I love historical fiction especially fiction set during the Tudor era and so this collection of short stories was right up my street. Well writte with suprisingly well developed characters for short stories. I loved them

Behind every great king stands a queen. And behind every queen, the whole court watches on.

Weir has done a lot of research about the Tudor court, and the six Tudor queens specifically, and this shines through in these stories. Each story is told from a different perspective of someone living in the time of Henry VIII's rule, they range from those at the heart of court to those on the outsides looking in.

As with most short story collections, some were better than others but for the most part I struggled to connect with many and found them a little forced / contrived. I think the stories would be far better as add on to the six original novels as opposed to reading them out of sequence within this collection.

I have always been fascinated by the Tudor history and events from this period. The book is excellently researched and provides an intro into the era and characters to have better context which I found extremely helpful.

Loved the narration style and perspectives and it is an engrossing read as you start getting pulled into the world of the character. I like how it provides an insight into the person and their hopes and dreams so you begin feeling for them. A well researched must read for fans of historical fiction of this period!

Thank you NetGalley and Headline for an arc in exchange of an unbiased review.

Alison Weir knows all about the Tudors and has written all manner of books both fiction and non-fiction about the Royal House which spawned (,amongst others) Henry VIII, Bloody Mary and Good Queen Bess.
These are short stories. There is one about Henry VIII's sickly older brother, Arthur and another about the young Anne Boleyn.
They are okay. I'm sure Weir knows her stuff. They are just a bit dull.

Alison Weir as usual paints a spellbinding historical picture of life in the Tudor Court, this time telling the stories of the six wives from a different perspective

I am an avid lover of this period of history and the queens of King Henry VIII have always been a subject of fascination for me so this book was an instant intrigue! I haven’t read any of the books in the Six Tudor Queens series before but I figured I knew a little enough about each of the main historical tales to be able to still enjoy these and boy I definitely did! 5 stars for sure.

They were an absolutely fantastic set of short stories, told through the perspectives of ‘side characters’ to the main queens or stories from the queens themselves at a certain time in their lives. Alison has the amazing ability to change the narrative and give you a ‘feel’ for the person who is telling the story. Each person is represented in how the story is written and I loved that there were some historical and some written in the present day too! Really stunning stories.

They were entertaining, insightful, clever and thoroughly engrossing. I’ve added the main series to my list to read as after this book, I definitely want to go into reading the individual books dedicated to each queen by this author. If this one is any indication to the others, I know they’ll each be 5 stars reads!

Alison Weir is such a fantastic writer of historical fiction and you can really feel her love and enthusiasm for this period burst through the pages. She is dedicated to her research and you know she knows this era inside and out. Her historian roots really shine through. I loved that there was elements of non fiction wound through this, with authors notes and historical accurate timelines. I loved the accuracy and how everything was as true to history as possible (with a few bridging of gaps in areas that were unknown and based on facts as much as possible). It was great.

The author really brings history to life and it was truly a joy to read.