This is a really hard book to rate. As historical fiction that provides an insight into a time period and key characters, it ticks the boxes as it focuses on Queen Mary Tudor and her rivalry with her half-sister Elizabeth. Descriptions of London are colourful and vivid, with descriptions of the barges and the bridges making me reflect on the last river boat I took!
Insights into Tudor households are interesting and the roles of the laundress as critical to the smooth running of a palace was something I hadn’t really considered before.

However that’s where it falls flat. There isn’t much of a story. Alys has moved from job to job and finds herself in the Queen’s laundry. She makes friends with the engaging Bel - more insights into her life as a tailor’s daughter would have rounded the historical perspective - but probably add nothing to the story. For quite a while they have fun together (as colleagues and in secret) and then all of a sudden Alys is supposed to have been recruited as a spy. But she has no interaction with her recruiters afterwards... and the whole testimony is very limited. Her dark secret doesn’t really get explored as to the implications or even used to her advantage. The other thing that got me was that she took 10 days to travel 30 miles but then seemed to get from London to Woodstock in a flash. She didn’t get paid for months but managed to survive and even pay for things that she had earlier said she couldn’t afford. And finally there wasn’t really a testimony... I kept waiting for a crescendo that never arrived!

Sadly too many loose ends and not enough story to keep me fully engaged and makes it hard to recommend.

Didn’t quite live up to it: promise.

This incredible Tudor based Historical novel by susannah Dunn breaths new life (and perspective) into the reign of Britain’s first female Monarch, Queen Mary I and her rivalry with half-sister (The future Queen Elizabeth I).

Told from the perspective of Laundress, Alys Twist who has managed to work her way up to a position in the palace and her hard work rewarded with a placement in the Royal Wardrobe.

However tensions arise with the new Queen’s efforts for Catholic reformation with rebellious forces seeking to put her sister on the throne.Alys is pressed into service as a spy in the princess’s household- by order of the Queen.

With the Machinations and political intrigue of surrounding the crown- and the arrest of Princess Elizabeth, Alys who has startling secrets of her own must now make a dangerous choice.

Overall an enjoyable and well researched novel-weaving the lives of thecommon people with historical events that give us a glimpse into the upheaval (and often uncertainty) the Tudor era wrought on the majority of lives. Not the mention the rise and ultimately fall of the woman history now dubs ‘Bloody Mary’.

I loved that the narrative is based around a main character who isn’t a noble or a courtier (as most Tudor era novels tend to be) which to me felt incredibly refreshing. I’m also impressed with the level of accuracies in the details surrounding historical events-the tide letter being just one of many examples.

As it’s narrative driven, we see more of the everyday people- staff, servants, etc. than he eras ‘movers and shakers’. So if you prefer your Tudor fiction to resemble a Starz mini series, this book may not be for you.

However I definitely recommend this to Tudor History buffs or Historical fiction lovers.

A huge thanks you to Little,Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the ARC.