Allison Bannister has been tracking the history of Mary Seymour, daughter of Queen Katherine Parr. When she comes across a recently discovered portrait of Anne Boleyn, Allison knows better and that it's truly Mary. Allison knows this because she lived with Mary in Wolf Hall before she made the leap in time to current day. Allison was a teenager living in Wolf Hall when she fell in love with her cousin and steward of the house Edward Seymour. She ended up getting pregnant and sent away then her child was taken from her when she gave birth. She roomed with Mary and though they hated each other at first, they needed each other and grew to respect each other. Mary had special abilities to see the future so Allison looked to Mary to help her find her son Albert. Mary looks to Allison to save her from being tried as a witch.
The story is told from Allison and Mary's perspective. Allison is in current time to survive and see if she can't find her son through history. Mary is in the 1500s, after being pushed aside. Both struggle with similar problems despite the time gap and they never forget the promises they made to each other. Allison is not only searching for her son, but also her friend Mary to find out what happened to her.
Mary Seymour's story in real life is pretty mysterious, so Cornick takes what history knows and builds around that quite well. The magical/fantastical element makes this unrealistic but it's still a fun 'what if' story.
The historical fiction and character relationships were the best part of this book. Mary's story from the 1500s seemed well researched and flowed very well. The relationship between Mary and Allison, as well as any of the other characters was believable and endearing.
Where this book lacked was in the time travel element. Allison traveled forward in time by 500 years yet had no problem coping with any of the technical or cultural changes. She was driving a car (how?) and wearing modern clothes without issue. Characters had no problem believing that she was a time traveler. It was a tough pill to swallow and it nagged at me throughout the entire book.
Despite this, it's still worth picking up and reading!
Thanks to TLC Book Tours for letting me be a part of this tour! If you're interested in purchasing the book you can do so here.
Rating:
(3.5/5)
This is a generational story of the Cleary family. With Irish roots, they settled in New Zealand and got in to sheep shearing. The family was large with many boys and one girl, Meggie, who just barely made ends meet. The eldest Cleary sister sends out a request for the rest of the family to join her on her huge farm in Australia. The family moves out there and learns life in the Australian outback. There are many ups and downs. Losses and births. The story focuses around Meggie as she grows up. As a girl, she looks up to the priest responsible for the local area. As Meggie grows up, she thinks there is an opportunity for her to pull the priest away from God but it's not meant to be. Love and heartbreak, this book has everything.
Each year, Laura's family gathers at her parent's place to go to the town fair. It's been a family tradition forever and one that can't be missed. Before she heads there with her husband and two teens, she gets a call from her sister saying that she has something very important to discuss with Laura and their brother. The conversation doesn't get very far before their father has a stroke and heads to the hospital. Laura's sister Caroline can't wait. She has been seeing a therapist and the therapist has recommended she talks to her sibling about what happened in their childhood. Caroline states how her mother never gave her any love and treated her completely different from the other children. When Caroline was supposedly in summer camp, she was actually at a hospital recovering from her mother attacking her with a knife. Laura has a hard time reconciling this with the childhood she remembers.
Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Priest Father Mateo are back for book 6 in the Shinobi series (this is my 3rd introduction to them). Carrying a message up Mount Koya, the two stop at a temple as the weather turns bad, seeking refuge. In this temple are a group of Buddhists that live there, as well a father and his boy also seeking refuge from the storm while they wait to spread ashes. Hattori knows the Buddhist responsible for the protection of the temple and asks him, on break of the weather, to carry a message outside the temple for him. As Hattori and Mateo go to sleep, they are woken in the middle of the night to find that this Buddhist is dead. Hattori suspects someone know that he was a messenger and killed him for it. But then a few hours later, there's another death. Who is killing these monks?
In the second book Lieutenant Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels, this book finds her hunting someone that is leaving body parts lying around the morgue attached to Jack's handcuffs. Since this person has access to the morgue and Jack's handcuffs, could they be a cop? While trying to solve the case, Jack is called away to Florida because her mother is in the hospital. Jack tries to convince her mom to move in with her in Chicago but mom wants nothing to do with it.
Cullen James has come a long way. She has left behind a boyfriend that didn't truly love her and made the tough decision to abort her baby with that man. Still getting over it, her long time friend Danny comes back from Italy to console her. The two eventually get married, have a child, and that's when the dreams start.
Henry is a Chinese American in Seattle during WWII. The Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbour and tensions between Americans and Japanese are at an all time high. Henry's parents came to the USA from China, having suffered at the hands of the Japanese and despise them even more than the Americans. His father strictly forbids Henry from having anything to do with anything Japanese, and sends him to an all-white school to keep him out of trouble.
When Franz is dumped by his fiancee a few days before the wedding, he is shocked. The entire thing has been paid for, including the honeymoon. Franz surrounds himself with friends and family on the wedding day and then convinces his brother to take his honeymoon with him. The two travel to Central America and enjoy their time. Why not extend it? All Franz can think about is his ex-fiancee. He needs to break free and what better way than to travel the world.
When Dr. Maura Isles returns from a trip to Paris, she finds her street buzzing with police activity. Wondering which neighbour got in trouble, as she gets closer she notices the activity is outside her house. A woman was shot in her car, right infront of Isles house and the woman looks exactly like Dr. Isles. Before she showed up, the police thought it was Dr. Isles, the medical examiner for the area. Relieved that it wasn't her, there are a lot of questions. Who was this woman, why was she there, and who killed her?
The second book in the Mitch Rapp series sees him actually out in the field. Rapp has been disposing of dangerous men in a network of arms dealing and terrorists. To date, he hasn't had an issue with any of his hits, which is unusual. The team wonders when he's going to make his first mistake. That happens in Paris, where he is ambushed with a team of men that come in to the hotel room spraying bullets. Rapp manages to escape but was shot in his shoulder. He thinks he was set up by someone on the inside and doesn't know who to trust.