Deborah Cohen (5)Recensioni

Anne Bolyen has been biding her time in France while waiting for her beloved Henry VIII to divorce Catherine of Aragon. Anne learned much as a maid of honour to Margaret of Austria and formed strong friendships with Queen Claude and Marguerite de Navarre. She has also been trying to control her supernatural talents as a witch and avoid the notice & wrath of the Goddess. Anne has been under the tutelage of the great Leonardo da Vinci at the Chateau du Clos Luce in France and has been studying mathematics, science, and how to end the curse that plagues her. Da Vinci is building a clock that allows one to travel through time and break the curse of the Goddess & free Anne from her tyranny. The plan is extremely dangerous and very unpredictable, especially when da Vinci dies before testing it. But all hope is not lost - Anne was left as the guardian of the true key to the clock & instructed to travel through time and find The Girl & prevent the marriage of two men. This enigma sounds more like a baffling riddle than a chance to free her from the Goddess' power - will Anne continue Leonardo's mission?

Ellie Bowlan's life has taken a wrong turn. She cannot really say what has happened, but she knows things are just not as they should be...but then again, what should it be? Her relationship with John Chelsea was going well, but once he took a research position halfway around the world, Ellie wondered if they were even right for each other. Her best friend Dez has found love & is planning to get married - to a horribly rich & snobby Lucien (according to Ellie) in France! Her life seems out of control and without focus, not to mention filled with supernatural powers that make her very ill-at-ease, even if they have been inherited through generations of Bowlan women. Can an opportunity to travel to the famous Chateau du Clos Luce bring everyone back into harmony & help Ellie to decide what & where her focus in life should be?

This was a really good sequel in the Boleyn Bloodline series! I look forward to reading the next book in the series! It is a very interesting spin on who Anne Boleyn is and what could have magically been. Thank you LibraryThing Early Reviewers for the opportunity to read the next book in the series! I will be watching for #3.

Like many of the other reviewers here, I am not sure I would have requested this book if I knew its was the second in a series, and I didn't think it worked as well as a stand-alone. I am now reading the first one, and maybe that will improve my opinion of this book! It was an okay read - I was interested because of the mention that Outlander fans might enjoy this book, and while I thought there was more magic or paranormal aspects in Boleyn Time than I expected, it wasn't overwhelming. Time travel is always fascinating to think about. I will try to come back and update after I read the first book in the series. 3/5 stars.

I enjoyed reading Deborah Cohen second installment from her The Boleyn Bloodline series, Boleyn Time. I had not read the first book and hope to go back to see what had happened previously. I thought this one was pretty good and recommend it. Four and a half stars.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a little difficult getting into at the beginning since I had not read the first book. But I enjoyed the storyline that included Leonardo DeVinci. I liked the time travel aspect and the book was very riveting at the end!

I really enjoyed reading about a (possible) different time in Anne's life, before she met Henry VIII. I also enjoyed Leonardo da Vinci as a character, and the fantastical look at Anne's descendant. Fantastical and magical.

Not bad, but I do wish I had known it was book 2 when I asked for and received and Early Review copy. I really like historical fiction and especially this time period but I was not that into the time travel angle and felt a bit lost. Perhaps I will seek out the first one.

A historical fantasy with time travel, da Vinci, Boleyn, and witchcraft, the book is the second in the series and would be best if the previous novel was read beforehand. There are two timelines and two POVs, but the present day MC takes a bit of time before she's relatable and likeable. I enjoyed the historical parts, the characters based on real-life historical figures, and the creative time travel.

LibraryThing Early Reviewer

I wasn't aware when I requested this book that it was a second in the series. I couldn't get into it at all. I love historical fiction, especially the Henry 8th timeline, but this book just didn't do it for me. Maybe would have been better had I read the first.

Unfortunately this book is the second in a series of two and as I had not read the first, I could not 'get into it' The book did not meet my expectations of an historical novel set in this period. I received this book from the publisher as a LibraryThing reviewer for review.

I didn't initially realize this was book 2 in the series and it would definitely be important to read book 1 prior to reading book 2. Very little of the characterization or previous plot is revisited in this book so I felt a bit disconnected from it all. Perhaps I will read book 1 and revisit and feel as if the characters make more sense and I can understand their motives.

