From the Tour Home Page:
Publication Date: March 5, 2013
Touchstone Publishing
Hardcover; 512pISBN-10: 1476708657
Book Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
In the next novel from Nancy Bilyeau after her acclaimed debut The Crown, novice Joanna Stafford plunges into an even more dangerous conspiracy as she comes up against some of the most powerful men of her era.
In 1538, England is in the midst of bloody power struggles between crown and cross that threaten to tear the country apart. Joanna Stafford has seen what lies inside the king’s torture rooms and risks imprisonment again, when she is caught up in a shadowy international plot targeting the King. As the power plays turn vicious, Joanna understands she may have to assume her role in a prophecy foretold by three different seers, each more omniscient than the last.
Joanna realizes the life of Henry VIII as well as the future of Christendom are in her hands—hands that must someday hold the chalice that lays at the center of these deadly prophecies…
My Thoughts:
Joanna Stafford lives during one of England’s more turbulent
times, during the reign of King Henry VIII, between wives three and four. The King has dissolved all of the religious
houses, thus seizing their goods and enriching his coffers. Henry is on the precipice of being
excommunicated from the Church, and one of most closest advisers is
Cromwell. Really, could it get any
worse? Why yes! Add to that the Reformation movement and
Spain’s Emperor Charles the V becoming friendly with France, and this is the
tinder box of politics Joanna finds herself in.
All Joanna wants to do is live a quiet life, raise her
nephew, and build a tapestry business.
But no, this is not possible.
Factions at court are vying for control of Joanna because they view her
as a means to an end; as a salvation against the dark forces of the King and
Reformation. Why? Seers have predicted that Joanna is
instrumental in helping the Catholic Church.
Without Joanna, Henry wins thus defeating Catholicism and the true heir
to the throne, Mary Tudor. Joanna is afraid
of these prophecies, rightly so, and must make a decision: is she in or out
with court intrigue and the shaping of the future of England?
Although all of these events are going on, this novel is
more about Joanna and the person she is, than about this period in history. That’s why I enjoyed the novel so much. Many times with Tudor novels, the story
inevitably gets sucked into the actual events with the characters as side
pieces or window dressing. In The
Chalice while Joanna is instrumental in events I felt it was her and her hopes,
dreams and fears that kept me reading on.
What will Joanna do? Why is going
to London? How will this event shape
Joanna’s views? Joanna is a great
character who is intelligent and a bit spunky.
Not too much mind you, but just enough for the era, and in consideration
of the fact the woman was going to be a nun.
Yes, Joanna is an ex-novice.
Besides our heroine, what also kept me flipping the pages
was the action. There is intrigue, shady
people, prophecies being told, and characters being whisked away either to the
Tower or to back rooms where the chess players of the court try to convince
them of why their cause is the right one.
Mary Tudor stops by as well as a very famous seer towards the end of the
novel. (You would know if I gave his
name.) Bilyeau builds a palpable, realistic
world for readers, and although The Chalice is the second in a series, The Crown was the first, I did not feel lost. There were mentions of what happens in The
Crown, but not enough to make me feel like I couldn't read it and be surprised
or drawn in. I will definitely go back
and read The Crown. The only area that
may be lacking from not reading The Crown was Joanna’s relationship with Edmund
and a Geoffrey Scoville. I did not know
all of that history, so I accepted what I read in The Chalice at face
value. I probably would have had a
deeper reaction to those plot lines in the book if I had read The Crown.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed The Chalice and thought it was
a page turner. And since Bilyeau has
stated she envisions a series of books about Joanna and her adventurous life, I
am eagerly awaiting the next in the series.
To see what others thought of The Chalice, please visit the tour page or twitter feed:
http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/
Twitter Hashtag: #TheChaliceVirtualTour
About the Author
Nancy Bilyeau, author of The Crown, is a writer and magazine editor who has worked on the staffs of InStyle, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Good Housekeeping. Her latest position is features editor of Du Jour magazine. A native of the Midwest, she graduated from the University of Michigan. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
Nancy Bilyeau, author of The Crown, is a writer and magazine editor who has worked on the staffs of InStyle, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Good Housekeeping. Her latest position is features editor of Du Jour magazine. A native of the Midwest, she graduated from the University of Michigan. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
For more information, please visit Nancy Bilyeau's website. You can also follow her onFacebook and Twitter.
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