08/18/2014
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. (Oct.)

Rich in period detail, The May Bride will appeal to readers who enjoy a domestic drama set in the world of Henry VIII without court intrigue or extensive battle scenes.”

2014-08-14
"The tricky business of a man setting aside his wife" in a Tudor marriage prefigures coming events at the court of Henry VIII in the latest from six-wives chronicler Dunn (The Confession of Katherine Howard, 2011, etc.). It's Wolf Hall revisited. While Hilary Mantel borrowed the name of the Seymour family's historic manor house for the title of her Man Booker prizewinning best-seller, for English novelist Dunn, it's the prime location for her closely observed sidebar-to-history account of Edward Seymour's doomed first marriage to mercurial Katherine Filliol. Events are narrated by future royal wife Jane Seymour, who's 15 when Edward, her oldest brother, introduces his spirited bride to the household; Jane instinctively warms to Katherine's impulsive nature. What follows is an overdetailed domestic portrait of Wolf Hall through two years of seasonal shifts, feasts and festivals while Katherine's moods flicker and fade. Edward leaves for a while, to fight in France, and on his return, his wife bears him two sons. And then the family is torn apart by scandal. Jane, innocent but implicated by her friendship with her sister-in-law, tries to salvage her brother's marriage but the rift is irreparable. Katherine is sent to a convent while Edward tries to restore family respectability by placing Jane at court, as maid of honor to Queen Catherine, Henry VIII's first wife. Jane therefore has a ringside seat when Henry, like Edward Seymour before him, declares his current marriage at an end—in order to marry Anne Boleyn, whose subsequent execution leads to Jane's coronation. Dunn embroiders a capable historical novel around the few known facts about Katherine Filliol, but non-Tudor obsessives may find her minute scrutiny of the Seymour marriage an overextended prologue to the more mainstream events.