Royal Inheritance - Softcover

Emerson, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451661517 ISBN 13: 9781451661514

Publisher: Gallery Books, 2013

Synopsis

This new novel in the “wonderfully absorbing” (Library Journal) Secrets of the Tudor Court series, features a tailor’s daughter who suspects she is an illegitimate offspring of King Henry VIII.

Audrey Malte is illegitimate, though her beloved father—tailor to King Henry VIII—prefers to call her “merry-begot,” saying there was much joy in her making. Then Audrey visits the royal court with her father, and the whispers start about Audrey’s distinctive Tudor-red hair and the kindness that the king shows her. Did dashing Henry perhaps ask Malte to raise a royal love child? The king’s favor, however, brings Audrey constraint as well as opportunity. Though she holds tender feelings for her handsome music tutor, John Harington, the king is pressuring her to marry into the family of treacherous, land-hungry Sir Richard Southwell. Audrey determines to learn the truth about her birth at last. The answer may give her the freedom to give her heart as she chooses . . . or it could ensnare her deeper in an enemy’s ruthless scheme.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Emerson was born in Liberty, New York, and attended Bates College and Old Dominion University. She currently lives in Wilton, Maine. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and other professional organizations. Emerson also writes a Scottish mysteries series as Kaitlyn Dunnett. She currently lives in rural Western Maine with her husband and three cats. Visit her at KathyLynnEmerson.com.

Reviews

In her latest of the Secrets of the Tudor Court series (after The King's Damsel), Tudor aficionado Emerson suggests that Henry VIII fathered an out-of-wedlock daughter with one of the royal laundresses and privately arranged for her to be put in the care of his personal tailor, John Malte. Imagining the life story of Audrey Malte, an actual historical figure, the author reliably mixes court intrigue and the complicated politics of Henry's life and multiple wives with the fascinating private journey of a young woman who gradually becomes aware of her royal heritage. Audrey's life story is told to her only daughter, Hester, and this device works as the tale shifts back and forth between the present (1556) and the past, beginning in 1532 when Audrey first encounters the King and where her account takes off. The special treatment Audrey receives through the years—private tutors and court visits—raises suspicions among her siblings, and though all think John Malte is her real father and that she was his merry-begot (a bastard child), it is not until Audrey is a young woman that she comes to learn the identity of her true father. Emerson cleverly makes a good case for her royal connection, as well as for why the King did not officially recognize her. Adding punch is the love story between Audrey and John Harrington. Another satisfying, page-turning addition to Emerson's series. (Sept. 24)

Tudor England saw its share of drama,which is plumbed in Emerson’s oddly uneventful take on the life of apossible “merry-begot” of King Henry VIII. Born in 1528, the royaltailor’s stepdaughter, Audrey Malte, rivets everyone in the king’scourt due to her gold-red tresses, which are shared only by the kinghimself. Audrey is blessed with training from private tutors,personal gifts from the king, and the sometimes pointed stares ofthose who silently wonder about her parentage. As she grows, shefalls in love with a man who holds her heart but can never hope tohold her hand due to his lack of any means in comparison to her ownsizable dowry. When Audrey begins to push against her constraints,both as a woman and as the widely believed illegitimate daughter ofthe king, she discovers just how far she can go as well as just howmuch she might have to lose when facing down the deadly courtintrigues she has always avoided. Surprisingly slow in places, theplot wanders from its main point enough to bog down one’s reading attimes, despite nice period details. Any Tudor England fan, however, is likely to pick this up. --Julie Trevelyan

Edition details

• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1451661517
• ISBN 13: 9781451661514
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344