Review: A rich, intimate experience at a turning point in history.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 4, 2014
Lissa Bryan's Under These Restless Skies is a delightful work of historical fiction. It's a love story. Not a romance, not really, but a love story. Not only the happy story of Will Somers and Emma, but also the sad story of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.Within the story, the reader may learn of Selkies and their lore. They will get a small taste of conversation that might have been about in Tudor England. They will hear of philosophies and suppositions taken as fact. They will see the inside of the Tudor Court from a very intimate setting.Which always makes for a good intrigue!Lissa Bryan has provided a rich assortment of details that delight, entertain, and even educate her readers as they live with Will and Emma in close quarters with Henry VIII as he settles his Great Matter, as he turns the English church on his whim, and as history is irrevocably changed. While Will sees the greater issues, Emma does not, and so the reader is privileged to enjoy the emotional responses of Emma while getting a sketch of the situation from Will.For this reader, anyway, it is a delightful experience. I am sure others will find it to be so as well.Absolutely a full five stars.