Jun 12

23

Giveaway Winners Galore

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 23, 2012
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Thanks to everyone who entered the following giveaways! Winners, please reply to the email I sent you today within 48 hours to claim your books. After 2 days you will be disqualified and a new winner will be picked. Rafflecopter picks all winners using Random.org.

Thanks again to the author, Vasant Davé for making this giveaway possible.

The winner for the eBook is:

bm100

Thanks again to Jillian Sanders of Forever Romance for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Nancye D.

Thanks again to Kaitlyn McCrystal of Touchstone Publicity, Simon & Schuster, Inc for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Jeanne

Thanks again to Debby Tobias of Joan Schulhafer Publishing & Media Consulting for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Brenda

Thanks again to Ava Kavyani, Freelance Publicist and the author, Emylia Hall for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Sanda

Thanks again to the author, John A Heidt for making this giveaway possible.

The winner of the eBook is:

Nancye D.

Thanks again to Justina Batchelor, Publicist for Touchstone / Simon & Schuster for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Jeanne

Thanks again to Samantha Lien of |JKS Communications for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Julia

Thanks again to Jessica Butler of Berkley/Penguin for making this giveaway possible.

The winner is:

Julia

Jun 12

23

Guest Author: Susan Higginbotham, Auther of Her Highness, the Traitor

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 23, 2012
Posted in Guest Author | 3 Comments

Yesterday I posted my review of Her Highness, the Traitor by Susan Higginbotham. Be sure to check it out to enter the giveaway! I am a big fan of Susan’s and always so excited when I hear she has a new book out. She has never disappointed me.

Today it is my honor to welcome Susan as my guest at So Many Precious books! Welcome Susan!

When researching Her Highness, the Traitor, I was shocked at the sheer number of “facts” about the people in my novel which, on further investigation, turned out not to be true. Here are a few of them:

Myth: Edward VI was a sickly child. Fact: Until the last months of his life, Edward VI was a healthy boy who had no more than routine childhood illnesses.

Myth: Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, physically shoved Katherine Parr out of her way and fumed, “If master admiral [Katherine’s husband Thomas Seymour] teach his wife no better manners, I am she that will.” Fact: The story about Anne shoving Katherine comes from the extremely unreliable Spanish Chronicle, which among other howlers has Thomas Cromwell (beheaded in 1540) investigating the allegations against Katherine Howard that arose in 1541. As for the quote about Katherine Parr being taught some manners, Anne Seymour never made such a statement. Rather, Peter Heylyn, writing in the seventeenth century, merely claimed that Anne thought this—something that Heylyn was hardly in a position to know.

Myth: Jane Grey’s parents were only interested in gambling and hunting. Fact: Nothing is known about the interests of Frances Grey, despite the prevailing notion of her as a predatory huntress. Henry Grey, however, was a patron of scholars who was also said to be “somewhat learned himself” and to speak elegant Latin. He spent the night before his own execution reading the works of Heinrich Bullinger, with whom his daughter Jane had corresponded. For a New Year’s gift, Jane translated a treatise on marriage from Latin into Greek for her father.

Myth: While visiting the manor of Sheen, Jane Grey and her parents were frightened by a bloody, axe-wielding hand that came from behind a wall. Fact: As far as I can tell, there is no contemporary source for this story. It seems to have arisen in the Victorian period.

Myth: Jane’s parents viciously beat her in order to force her to marry Guildford Dudley. Fact: This allegation, which has become a staple of novels and movies about Lady Jane, occurs only in a pirated Italian account. Significantly, Jane herself in her letter to Mary said nothing about being physically forced to wed Guildford, though it would have served her purpose to portray herself as a reluctant bride.

Myth: Edward VI was poisoned and his body switched with that of a youth of the same age. Fact: While it was widely rumored that John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, poisoned Edward, there is absolutely no evidence to support this, and Northumberland was never charged with regicide. As for the story of the body-switching, this tale originated with a cloth-merchant living in Strasbourg, who did not name his source. Edward VI had not yet been buried when Mary I took control of the government; had there been any doubts about the identity of the royal corpse, it would have been an easy matter to ascertain the truth.

