Publication Date: January 15^th 2021 * Genre: Historical Fiction * Publisher: Poesy Quill Publishing * Print Length: 449 Pages

As a Coffee Pot Book Club tour host, I am happy to introduce Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, Book #2, by Wendy J. Dunn. I throughly enjoyed this book!

BOOK BLURB:

Winter, 1539

María de Salinas is dying.

Too ill to travel, she writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. A letter telling of her life: a life intertwined with her friend and cousin Catalina of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabel of Castile. It is a letter to help her daughter understand the choices she has made in her life, beginning from the time she keeps her vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England.

Friendship, betrayal, hatred, forgiveness – All Manner of Things tells a story of how love wins out in the end. 

MY REVIEW:

In 1501 Spanish born Maria de Salinas travels to England with her cousin, Catalina of Aragon, promised to The Prince of Wales, Arthur Tudor. Far from home in a foreign land, the cousins grow closer together, and Maria vows to stand at Catalina’s side forever. 

Catalina weds Prince Arthur and soon grows to care for him, despite his weak constitution. But happiness does not roost at her doorstep long when death comes calling for the prince. 

Heartbroken, Catalina can’t imagine her life married to Arthur’s younger brother, Henry, but with time her feelings change. When he comes of age, Catalina marries Henry. Although they enjoy months of wedded bliss, Henry has a roving eye and soon seeks his comfort elsewhere, especially during Catalina’s pregnancies. Henry even threatens Maria, making her promise something she loathes to give.

With the death of his father, Henry is crowned king and Catalina queen. Much joy and sorrow unfolds as the years pass for both Catalina and Maria. Maria wonders if she will ever be free to fully love the man who’s captured her heart, while Catalina turns the other cheek to Henry’s betrayals and learns to keep living through seasons of grief. 

Will Maria stay loyal to her cousin to the end and still find her own happiness? Will Catalina, Katherine, be forgiving of the injustices she suffers and continue to love the King? Can she forgive his final betrayal? 

Readers of detailed and meaty historical fiction will be enthralled with this enchanting Tudor saga of friendship and betrayal, embroiled in both love and hatred and steeped in the drama of two entwined families.

Dunn’s prose creates a strong, poetic structure for the drama to unfold, and she so aptly and skillfully weaves the setting to allow the reader to be fully submerged into the reign of Henry VIII and the life of Catalina of Aragon.  

NOTE: For those who are sensitive to sexual content, there are a few detailed scenes in the book.

Praise for All Manner of Things:

“A timeless story of friendship and love, which will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned, All Manner of Things is Wendy J. Dunn’s best novel yet…”

Lauren Chater, author of The Lace Weavers and Gulliver’s Wife.

“To read this book is like tasting a succulent pomegranate that swells and ripens and reveals the luscious fruit…”

Glenice Whitting, author Pickle to a Pie and What Time is it There?

“A sensitive and inspiring portrait of faith and friendship, framed around the devotion inspired by a remarkable queen. Wendy J. Dunn has written another gem of a novel for Tudor enthusiasts!”

Gareth Russell, author of Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII (US title) (2017), The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era (2019).

“This is a story ripe with passion and rich in historical detail. All Manner of Things draws the reader deep into the heart of Henry’s Tudor court, with its machinations, betrayals and very human stories of love and loss…”

Rachel Nightingale, author of The Tales of Tarya.

“A finely wrought tale that resurrects the indomitable spirit of Katherine of Aragon, breathing new life into her oft-told story… Yet another spellbinding novel from Wendy J Dunn!”

Adrienne Dillard, author of Cor Rotto and The Raven’s Widow.

“I’m so fussy about historical fiction, but Wendy J Dunn never fails to please. Dunn breathes life into Catalina and Maria in this celebration of true friendship. Their story seemed to reach through the ages to truly touch me. Beautiful, just beautiful”

Claire Ridgway, author of The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown.

“…this book made me fascinate over times long ago, times when ancient buildings were brand new, faded portraits were still sharp and striking and faith and loyalty were absolute; times when women had so little autonomy it was never an option for them to venture out on their own and just ditch this damn place.”

Angela Wauchop, Backstory Literary Journal.

PURCHACE LINKS:

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian author, playwright and poet who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of three Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters.

While she continues to have a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channeling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory. Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.

CONNECT WITH WENDY:

Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter • Goodreads

THANKS FOR READING!

Have you enjoyed reading historical fiction about royalty? If so, what titles have been your favorite?