Very Like a Queen

by Martin Lake

The King’s favor was her sanctuary—until his desire turned dangerous.

Alice Petherton is well practiced at using her beauty and wits to survive in the Court of King Henry VIII. As the King’s favorite, she enjoys his protection, but after seeing the downfall of three of his wives, she’s determined to avoid the same fate. Alice must walk a fine line between mistress and wife.

She finds a powerful protector in Thomas Cromwell, and Alice has every reason to believe that she will continue to enjoy a life of wealth and comfort at Court…until she puts everything at risk by falling in love with a Frenchman, Nicholas Bourbon.

When Cromwell is executed, Alice loses her only ally and flees to France. There she hopes to live in peace with Nicholas. But Alice is lured into a perilous game of treason, and peace doesn’t last long. Will Alice get back the life and love she’s fought for? Or will she lose herself to the whims of a capricious monarch?

• ISBN10: 1503953270
• ISBN13: 9781503953277
• Publish Date: 26 January 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Amazon Publishing
• Imprint: Lake Union Publishing
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

"Women have ever had to use subtle means to make their way int he world: their charm, their beauty, their wit, their grace. Some, such as Anne, added other qualities in order to attain their ends. Until now I had found advantage without really planning it."

Before I start this review, I would just like to say that I have never been a huge fan of Tudor England and I am still not. Now you're probably thinking, then why did you read this book? Well I thought maybe my tastes had changed and it looked like it would be a really interesting read as it was about Henry VIII. While it was interesting at times, I also found myself getting bored with it rather quickly and it took me far longer to read it, then I ever thought it would.

Alice Petherton is the King Henry's Mistress, (I didn't know this before I started reading.) she is his favorite and the only one who can change his mood from awful to okay. The people around the King love that she can do that and are always happy to see her when the king requests to see her. She also has several friends in the kings court and has a close friendship with Thomas the Kings adviser who is quite, found of her. This all so starts to change though when she meets a French man named Nicholas. She falls for him and has to hide it not only from the king, but also from her greatest enemy Richard (who is a vile man and I disliked immediately).
As this romance progresses and the king gets more distrustful of all his court she is put into a difficult situation.
But with the help of her servants she is able to stay alive and keep in mostly good favor with the king.
As time progresses in her time in the Kings Court he marries several times, and the last one we see it to a child bride who he took as a new mistress at first and was head over heels for. The only problem though was the bride did not feel the same and this ultimately ended in her demise. Throughout all of this Alice is trying to find a way to be with Nicholas without falling out of favor with the King and being killed.
Overall I did think this book was okay. I did think it could have done without going into detail on some of the deaths. I also could have done without the sex scenes. I found them unnecessary to me.


"Men, They are all like little boys really. Even Dukes and Kings."

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for giving me a galley of the book in return of my honest review.

See reviews first on my blog