passing fancy with the Tudors...so if you are reading this book cold like I did, I think you may be very disappointed. DO NOT judge this book by its cover. It has been given the cover of what one would assume is a historical romance, it is not.

As another reviewer has observed, this biographical novel is fluff and as such will not likely appeal to the real Tudor devotee, but to the dilettante who is perhaps looking for romance amid the Tudor court. I refer you to the review "No secret in this novel" because this is an excellent presentation of the book, but not a flattering one. She echoes my sentiments exactly.

Anne Bassett was a real person and her mother the ambitious Lady Lisle, tried to get her two daughters, Anne and Katherine, placed as maids of honor to Anne Boleyn without success, but famously achieved her goal by sending the pregnant and quail-loving Jane Seymour quails from France. Anne as heroine of this biographical novel, being the prettier of the two sisters, is considered by the author to be the more important. She may, with very scant evidence, have become a mistress of Henry VIII but apparently he showered her with gifts. Anne spends all of her time in this novel looking for a husband, a rich titled one, which was probably true of the real Anne, but her book character never gels. She's cardboardy and a complete bore.

In an historical novel, the author does have quite a bit of leeway in interjecting scenes and even characters to flesh out the book, but there is a limit. The episode of Anne's trying to convince Henry she was a virgin when he took her approaches the ludicrous. I might pick a fight with the author, too, on her portrayal of Jane Seymour. Jane was ambitious- she dangled her virginity as bait and why Henry found that enticing after Anne Boleyn played the same fiddle for so long goggles the mind- but a shrew Jane was not.

Perhaps of the two Bassett sisters, Catherine was the most interesting historically. But she is not deeply explored in the book. She was rumored to have championed Anne of Cleves as the true wife of Henry and that the execution of Catherine was proof that God was showing Henry that that marriage to the despised Anne was valid. She also reportedly said, "What a man is the king? How many wives will he have?" (This fact is mentioned in the "Who's who in the Tudor Court" epilogue at the end of the novel). Catherine was in custody for a while.

Philippa Gregory, a more skilled writer than Emerson, can take a relatively unknown person such as Mary Boleyn and flesh her out and make her a "real" person as she did in "The Other Boleyn Girl." But there is not enough known about Anne Bassett- you can't pull an historical purse or a person out of a pig's ear when that person is as obscure as Anne Bassett.

If you want a pleasant romantic "Tudor" novel, this book may be your cup of tea. For serious Tudor aficionados, I recommend you skip it.

I read Emerson's first book when it came out. I enjoyed it. I called it "fluff historical fiction." It's not a deep read and its good for the beach. I figured that this book would be the same. I was ready to read "Between two Queens" because I enjoyed the last novel so much. However this book lacks something.

Nan Bassett, or Nan as she is called, is a young woman with ambition on her mind. There's nothing wrong with that. After all, the only aim and end to a woman's life was to find a good husband and get married. So Nan searches for the best. She wants to become Henry VIII's wife/mistress/something as long as it gets her money. Becoming queen would be nice, sure he exiled Catherine, beheaded Anne and poor Jane died of child bed fever, but hey maybe Nan will have a better go of things. If not, then she'll be his mistress because then she can always be cast aside to one of the king's high ranking men.

Her plan would have gone well had it not been for temptation and Nan finds herself in a sticky situation that could ruin her reputation and all her scheming.

While it all sounds very interesting I found it hard to get into this book. Part of the problem was the first 30 pages(or so it felt) was all about Nan and how pretty she was and how all the women at court were ugly. I was tired of hearing about how great she was and it started to annoy me. While some reviewers found Nan's character unlikable or her ambition troublesome, I did not. I liked that she aimed high but I thought her actions were pretty stupid for a supposedly smart woman.

The plot was good enough but it lacked depth. I felt the characters were shallow. While this is a "fluff" historical fiction novel I expected more from it. I wanted to dive into it like I did with Ms. Emerson's first novel.

I think people should loan this one. The second book doesn't live up to the hype of the first novel. Hopefully the third will capture the magic of the first.

Between Two Queens loosely tells the story of Anne "Nan" Basset, who arrives at the court of King Henry VIII at the age of 16 with the hopes of serving as maide of honor to his third queen, Jane Seymour, and of catching a wealthy titled husband in the process. Nan and her sister Catherine compete for the position of maid of honor and the King selects Nan because she is very beautiful. Nan's position of Maid of Honor to Queen Jane doesn't last long, as the Queen famously dies shortly after giving birth to her son, the future King Edward VI. Because King Henry VIII is attracted to Nan, Nan is ultimately extended a position to return to court as maid of honor for his fourth queen. In the meantime, Nan finds herself in some trouble and chooses to continue on her path of attracting a wealthy husband with a title rather than a possibly happy and contented life as the wife of a common man without wealth. The novel follows Nan's trials and tribulations as maid of honor to Anne of Cleves and then to the ill-fated Catherine Howard with brief mention of her time in the service of Katheryn Parr.

In my mind, I kept comparing this novel to Phillipa Gregory's The Boleyn Inheritance, as it covers much of the same period of Henry VIII's life. This novel is definitely superior, as it is less repetitive while also getting the point across about Henry's degeneration from a handsome King into a cruel and nasty fat old man with an oozing, pussy leg. Also interesting, this novel takes the point of view of a courtier and paints a clear picture of Henry's despotism and the odd dynamic by which the ambitious needed to ingratiate themselves to the King in order to advance financially and socially while also risking at any moment making a comment or acting in a way that could displease the King and cost them their heads. Nan herself becomes dependant on her position as a courtier, as Henry imprisons her family for treason (this is historical fact, and not a spoiler IMO), leaving her with few prospects and no way of attracting a noble, wealthy husband without somehow staying at court in an attempt to somehow prod Henry into freeing them. Between Two Queens is much more subtle than The Boleyn Inheritance in portraying the terror that courtiers must have felt at this period in Henry's life, but is very effective in conveying the undercurrent of fear that surely must have influenced behavior, thoughts, and actions of the nobility.

