A long tale of not only Varian and Nyssa but King Henry and Queen Anne and the subsequent Catherine Howard. Lots of historic detail, with a lot of the intrigue and duplicities of court. I'd say the King's story took up just as much of the pages as the couples.
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This was an odd book. I can see how it fell under the category of romance, kinda, but that wasn't really it's main thrust. After all, there was very little conflict between Nyssa and Varian. Their story actually happens quite quickly.

No, the romance is really just an excuse to write about Henry Tudor and the fall of two of his wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Given that I know that history well enough and I picked up this book to read about romance and sex (two things that Small can do well, when she so chooses), I was disappointed. Considering that this is a Small book, there really weren't that many sex scenes, and the majority skimmed over and included little details, simply stating things like, "She sobbed with lust, and then after they were both replete, they lay entwined." Not exactly what I expect from Small. There was also little in the way of romance either.

I just didn't feel like this book lived up to Small's previous works. ( )