The May Bride

August 18, 2014
Dunn (The Confession of Katherine Howard) breathes life into Tudor-era England, giving readers a view of teenaged Jane Seymour. Fifteen-year-old Jane’s life is shaken up when her brother Edward, six years her senior, brings home his bride, Katherine. Katherine becomes a member of the household, assisting the other women in their daily tasks. But when Edward goes off to war, Katherine takes his absence better than expected. Jane is surprised at Katherine’s easy relationship with her father and shocked when her father writes poetry to Katherine. While Edward’s return from war in France is a joyous occasion for the family, Katherine doesn’t seem especially overjoyed at his return. In succeeding years, Katherine gives birth to his two sons, and their marriage seems less troubled. But when Jane unintentionally reveals to Edward the knowledge of her father’s poetry to Katherine, Edward makes some startling discoveries that threaten to disrupt the happiness of the entire Seymour household. Dunn brings a fresh voice to historical fiction, embracing the humanity of her characters in modern language. Yet it is her exposure of the innermost secrets of the nobility that will resonate most with historical fiction fans.

September 15, 2014

When Katherine Filliol walks through the doorway to Wolf Hall in 1536, Jane Seymour falls quickly under her spell. In her new sister-in-law, wife to Jane's eldest brother, Edward, Jane finds a free-spirited, unconventional woman with whom to bond. For one glorious summer, Jane and Katherine are inseparable, giving Jane a view into the world of matrimony. After a return from fighting in France, however, Edward announces his finding of Katherine's infidelity--with his father nonetheless--and Katherine is suddenly off to a nunnery, never to be heard from again. Jane must reconcile this loss with the tumult and notoriety it gives her family and, years later, manage herself when another Katherine, the Queen, finds her position as wife under threat from King Henry VIII, who wishes to divorce her and marry Anne Boleyn. VERDICT Dunn's (The Confession of Katherine Howard) novel shines like a bright, welcome star in the deluge of Tudor historical fiction, giving readers a glimpse into a little-known scandal that rocked the Seymour family and may have shaped the character of the future third wife of Henry VIII. Tudor fiction fans will enjoy a fresh take on a well-trod period of English history in which the author, like Philippa Gregory, focuses on the life of a notable figure before she became famous, looking at the whole woman and not just as she relates to Henry VIII. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/14, p. 27.]--Audrey Jones, Washington, DC

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