To Die For (Ladies in Waiting #1) by Sandra Byrd -- Review

About the Book

What would you sacrifice for your best friend?
Would you die for her?

Meg Wyatt has been Anne Boleyn's closest friend since they grew up together on neighboring manors in Kent. So when twenty-five-year-old Anne's star begins to ascend, of course she takes Meg along for the ride.

Life in the court of Henry VIII is thrilling... at first. Meg is made mistress of Anne's wardrobe, and she enjoys the spoils of this privileged orbit and uses her influence for good. She is young and beautiful and in favor; everyone at court assumes that being close to her is being close to Anne.

But favor is fickle and envy is often laced with venom. As Anne falls, so does Meg, and it becomes nearly impossible for her to discern ally from enemy. Suddenly life's unwelcome surprises rub against the court's sheen to reveal the tarnished brass of false affections and the bona fide gold of those that are true. Both Anne and Meg may lose everything. When your best friend is married to fearsome Henry VIII, you may soon find yourself not only friendless but headless as well.

A rich alchemy of fact and fiction, To Die For chronicles the glittering court life, the sweeping romance, and the heartbreaking fall from grace of a forsaken queen and Meg, her closest companion, who was forgotten by the ages but who is destined to live in our hearts forever. ​

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Books in the Series

About the Author

After earning her first rejection at the age of thirteen, bestselling author Sandra Byrd has now published more than forty books. 

Sandra's new series, Daughters of Hampshire, historically sound Gothic romances, launched in 2015 with best-selling Book One: Mist of Midnight. That book earned a coveted Editor's Choice from the Historical Novel Society. The second book in the series, Bride of a Distant Isle, released in March 2016 and has been selected by Romantic Times as a Top Pick. Her latest nonfiction title, The One Year Home and Garden Devotions, published on October 1, 2015.

Check out her contemporary adult fiction debut, Let Them Eat Cake, which was a Christy Award finalist, as was her first historical novel, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn. To Die For was also named by Library Journal as a Best Books Pick for 2011 and The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr, was named a Library Journal Best Books Pick for 2012. 

Sandra has published dozens of books for tweens and teens, including the best-selling, The One Year Be-Tween You and God, Devotions For Girls. 

She is passionate about helping new writers develop their talent and their work toward traditional or self-publication. As such, she has mentored and coached hundreds of new writers and continues to coach dozens to success each year via novelcoaching.com 

Please visit www.sandrabyrd.com to learn more or to invite Sandra to your book club via Skype.

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Review

The story of Anne Boleyn as told from the view point of one of her best and dearest friends, Meg, is an intriguing, rich, and deeply research novel.  From page one readers will be fascinated with the relationships between the many characters, both main and secondary.  Sandra has a magnificent and beautiful way telling a story that readers will not soon forget.  I have always been fascinated with the story of Anne Boleyn and Sandra brings to life Anne’s story in this epic novel!  I would recommend this story to readers that are interested in historical fiction and Tudor England and European history.
 
Series: Ladies in Waiting
Genre: historical, Tudor Period, European literature
Publisher: Howard Books
Publication date: August 9, 2011
Number of pages: 332
 
Content Rating: PG
Book Rating: 5 stars

Other books in the series:
2-The Secret Keeper
3-Roses Have Thorns
 
A review copy of this book was provided by the author and an audiobook borrowed from the library.