Reviews

I've said this before and I'm not the only one. The Tudors are becoming a bit over saturated in books and other mediums. In order for this illustrious historical dynasty to stay fresh, and don't get me wrong here...I love the Tudors, I really do, but as I was saying, in order for them to appeal to us in a fresh way, the stories need to be told in a fresh way. And one way of doing this is to bring to the forefront the background characters. That is exactly what this author has done. By telling the story of Anne Seymour, a background figure of the Tudor world who was actually at the center of the intrigue, she has livened up the Tudors again.

Anne Seymour is an enigmatic character. I mean the title of the book is My Lady Viper and it's a suitable name for her at times, but at other times that name could never describe her. I tend to believe that the times were so precarious, especially during Henry Tudor's reign, that women had to be ruthless in order to not be swallowed whole by the intrigue. Another realization hit me as I was reading this book. Ladies in waiting were actually very powerful. Let me explain. Anne Seymour succeeds in drawing King Henry's attentions away from Anne Boleyn (though his desire was already waning because of her inability to bear him a son) by parading various ladies in front of him. One could say, and it's implied in this book, that she was a major player in the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Anne Seymour was instrumental in bringing Jane Seymour to Henry's attention and we all know how that turned out.

Anne ends up being involved in the intrigue at the Tudor court all the way up to Henry VIII's death. Of course, it makes sense that the Seymour's would remain in good graces with their nephew as the shining prince. However, towards the end, the constant plotting seems to have really taken its toll on Anne. And that's what I meant when I said Anne was enigmatic. She plots and schemes and yet felt real guilt at the downfall of most of the subjects of her diabolical plans. I think that she had an extreme case of loyalty to her husband's family because of something that happened to her earlier on. Trauma can do terrible things to a person's psyche. In the end, I didn't see Anne as a viper. She was just a conflicted person who did what she had to to survive in the times she was living. I have to say that the author has written one of the most interesting characters I've experienced in a historical novel.

My Lady Viper is the first historical novel for this author, who is a prolific writer of historical and erotic romance. I'm very impressed and I highly recommend it. I'm looking forward to the next book in her Tudor Court Tales, Prisoner of the Queen.

anovelstart's review against another edition

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5.0

I received a free copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Oh my word. I think this is one of the best historical fiction books I've ever read. I was hooked all the way through the book, and I can't help but compare her writing style to Philippa Gregory (my favourite historical fiction author).

I adore the Tudor period. I've researched it, and even had a mini-obsession with it in the past. There are so many parts of this book I recognised from my research! Needless to say, E. Knight has done brilliant research into the period, I even love the historical quotes she's so elegantly fitted into the storyline. I love it when a historical fiction novel has a strong base in fact, and this one has to be at the top of the list.

The writing in this novel is beautiful, elegant, and just plain charming. It was a pleasure to read. Knight's writing flows beautifully and effortlessly off the pages. The description in this book is very good, she includes just the right amount. Knight subtly paints the perfect picture with her words, yet the reader isn't bogged down with too much description. It's very balanced in that respect which makes it the perfect historical fiction book for me.

The pace is also brilliant. You're never left wondering how much of the book is left to go through boredom. It's intense and gripping throughout the whole book. In fact, it was rather hard to put it down!

Although any Tudor fan knows the history of the queens, My Lady Viper really does bring a fresh perspective. It re-tells the story in such a way that you can't help but fall in love with the period all over again.

Five stars, it was an absolute pleasure to read.

For more of my reviews, please visit my blog at: http://www.anovelstart.com

difficultwomanreads's review against another edition

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2.0

I was really excited to pick up a book about Anne Stanhope Seymour, the notoriously manipulative wife of Edward Seymour. The Seymour family often gets lost in the shuffle of Tudor history, especially compared to the Howards. I tend to think that this is because the queen they produced, Jane Seymour, isn't as flashy or tragic as the Howard queens, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Hardcore Boleyn fans just hate the Seymours (which is a shame, because Henry VIII is the one truly at fault) and cast them as prudish bores. Really, they were quite an interesting bunch of political power players, and none more savvy--at least during Henry's reign--as Edward Seymour and his wife Anne.

"My Lady Viper" certainly takes on an interesting topic: Henry VIII's reign from the execution of Anne Boleyn to his death from Anne Stanhope's perspective. Understandably, Knight tries to humanize Anne, who's reputation is not the best, and Edward, who's rep is even worse. The writing is engaging--obviously my attention was held, and I read the book rather quickly.

The strengths of the book are in Anne and Edward's scenes together, particularly when Anne gets her shit together and realizes that she and her husband are a great team. That's what I wanted out of the book. While "The Tudors" portrayed Anne as an adulterous party girl whose uptight hubby bored her, the Seymours actually had a pretty happy marriage for the times. As everyone else seemed to hate them, I get the sense that they had an "us against the world" mindset that was typical of the Seymour family. They knew they worked well together and valued and loved one another.