This novel, while good in many ways, was not amazing. To me, it was a 3.5 star novel. In the first half of the novel, in particular, Nan is portrayed as extremely self-centered and unlikeable. The author also gives Nan a "secret" which seems rather unrealistic - and I tend to be uncomfortable with character assassinations of real people when they are not grounded in fact. Later on in the novel, I think Nan becomes more sympathetic as she seems to lose much of her conceit and pride when she loses her social status/position due to her family's troubles with treason. The first half of the novel was very fluffy, but the second half of the novel was substantially better as a study of court life. I was much less interested in the author's invention of the skeleton's in Nan's closet compared to Nan's observations of the Queens whom she served, of Henry and his courtiers, and of a country run by a despotic, megalomaniac King.

In 1637 sixteen year old Anne "Nan" Bassett crosses the Narrow Sea from Calais, France to Dover, England along with her older sister Catherine. Nan wants to join the court as a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour. Surprisingly King Henry selects her to become a member of his wife's entourage.

When Jane dies in childbirth, Nan leaves the court to move in with her cousin, the Countess of Sussex. Henry not forgetting the élan of Nan orders her back to the court when he marries again and again. With intrigue everywhere inside Henry's court, Nan falls in love, but to survive she must give away her child as her family is no haven since they are caught up in Cromwell seditious activities.

The latest secret at King Henry's court (see Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace) is an engaging historical starring a maid of honor who keeps her head by keeping her head in crisis. Based on a real maid of honor, Nan is a terrific heroine, but in many ways the aging monarch steals the show as the King seems to obsessively need to prove his manhood as he goes through a few more wives following the death of Jane. Fans will relish Kate Emerson's strong historical tale of life and death at King Henry's court.

Harriet Klausner

The story begins in 1537, King Henry VIII is in the middle of his reign and married to his 3rd wife Jane Seymour. Nan (Anne) Bassett & her sister Cat (Katherine) arrive at court. One of them is to be chosen to be a maid of honor to Queen Jane. Nan soon learns that the Tudor Court is a dangerous place to live, with games and intrigue around every corner.

I have always enjoyed reading about the Tudor Court but this is the first time I've read anything about Anne Bassett or her connection to the court. I really felt for Nan, while she was a maid of honor, she was constantly being moved around. I believe this made her feel like she didn't know where she belonged. While she was ambitious, she just wanted her bit of happiness.

I found Between Two Queens to be a riveting tale rich in detail and character. A story of hope, ambition, and finding your place in life. Nan Bassett, a most interesting figure. She is full of spirit and hope that will keep you turning the page.

It really is a shame that so little information (so the novel makes it seem) exists on the real Nan Basset. But really, making up such outlandish things? A lady in waiting bearing an illegitimate child? (who then conveniently dies of plague with his adoptive parents) If you're going that far off the known path of a historic person, why not just simply invent your own character?

No, not for me. Such a sad, difficult life. Perhaps sticking to the known facts and writing about the stifling life of court would give us a more realistic picture.

Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens / 978-1-4165-8327-1

It seems you can hardly swing a cat these days without hitting some new artifact of Tudor historical fiction: between the Philippa Gregory novels (and the dozens of spawned similar novels) and the HBO series "The Tudors", people just can't seem to get enough of the seamy life of Henry VIII and his never-ending parade of wives and love affairs.

Superficially, "Between Two Queens" fits the mold well enough - slap an attractive faceless woman on the cover, complete with some breathtaking costume design, and embrace her from behind with a duskily attired faceless man, and away we go. Between the sumptuous covers, however, lies a solid story and a good addition to the Tudor fictional legacy.

"Between Two Queens" contains a fictional account of Nan Bassett, who serves in this novel as a maid of honor to various of Henry's wives, and who has the dubious honor of catching the king's attention. Like other novels of this ilk, Anne starts with the mad ambition of catching the king for marriage and becoming a queen in her own right, and I was initially frustrated to feel that Nan was yet another "tempestuous" (read: spoiled and childish) heroine laden with great ambitions and schemes. Author Emerson quickly seems to reassure the reader, however, that such behavior is no more attractive to her than it is to us, and over the course of this novel we come to see Nan evolve and grow from a selfish, unrealistic girl to a complex woman - one with dashed dreams, modest hopes, and a strong will to succeed in her small goals for the good of her family and friends.

I am impressed with this novel for the dynamic characterization of the main characters - it is refreshing to find a Tudor novel that portrays the characters with realism and not as caricatures to advance the story. Small details enhance the narrative, such as when Nan first meets the king and desires him in spite of his girth and age, and then later - after developing more experience and wisdom - she returns to his presence to truly see him through the eyes of a mature woman rather than a petulant child. The narrative flows freely and easily, with a subtlety that enhances the experience greatly - Nan in particular is never particularly perfect, but rather is canny without being overly clever and intelligent without being an direct author avatar. As such, I enjoyed this book and was pleased with the evolution of its characters.

(No cats were harmed in the writing of this review.)

NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.

~ Ana Mardoll