Disclosure: An electronic copy of this book was provided for review by the author, via Library Thing.

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The first thing that must be said about Boleyn Time is this: it’s Book Two of the Boleyn Bloodline Series, and if you haven’t read Book One, there’s not much point in reading the second entry. There is too much backstory here, and it's barely referenced, let alone reviewed, which means there's a lot that doesn't make any kind of sense. Family background, character details, motivations, and important incidents which must absolutely be understood to make this story comprehensible, are quite simply missing.

First and foremost among them is the offhanded mention of the “connection” between the Twenty-first century Bowlans and the Sixteenth century Boleyns. At various points, the historic Anne Boleyn is referred to as “kin”, as a “member of the family” and as Ellie Bowlan’s many-times-great “grandmother” – a highly unlikely circumstance, unless Cohen has also figured out a way for Boleyn to have had a surviving child other than Elizabeth I, or for Elizabeth to have given birth and concealed the fact. (Neither possibility is even hinted at in the text.)

Which brings to bear another important question – why Anne Boleyn? The underlying story here is a perfectly serviceable time-travel fantasy romance – a modern woman who is the direct lineal descendant of a powerful medieval witch must find a way to bend time in order to end a family curse. The choice of Anne Boleyn as the ancestress gives the novel a certain recognizability, but the reader’s awareness of the historical character makes it very hard to accept her as an apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci, which is key to the plot. The timeline works, but little else does.

There’s nothing wrong with the mechanics of the book, which moves between France in the 1500s and modern-day Canada, with Boleyn charged by a dying da Vinci to “find the girl” 500 years in her future and put an end to a demonic influence known only as “the Goddess”. When the time-bending actually begins to occur, toward the end of the book, the descriptions of the process are wonderfully wrought, and Cohen even manages to avoid the usual time-travel paradoxes. The Goddess is also a wonderfully malevolent magical creature, and a formidable opponent, vividly described. It’s just a very, very long reach to accept Anne Boleyn as drawn here, and if the reader is unable to do so, it damages the story almost beyond repair.

Both Cohen and the reader would have been better served by casting original characters here rather than asking historical figures to assume unlikely roles in service of an otherwise fine fantasy.½

I really enjoyed this book which traveled back in forth through time from Medieval England to today.

There is so much going on in this book that's it hard to know where to begin.

Ellie is a modern girl in Canada studying towards her doctorate when she gets a strange assignment :"Was Ann Boleyn a woman or a witch?". OK she begins her research and goes right down the rabbit hole.
In parallel we read a story about the real Ann Boleyn that we know about who is sent off to France as lady in wait(ing) to Henry VIII's sister who is going to marry into the French royal line. While in France Ann meets Margurite of Navarre (A real historical figure) and enters into her training in "The Craft"

So the two stories go on and this is a long book rich with the details of research. In the modern day there is a murder mystery and a cadre of kooky old ladies and Ellie discovers her own connection to the Boleyn line and her own heritage of witchcraft.

The curse is laid in the past and dealt with in the future and there are some good scenes in here. But the characters don't really engage and a romantic sub plot just seems trotted out well, because.

I enjoyed the Ann Boleyn scenes a lot more to see Ann's growth and development as a character. This is book one of a proposed trilogy so I assume we will see Ann marry Henry and see how that works out.

Liked it but it needed editing. Would read the next one when it comes out

I received this as a Library Thing Early Reviewer Book and am posting an unbiased review. Once again we come across a novel with alternating points of view moving between the historic character of Anne Boleyn, and the present day character of Ellie Bowlan. Ellie has serious issues - not only have her parents and one grandmother disappeared when she was younger, but she lives with an almost compulsory loopy second grandmother, Her father was a university lecturer and Ellie is - of course - highly intelligent and over-achieving and self doubting and currently working through the well known "Imposter Syndrome" of the post graduate researcher.

We learn quite a lot about the doctoral process at Queens University - Kingston Ontario (a real university). Ellie is set a research topic "Anne Boleyn Woman or Witch?" and given one month to research and write it. Surprise surprise there's a catch - several in fact not least that Ellie is a direct descendant of Anne Boleyn, and someone wants lots of old historical info for nefarious purposes of course.

