Book Launch Spotlight: The Passionate Tudor: A Novel of Queen Mary I by Alison Weir

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Born from young King Henry's first marriage, his elder daughter, Princess Mary, is raised to be queen once it becomes clear that her mother, Katherine of Aragon, will bear no more children. 

However, Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn has a devastating influence on the young princess's future when, determined to sire a male heir, he marries Anne, has his marriage to Katherine declared unlawful, brands Mary illegitimate, and banishes them both from the royal court. 

But when Anne too fails to produce a son, she is beheaded and Mary is allowed to return to court as the default heir. At age twenty, she waits in vain for her own marriage and children, but who will marry her, bastard that she is?

Yet Mary eventually triumphs and becomes queen, after first deposing a seventeen-year-old usurper, Lady Jane Grey, and ordering her beheading. Any hopes that Mary, as the first female queen regent of England, will show religious toleration are dashed when she embarks on a ruthless campaign to force Catholicism on the English by burning hundreds of Protestants at the stake. 

But while her brutality will forever earn her the name Bloody Mary, at heart she is an insecure and vulnerable woman, her character forged by the unhappiness of her early years.

"Thrilling and captivating, this is a brilliant rendering of Mary Tudor and her world. Alison Weir welcomes us into her vivid, tragic, and dangerous life. Beautifully evoked, The Passionate Tudor is unforgettable."-- Kate Williams, author of The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots

In Alison Weir's masterful novel, the drama of Mary I's life and five-year reign--from her abusive childhood, marriage, and mysterious pregnancies to the cruelty that marks her legacy

comes to vivid life.

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About the Author

Alison Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Innocent Traitor and The Lady Elizabeth and several historical biographies, including Mistress of the Monarchy, Queen Isabella, Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Life of Elizabeth I, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. She lives in Surrey, England with her husband. Find out more at Alison's website http://www.alisonweir.org.uk/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter  @AlisonWeirBooks