Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: Blood Between Queens by Barbara Kyle (CLOSED)

Blood Between Queens by Barbara Kyle

Kensington Publishing

April 2013

Format: ARC Paperback, 448 pages

Source: Publisher via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

Following her perilous
fall from a throne she’d scarcely owned to begin with, Mary, Queen of
Scots, has fled to England, hoping her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, will
grant her asylum. But now Mary has her sights on the English crown, and
Elizabeth enlists her most trusted subjects to protect it.

Justine
Thornleigh is delighting in the thrill of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to
her family’s estate when the festivities are cut short by Mary’s
arrival. To Justine’s surprise, the Thornleighs appoint her to serve as a
spy in Mary’s court. But bearing the guise of a lady-in-waiting is not
Justine’s only secret. The weight of her task is doubled by fears of
revealing to her fiancé that she is in truth the daughter of his
family’s greatest rival. Duty-bound, Justine must sacrifice love as she
navigates a deadly labyrinth of betrayal that could lead to the end of
Elizabeth’s fledgling reign…

Compelling and inventive, Blood
Between Queens artfully blends history’s most intriguing figures with
unforgettable characters, bringing to dazzling life the fascinating
Tudor era.

My thoughts: This is the 5th book in Barbara Kyle’s Thornleigh series and I was quite excited to read it. I’ve read all four previous books in this series and love how Barbara Kyle weaves fiction and fact to tell such a compelling tale. I am a huge Tudor fan and this story deals with one of the more famous rivals in European history, that of Elizabeth
I, Queen of England and her renowned cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. I admit that I have not read much about this rivalry, and so I was thrilled that Barbara Kyle decided to tackle it.

 

Once again, the book centers on the fictional Thornleigh family. Throughout this series, we have gotten to know many of the Thornleigh family members, and this time, we meet Justine, ward of Lord and Lady Thornleigh.  Justine is the daughter of Christopher Grenville, a traitor to the country and rival to the Thornleigh family. Baron Thornleigh took in Justine, giving her not only his name, but protecting her from the treasonous acts of her father. Now, she is given the task of becoming a lady-in-waiting to the imprisoned Mary, acting as a spy for Queen Elizabeth. This becomes a more challenging role as Justine gets to know Mary.

The Thornleigh/Grenville family feud is still going strong and secrets come out throughout the book that cause tension and drive some of the action. Characters from the previous books appear in this latest installment and the emotions and anger that each family member feels towards the other family is quite palpable at times. There’s also another story-line involving the Thornleigh’s – that of Adam Thornleigh, son of Lord and Lady Thornleigh, as he fights for revenge after his ships were savaged by the Spanish.

Pitting these two rivalries  – that of Elizabeth vs. Mary and the Thornleighs vs. the Grenvilles – against one another  along with a third rivalry – that of England vs. Spain – really helped keep the book moving and I had a hard time putting it down. There is mystery, intrigue, deceit, betrayal, danger, and forced manipulations along with a network of spies that are so good at their job it’s hard to tell who’s really working for who. 

As much as I love the story that Barbara Kyle writes, I also love the ‘Author Notes’ that she includes at the end. Here she informs us just where she weaved fiction with fact. What I found particularly surprising was the fact that she mentions that these two queens never met in person.  All their correspondence and interactions were through letters or representatives…quite amazing.

I have really enjoyed this series and was thrilled to learn that this is not the last of the Thornleigh books. According to Barbara Kyle, there are at least two more books in the works!!!

Books in this series:

1. The Queen’s Lady
2. The King’s Daughter
3. The Queen’s Captive
4. The Queen’s Gamble
5. Blood Between Queens

About the author: Barbara Kyle is the author
of the acclaimed Tudor-era “Thornleigh” novels Blood Between Queens, The
Queen’s Gamble, The Queen’s Captive, The King’s Daughter and The
Queen’s Lady which follow a rising middle-class family through three
tumultuous Tudor reigns. She also writes contemporary thrillers. Over
400,000 copies of her books have been sold in seven countries. In July
2013 Barbara will be a speaker at Ontario’s world-renowned Stratford
Festival with her talk “Elizabeth and Mary, Rival Queens: A Study of
Leadership Lost and Won” about the cousin-queens Elizabeth I and Mary
Queen of Scots featured in Blood Between Queens.
 

Barbara has taught writers at the University of Toronto School of
Continuing Studies and is known for her dynamic workshops for many
writers organizations and conferences. Before becoming an author Barbara
enjoyed a twenty-year acting career in television, film, and stage
productions in Canada and the US.
 

For more information, please visit Barbara Kyle’s WEBSITE.

Be sure to check out all the other stops on the blog tour and follow the tour on Twitter (hashtag: #BloodBetweenQueensTour).

 

Giveaway Information (CLOSED):

Thanks to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours I have one copy of Blood Between Queens to give away to my readers. 

Rules: 

• Open to US/Canada only
• Must include email address to enter 

* Mandatory entry – Tell me why you want to read this book. 
 

* Extra entry #1 – become a follower of Always With a Book – via email, twitter or bloglovin‘.
If you are already a follower you will automatically receive the
bonus entries (just leave the name you follow under and how).  

* Extra entry #2 – please help spread the word by
blogging, posting on sidebar, tweeting, pinning onto Pinterest or posting this
giveaway on Facebook (each way you share gets you 1 more entry).  

 

All entries can be in one email – but you MUST include email address or no entry. 

GIVEAWAY ENDS MAY 22nd

Good Luck!!!