Review: The most original take on history I ever saw
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 28, 2014
Commanding nothing more than the average knowledge on Henry VIII and the somewhat scandalous marital history surrounding this particular ruler, I picked Kings and Queens mainly because I've been enjoying this author's other novels. It was a strange idea to me - a modern-day parallel on the famous life of a powerful man quite a few centuries removed. Yet, I figured that the book would be enjoyable anyway, because I loved this author's style, no matter the subject.Well, what a surprise!An avid reader of historical fiction in me was purring with delight, while the regular consumer of good fiction just enjoyed herself enormously. It WAS an account on Henry VIII coming to the power. If not for the modern-day setting I would say this book could be classified as a perfect historical fiction. But the modern-day parallel made it into something incredibly special. A new genre? Maybe. Why not? We do have alternative history and historical fantasy these days. Why not a parallel history?Because having checked with Wikipedia and read the author's delightfully readable article following the well recorded events, I found that I learned much history and plenty of interesting detail reading this book. And in the most pleasant of ways, too! From Harry, the head of the huge real estate company, the "king"; through Cathy, the head of HR (Catherine of Aragon), the alluring electric Annette responsible for the company's PR (Anne Boleyn), and the rest of them, the six wives, all different, everyone a character in itself, perfectly modern, perfectly real, but reflecting on their historical prototype in the most detailed of ways, including their adventures, their affairs, their deaths even. This was the sort of the story I never ran along into, the history buff in me satisfied as much the regular reader!Highly HIGHLY recommended :-)