Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Wife After Wife

I have a thing about King Henry VIII. I've read everything (fiction and nonfiction) that I can get my hands on. A few weeks ago, one of the review journals had a two page spread on Henry VIII fiction, and this book was on there, so I immediately snatched it up. It was brilliant and clever, I really enjoyed it.
Set in modern times (starting in the mid-1980s and finishing up in 2018) Henry Rose is head of a giant media corporation. He's young, rich, devastatingly handsome, and married to an absolute saint named Katie. Katie is a devout Catholic who wants a big family and is heartbroken when she suffers multiple miscarriages. Henry strays from the marriage bed, having a bastard son named Henry with a barmaid and starting an affair with the wife of a friend, Merry, before he meets Merry's sister, Ana. Ana is chic, intelligent, and not willing to be another notch on Henry's bedpost. She wants all or nothing, but Katie won't give Henry a divorce. The book covers all six of Henry's marriages in turn, but the best parts were with Katie and Ana. I had great fun figuring out who everyone was (some were really obvious, but not all of them). The best part is she's written a sequel about Henry and Ana's daughter, Eliza. Ooh, fun! Can't wait.

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