By Alison Weir
Series Six Tudor Queens
Recommended By Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian

Henry VIII risks his marriage and the political strategies of Cardinal Wolsey in his obsession with Anne Boleyn, who does not welcome the king's advances and loathes the cardinal for breaking her betrothal to Harry Percy.

By Margaret George

The life and times of English monarch Henry VIII are revealed in a fictitious autobiographical memoir that is interspersed with the irreverent commentary of his court jester and confidant, Will Somers.

By Hilary Mantel
Series Wolf Hall Trilogy
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

“Depicts the downfall of Anne Boleyn at the hands of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell as Anne and her powerful family fight back while she is on trial for adultery and treason (From the Publisher).”

By Jean Plaidy

Preeminent historical fiction author detailing Great Britain’s Tudor Era royalty.

By Mario Puzo

The story opens with Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia manipulating papal elections in 1492 to become the new Pope Alexander. Determined to establish a family dynasty, he begins ruthlessly eliminating rivals and marrying his children into alliances with the offspring of noble families of France and Spain.

By Maggie O'Farrell
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk, Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian, Donna Burger, Readers' Services Librarian

The award–winning author of I Am, I Am, I Am presents the evocative story of a young Shakespeare’s marriage to a talented herbalist before the ravaging death of their 11– year–old son shapes the production of his greatest play.

By Valerie Anand

In fifteenth-century England, Richard Lanyon, who had sacrificed the happiness of his own family to become a landowner, finds he can no longer live with the guilt of his past, while his son, agreeing to an arranged marriage, harbors his own lost dreams.

By Posie Graeme-Evans
Series The Tudor Saga

Anne is a young peasant girl in medieval Britain, whose ability to heal others with her knowledge of herbs brings her to the attention of young King Edward IV, and his unexpected results when she becomes a member of his household.

By Alison Weir

A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath.

By Alison Weir
Series Six Tudor Queens novels
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

Spanish princess Katherine of Aragon, after being widowed from the future King of England, marries his brother and shares a happy marriage that is overshadowed by her failure to bear a healthy son and the king’s growing obsession with another woman.

By Anne Easter Smith

A tale inspired by the presumed-dead lost princes of the Tower finds Grace Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of Edward IV and the half-sister of the princes, attending a court investigation into a young man’s claim that he is one of the princes and would assume the throne from Henry VII.

By Alison Weir

A fictional portrait of the tumultuous early life of Queen Elizabeth I describes her perilous path to the throne of England and the scandal, political intrigues, and religious turmoil she confronted along the way.

By Alison Weir
Recommended By Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian

A vivid fictional portrait of the tumultuous early life of Queen Elizabeth I describes her perilous path to the throne of England and the scandal, political intrigues, and religious turmoil she confronted along the way, from the deaths of her parents, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, to the fanaticism of her sister, Mary I.

By Edward Rutherfurd
Recommended By Barney Levantino, Reference Librarian

A fictionalized account of the City of London, tracing its role in history and describing succeeding generations of families associated with its fortunes. Interwoven are the everyday lives of ordinary people, from London as a Celtic settlement, 2,000 years ago, to its finest hour during the Blitz in World War II.

By Margaret George
A fictional account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots traces her lineage and describes her childhood, marriages, and her historic fight with Elizabeth over the throne of England.

By Philippa Gregory

The daughters of a ruthlessly ambitious family, Mary and Anne Boleyn are sent to the court of Henry VIII to attract the attention of the king, who first takes Mary as his mistress, in which role she bears him an illegitimate son, and then Anne as his wife.

By Karen Harper
Series Elizabeth I mystery series

Released from the Tower of London by an insurrection against Queen Mary, her half-sister, the twenty-five-year-old Princess Elizabeth immediately puts herself back into harm’s way by investigating a multiple poisoning.

By Suzannah Dunn

Queen Anne Boleyn chronicles the impact her marriage to Henry VIII had on England before being accused of adultery with several men and sentenced to beheading, while king’s confectioner Lucy Cornwallis witnesses the tragic events that culminate in Anne’s death.

By Philippa Gregory
Series Plantagenet and Tudor Novels

In 1553, Hannah Green, a young Jewish girl, flees to London to escape the Spanish Inquisition and catches the attention of Robert Dudley, who plans to use her talents for observation and second sight.

By Philippa Gregory
Recommended By Arlene Silverman, Library Clerk

“Nobody does the Tudors better than Gregory, so it should come as no surprise that her latest—the War of the Roses as seen through the eyes of Henry VII’s mother —is confident, colorful, convincing, and full of conflict, betrayal, and political maneuvering … (From Publishers Weekly).”

By Jean Plaidy
Series Queens of England

Offers a fictionalized account of Anne Neville, daughter of the “kingmaker,” the Earl of Warwick, who became a pawn of court intrigues and, eventually, Queen through her marriage to Richard III.

By Sarah Dunant
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

"Condemned by sixteenth-century demands for lucrative dowries in order to marry, young Serafina is ripped from an illicit love affair and confined in an Italian convent, a situation against which she passionately rebels and reminds the convent's doctor of her own unhappy early years (From the Publisher)."

By Kate Emerson

"Based on the life of the real Anne Bassett and her family, and drawing extensively from letters and diaries of the time, Between Two Queens is an enthralling picture of the dangers and delights of England's most passionate era (From the Publisher)."

By C. J. Sansom
Series Matthew Shardlake series

When Henry VIII sets out to quell rebellion in the north and transport a dangerous conspirator back to London for questioning, lawyer Matthew Shardlake finds himself investigating the murder of a local glazier with unsettling ties to the royal family, a case during which he discovers a cache of secret papers that throw the royal line’s legitimacy into question.

By Philippa Gregory
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

Reimagines the story of Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Kateryn Parr, who after being forced to marry the king struggles against dangerous adversaries to observe her own faith and promote religious reforms.

By Philippa Gregory

Brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, Katherine of Aragon forges a unique sisterhood with the king's sisters, Margaret and Mary, that is shaped by rivalries, wars, betrayal, widowhood, motherhood, passion, and secrets.

By Jean Plaidy
Series The Tudor Saga

A fictional account of the lives of the couple who founded the Tudor dynasty, Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York, describes Henry’s early life in exile, his triumphant return to England and victory in the War of the Roses, and his marriage to Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of King Edward IV, a union born of political necessity that became a true love affair.

By Jane Feather
Series Kiss trilogy

Hugh de Beauaire is sent to investigate Lady Guinevere Mallory, a beautiful young widow who, at age twenty-eight, has married and buried four wealthy husbands under suspicious circumstances, to determine whether or not she is guilty of murder, but he soon finds himself drawn, despite himself, to his quarry.

By Hilary Mantel
Series Wolf Hall Trilogy
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price.