The Secret Bride: In the Court of Henry VIII

Though it takes a long time to admit it to herself, Mary Tudor (1496-1553)-the headstrong, gorgeous, obedient, and favorite sister of Henry VIII-ardently loves the inappropriate but dashing Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Neither she nor Suffolk, however, can tell Henry, for it would seem a betrayal: Henry has arranged Mary's marriage to France's King Louis XII,and no one knows better than Mary that Henry he is not to be crossed. But it's a long way to that point in the latest historical from Haeger (The Perfect Royal Mistress), who begins in Mary's girlhood, and includes everyone from Katherine of Aragon and Cardinal Wolsey to Francois I of France and a young Anne Boleyn. While one doesn't get a firm sense of passing time along the way, Haeger delivers complexities of court and duty plausibly and with aplomb.