Falling Pomegranate Seeds – Ms Dunne’s fabulous retelling of Katherine of Aragon’s story

The first book I ever read by Wendy J Dunne was The Light in the Labyrinth.
“Oh, God,” I muttered as I opened it. “Another Anne Boleyn story.” I probably pulled a face, because, yes, I do feel the Anne – Henry VIII story is overly exploited in historical fiction. But this version blew my mind, mainly because Ms Dunne breathed such wonderful life into Kate Carey, Anne’s niece (and, perhaps, Henry VIII’s daughter).
Some years later, I had the pleasure of reading Ms Dunne’s two books about Katherine of Aragon – or Catalina, as us Spanish-speakers prefer to call her. I loved it. I cried buckets and emerged with a much reassessed take on Henry VIII’s first wife. So if you haven’t read it, now is the perfect opportunity to do so!

Let us start with the blurb:

In the Falling Pomegranate Seeds Duology, readers are transported to the rich historical tapestry of 15th and 16th-century Europe, where the lives of remarkable women unfold against the backdrop of political upheaval and personal struggles.

In the first book, beginning in 1490 Castile, Doña Beatriz Galindo, a passionate and respected scholar, serves as an advisor to Queen Isabel of Castile. Beatriz yearns for a life beyond the constraints imposed on women, desiring to control her own destiny. As she witnesses the Holy War led by Queen Isabel and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, Beatriz dedicates herself to guiding Queen Isabel’s youngest child, Catalina of Aragon, on her own path. Beatriz’s role as a tutor and advisor becomes instrumental in shaping Catalina’s future as she prepares to become England’s queen.

Fast forward to the winter of 1539 in the second book, where María de Salinas, a dear friend and cousin of Catalina (now known as Katherine of Aragon), pens a heartfelt letter to her daughter, the Duchess of Suffolk. Unable to make the journey from her London home due to illness, María shares her life story, intricately woven with her experiences alongside Catalina. Their friendship has endured through exile and tumultuous times. María seeks to shed light for her daughter on the choices she has made in a story exploring themes of friendship, betrayal, hatred, and forgiveness. Through María’s narrative, the eternal question Will love ultimately triumph?

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bax5n6

A short snippet from The Duty of Daughters, the first book in the Falling Pomegranate Seeds duology:

Queen Isabel studied the two girls. “Do you wish me to make the command?”

Josefa frowned and lifted her gaze from her sewing, dropping her embroidery onto her lap. Her skin remained as white as the sheets of her bed, but the aging shadows around eyes and mouth lessened with every new day. Her natural vitality slowly returned the youthfulness of a woman who, like Beatriz, had seen no more than twenty-five summers.

Josefa considered her daughter and then Catalina, shrugging her slight shoulders. “I kiss your hands in gratitude, my queen, but I think not. Our two remind me of two girls I once knew – two cousins, one older, the other younger – who called themselves sisters. Every time life separated them, the younger one’s heart broke. God willing, I would rather not give our girls reason for the same grief.”

Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder.

Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – 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.

Author Links:

Website: www.wendyjdunn.com

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