The Boy King by Janet Ambrosi Wertman

The Boy King (The Seymour Saga #3) by Janet Ambrosi Wertman

Release: September 30, 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Janet Wertman
Source: HFV book Tours
Find it at: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N

The Unsuspecting Reign of Edward Tudor

King Henry VIII, nine-year-old Edward Tudor ascends to the throne of England after his father’s death. Being motherless also, he quickly learns that he cannot trust anyone, even himself.

Edward is at first relieved that his uncle, the new Duke of Somerset, will act on his behalf as Lord Protector. But this consolation evaporates as jealousy spreads through the court. Also, Challengers arise on all sides to wrest control of the child king, and through him, England.

However, Edward can bring frustratingly little direction to the Council’s policies. But he refuses to abandon his one firm conviction that Catholicism has no place in England. However his half-sister Mary Tudor is very Catholic as her mother. When Edward falls ill, this steadfast belief threatens England’s best hope for a smooth succession to Mary Tudor.

All along heart’s desire is to return the realm to the way it worshipped in her mother’s day.

About the Author:

Janet Ambrosi Wertman grew up in the midst of bookstores and a library on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She visited all of them regularly. Given that her grandfather was an antiquarian book dealer, he persuaded Janet’s parents to send her to the French school. There, she was taught to aspire to long (grammatically correct) sentences as the hallmark of a skillful writer. She lived that lesson until she got to Barnard College.

Also, Janet spent fifteen years as a corporate lawyer in New York. She even got to do a little writing on the side co-authoring The Executive Compensation Answer Book, In 1997. She moved with her family to Los Angeles where she became a grant writer and took up writing fiction.

Janet had a passion for the Tudor Kings and Queens since watching the televised Masterpiece Theatre series as an eight-year-old. One of the highlights of Janet’s youth was being allowed to visit the Pierpont Morgan Library and examine books from Queen Elizabeth’s personal library and actual letters that the young Princess Elizabeth had written.

The Boy King is the third book in the Seymour Saga, the story of the unlikely dynasty that shaped the Tudor era. The first book, Jane the Quene, tells the story of Jane Seymour’s marriage to Henry VIII; and The Path to Somerset, chronicles Edward Seymour’s rise after Jane’s death to become Lord Protector of England and Duke of Somerset (taking us right through Henry’s crazy years).

Janet is currently working on a new trilogy about Elizabeth, and preparing to publish her translation of a nineteenth-century biography of Henry.

The Boy King Review:

The Boy King is wonderful and a terrific conclusion to the Seymour Saga Series. I loved every minute of it.

To begin with, I loved Edward in the story. The author portrays his emotions so well. I can only imagine how it would have felt for a 9-year-old to ascend a throne. Mainly, he has to deal with his half-sister Mary; alternately, he has to face with Thomas Seymoure and not to mention governing a kingdom along the way. Moreover, Mary and Edward’s complex rivalry is the highlight of the story. Mary and Edward engrossed me between their beliefs on Catholicism and Protestantism and blends into the plot very well. Nevertheless, you see how Edward turns from a naive lad to a magnetic ruler.

The Boy King is my favorite book in the trilogy and a brilliant conclusion to the series. Moreover, the series itself fascinated me and had everything I look for in a historical novel. I had limited knowledge of the Tudor Era before reading this, and I felt like I learned a lot. Another reason why I liked it was that each book had a different tone and theme from one another. Although the characters overlap, none of the stories felt repetitious from one another.

Furthermore, the story ends in an unforgettable manner that I felt was perfect. I loved the style of writing and hope to read many more books of hers in the future. Overall, if you are a fan of historical novels, you must read this!