Those moments--and the moments when Anne actually acted like a master manipulator--were great. I also give Knight her props for trying to balance a human Henry VIII with his monstrous side, and the scenes with Jane Seymour were genuinely interesting. This is probably the first portrayal of Jane Seymour that hasn't annoyed the hell out of me. Sure, she's still innocent and naive, but that's not her dominant trait. You get the sense from this Jane that she knows her head could be on the chopping block next, and she's trying to survive.

Unfortunately, several unnecessary plotlines drag the storyline down. I know why Knight did this. I know we're sure about little of Anne Stanhope's life, and I get that for some reason Knight thought that would bore her readers. But it wouldn't have! It really wouldn't have. So she added in two horrible storylines.

The first starts early, and it really set off alarm bells for me. It's this completely unneeded, overblown rape-as-backstory thing that explains why the Seymours married--no, Edward's not the rapist thank God--and gives us our principle villain throughout the book. I hate rape as as backstory, and you get the sense that part of the reasoning behind this was that it explained Anne's "cold" nature. WTF??? Knight, you have to know better. That's a cardinal sin of fiction right there. So basically, throughout the book we have this leering sexual predator threatening Anne and her loved ones. And it somehow takes Edward Seymour, one of the most powerful men in the realm, years and years to make sure he gets his comeuppance. None of it made sense, and I couldn't help but think it was put in there to counterbalance Anne's portrayal in "The Tudors" (among other reasons).

That was bad enough, but I tried to ignore it and move on. Then Knight writes in this cringeworthy romance storyline between Anne and a certain nobleman. Not only does that destroy what makes Anne so appealing as a historical figure--the Lady Macbeth Edward Seymour's wheeling and dealing Macbeth--but it's not even an appealing romance! Anne is constantly, and rather annoyingly, going "I shouldn't! But I should! But my husband cheats on me and though I understand that this is ok by Tudor standards and he'd definitely have me put aside if I cheated on him, I still want to cheat on my husband!". This just made Anne seem less like a "lady viper" and more like a complete dumbass. Then we have multiple lovely scenes where her suitor basically sexually assaults Anne and continues to pursue her after she's said no. Oh, and he tries to blackmail her into screwing him. But they love each other!

This whole time, Edward is actually a pretty decent husband by the standards of the day. His position at court ensures Anne's position at court. He progressively warms up throughout the book and they apparently have a pretty hot sex life. As Anne whines about her tragic life and her love, you just want to throttle her. Like, girl--you could be Anne Boleyn. (Also, there's this whole subplot wherein Anne feels really bad about the Seymour role in Anne Boleyn's downfall, and despises Lady Rochford, Anne's sister-in-law who was instrumental in bringing her down. It stinks of Knight's awareness that every Tudor fan today loves Anne Boleyn, and feels like an attempt to make Anne Stanhope more sympathetic. I adore Anne Boleyn, but I know that not everyone was sympathetic to her back in the day. Most weren't, and I would have appreciated it if Knight had portrayed Anne Stanhope's feelings in a likely more accurate fashion.)

The novel just suffered from inconsistencies in Anne's character. She has all of two or three scenes with her firstborn, but is so devastated by his death that she becomes cold to everyone around her, including her second baby. (Whose entire existence is basically one giant soap opera thread.)

This could have been a really smart story that we'd yet to see in Tudor fiction. There's so much that you could have done with Edward and Anne. The few scenes where they actually *did* act like vipers were great. But they were few and far between, and didn't make up for the trainwreck that was the rest of the book.

baibe's review

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2.0

I was looking forward to this book because I love the era around the Tudors. Once I got over the annoyance that was the main character flip-flopping every other sentence, I was halfway thru and forced to finish. That said, once I did get halfway, the book was much better but not because I was used to the writing style but almost as if written by a different person.

The main character, Anne, was the sister by marriage of the new Queen Jane and I knew that because the writer elected to tell me on nearly every page, that she was her sister by marriage or that someone was related to someone else by marriage. I would like to think the people of the era didn't refer to it quite so much or I don't know, in that way but what do I actually know. Also, the character would want the passion from one suitor and then 2 seconds later remember she was married and owed her husband or something. This was again something that happened nearly every other page or maybe chapter. I did like how E. Knight was able to show court intrigue and how the Lady Anne was able to manage as a spy and courtesan.

By the end of the book, I thought it was ok. But it was a quick read so it has that going for it. Since it ended better than it started, I did think about reading the next book in the series but maybe not yet.

nzoeller's review against another edition

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2.0

Not for me- repetitive dialogue and an "eh" plot. Disappointed.

truebookaddict's review against another edition

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4.0

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