Myth: Mary I executed Jane Grey in order to please Philip of Spain, who otherwise would have refused to go through with his marriage to the queen. Fact: While Mary had been under pressure from the imperial ambassador and some of her councilors to execute Jane and her husband Guildford, executing Jane was never a precondition to Mary’s marriage to Philip.

Myth: Guildford Dudley sniveled his way to the scaffold, in contrast to his self-possessed wife. Fact: the contemporary account of Guildford’s execution says simply that he shook hands with some well-wishers, prayed at length before his death, and made a short speech before his death. Nothing suggests that Guildford made anything other than a manly, dignified end.

Myth: Upon hearing of Frances’s marriage to her second husband, Adrian Stokes, Elizabeth I remarked, “What? Has she married her horse-keeper?” to which William Cecil replied, “Yes, madam, and she says your majesty would like to do so too.” Fact: Snappy as this repartee is, it is chronologically impossible. Elizabeth was not queen when Frances married, but was being held in custody by her sister Mary I.

Myth: Adrian Stokes was an uneducated stable hand half Frances’s age. Fact: Adrian was only two years younger than Frances. In the 1540’s, he served as marshal of Newhaven, an English post in occupied France, where he had command of ten men. Stokes was certainly literate in English, as letters written in his own hand show, and if he composed the epitaph on his wife’s tomb, he knew Latin as well. Stokes served in Parliament twice and on a number of local commissions. Fun Fact: Adrian’s stepdaughter by his second marriage, Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton, married Sir Walter Ralegh.

About Susan Higginbotham:

I am the author of two historical novels set in fourteenth-century England: The Traitor’s Wife: A Novel of the Reign of Edward II and Hugh and Bess. Both were reissued in 2009 by Sourcebooks.

My third novel, The Stolen Crown, is set during the Wars of the Roses. It features Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and his wife, Katherine Woodville, as narrators. My fourth novel, The Queen of Last Hopes, features Margaret of Anjou, queen to Henry VI, and is set mainly in the earlier years of the Wars of the Roses. It was released in January 2011. My latest novel, Her Highness, the Traitor, will be released in June 2012. Its heroines are Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland, and Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, who respectively were the mother-in-law and the mother of Lady Jane Grey.

My website is http://www.susanhigginbotham.com. I blog at http://susandhigginbotham.blogspot.com

Jun 12

22

Giveaway & Review: Her Highness, the Traitor by Susan Higginbotham

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 22, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012 • My Past Giveaways | 16 Comments

Told in alternating points of view, Her Highness, the Traitor tells what happened leading up to and after the death of King Henry VIII. His son Edward VI became king after his death however, if he died, Henry’s daughter Mary was to become queen and if she died, the Kingdom would go to Elizabeth. Sounds simple but it was not.

There were others vying for the Kingdom, claiming that both Mary and Elizabeth were bastards and not entitled to the throne. Many had their sights on little Lady Jane Grey for Queen and fought to make it happen. She was queen for all of nine days and Her Highness, the Traitor is her story and the story of the ones who made her Queen.

It is no secret that I am a fan of Susan Higginbotham and this novel has not changed my mind on that. I like the way this novel is laid out, telling it in alternating points of views work really well. The reader is able to get the story from all sides, not just one point of view. Higginbotham doe an outstanding job of trying to get to the truth of what really might have happened. The writing is clear and beautifully descriptive and the characters jump out of the page to greet the reader and welcome him or her into the past.

I felt as if I was brought back in time and experienced everything first hand. This is another winning historical fiction novel by Susan Higginbotham! I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with next!

4.5/5

Thanks to Sourcebooks and Net Galley for the eBook version for advance review. Also, thanks to Beth Pehlke of Sourcebooks, I am giving away one copy of Her Highness, the Traitor.

This giveaway is for Canada and the U.S. and ends on July 6, 2012. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Jun 12

23

Giveaway Winners Galore

Jun 12

23

Guest Author: Susan Higginbotham, Auther of Her Highness, the Traitor

Jun 12

22

Giveaway & Review: Her Highness, the Traitor by Susan Higginbotham