To Die for - Sandra Byrd

THE BOOK:

What would you sacrifice for your best friend?

Would you die for her? 

To Die For is the story of Meg Wyatt, pledged forever as the best friend to Anne Boleyn since their childhoods on neighboring manors in Kent. When Anne’s star begins to ascend, of course she takes her best friend Meg along for the ride. Life in the court of Henry VIII is thrilling at first, but as Anne’s favor rises and falls, so does Meg’s. And though she’s pledged her loyalty to Anne no matter what the test, Meg just might lose her greatest love—and her own life—because of it.

Meg's childhood flirtation with a boy on a neighboring estate turns to true love early on. When he is called to follow the Lord and be a priest she turns her back on both the man and his God. Slowly, though, both woo her back through the heady times of the English reformation. In the midst of it, Meg finds her place in history, her own calling to the Lord that she must follow, too, with consequences of her own. Each character in the book is tested to figure out what love really means, and what, in this life, is worth dying for.

Though much of Meg’s story is fictionalized, it is drawn from known facts. The Wyatt family and the Boleyn family were neighbors and friends, and perhaps even distant cousins. Meg’s brother, Thomas Wyatt, wooed Anne Boleyn and ultimately came very close to the axe blade for it. Two Wyatt sisters attended Anne at her death, and at her death, she gave one of them her jeweled prayer book—Meg.

MY REVIEW:

Star Rating: *****

Beautiful. Heartbreaking.

Those are two words that came to mind when I closed the book after reading the last chapter. Wow, what a beautifully tragic story To Die For is! I'd read, briefly, about the Boleyn sisters and, like many others, thought they were two scheming women who seduced the king to get the crown. But Sandra Byrd shows us that oftentimes, there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. ;-) 

Through the eyes of Meg, Ann Boleyn dearest friend, we see that while Anne might not have made all the right choices in life, she was driven by true love for King Henry (who, in my opinion, did NOT deserve it!) and a desire to see reformation in England.

I was in tears during the last few chapters, that’s how moving this story was. Anne and Meg's strong friendship was beautiful to watch throughout the course of the book, and tragic to witness just how true they were to each other. Even to the very end.

Because of some of the historical events that take place within the book (people sleeping together, Henry's mistress’, etc), the book may not be appropriate for younger readers. But that is really up to the individual and, really, Sandra kept it as clean and factual as possible. In scenes that could have been sensual and heated, she kept them clean and straightforward. I really appreciated that.

This is the first book I've read by Sandra, but I promise it won't be my last! And the Tudor era was so interesting! Sandra wrote with so much life in To Die For, that I was easily sucked into Meg’s world. I will definitely be reading the other books in Sandra Byrd's Ladies in Waiting Tudor series.

I reviewed this book for the author. It was not required that I give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this book, which I have done.

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