The story is well written, well researched, has lovable goofy characters who have Ellie's best interests at heart and crazies who don't. Work your way through to the end, this is the first of a series of novels that I have marked as collectable.

Ellie loves history and is embarking on her defense of her Comprehensive History final for her PhD. When she receives her question for her defense she is shocked: "Anne Boleyn: Woman or Witch?" What kind of a question is this for her PhD defense? As Ellie begins to dive into her research of the doomed queen, she begins by focusing on Anne the woman and is intrigued by what she finds. However, as she begins to research about Queen Anne's accusations of being a witch, Ellie is shocked to her core by what she learns...both about Anne Boleyn and Ellie's own family.

This really was a great book! I literally could not put it down! I believe there may be more in this series in the future and boy do I hope so! A great fictional spin on the life of Anne Boleyn and how she may have been handed her fate as Henry VIII's most notorious queen.

I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.

I had requested the book because I find anything about the Tudors interesting. But like many reviewers I did not like the chapters going back and forth between the past and present day. The characters in the modern chapters were made to sound more like tweens than college-age students, and their plot-line was too predictable.
The chapters about the past could have been more interesting had the author not made it so obvious that Anne was to be a witch. Especially including the sixth finger, which in the book is a full finger rather than a hint of a nail which is described on contemporary descriptions (and even some historians doubt it existed at all). I think if the author had just written of them having a common skin mole it would have sufficed.
I was also but put by the suggestion that Elizabeth gave birth to a bastard child, although I understand that was necessary for the plot.

That being said, if this is to be a trilogy, I would still read the other two volumes, not just because of my intense interest in the Tudors, but because I am wondering where the story will go from there. The fact that it is a quick weekend read is a plus.

I don't generally read much historical fiction, but the description for this book was enticing enough that I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I didn't make it very far—although I liked the chapters set in the time of Anne Boleyn and Henry VII, and I was intrigued by the book's premise, I couldn't get past the cheesiness of the present day half of the story. I wanted the whole thing to be more...subtle.

I got this book for free from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers and really enjoyed it.

I'm a big fan of historical fiction in general, but I really liked the twist adding the academia angle and switching back and forth between present day and the historical fiction part of the book. If you like historical fiction, I highly recommend this book.

The plot of the book was definitely predictable, so if you like to be kept guessing this book is probably not for you, but it still really entertained me and I was interested in how the events in the book would unfold.

I look forward to reading the others in the series.

A great read that kept me guessing, some aspects I had suspicions but there were surprises. I thought this book drew together historical info with fiction beautifully ... I always like 2 different timelines running parallel then begin to twist and snake together 🙂

First off, I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I found the book interesting, if not exactly up my alley. I'm also a graduate student in history, albeit in the United States, so there were parts of it I felt kind of judge-y about, and also weirdly had a hard time suspending my disbelief about the DNA/science parts (tracing motherhood lineage is actually way harder than it sounds, which I know from Native American DNA by Kim TallBear, weirdly.) But I think that was me having difficulty, and if you want to turn off your brain and just enjoy it, you can. Some of it felt rushed towards the end, and given that is it in a series I was expecting the ending to be less neat than it was, but it wasn't bad, and I did enjoy some of it. If you like historical fantasy, there is lots for you to love in this book!

I expected to like this book because it had the interesting premise of a link between Anne Boleyn in the 1550s & Ellie in present day Canada. The story went back & forth between the two times but I never was able to care about any of the characters or feel any empathy for their made-up problems. It wasn’t believable, there were too many typos & it felt like it hadn’t been thought through.

This historical fantasy weaves history and magic and it was an easy read! The transition between eras were easy to follow, which some books I loose interest. This one didn't! A fresh take on Anne Boelyn.

A mystery thriller and historical fiction from beginning to end. The characters were so expertly described. I enjoyed the transferring from one time to the other. The author did an amazing job connecting the two-time frames. It’s a curse that plagued a family for many generations and the exciting story of how it came to be. As part of that journey, the author takes you to the early 1500s in England then brings you back to the present. You will experience royalty, romance and witchcraft in this well researched historical fiction. It weaves science, history and legend together,

It’s an excellent read if you enjoy historical fiction. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Disclosure: An electronic copy of this book was provided in exchange for review by publishers City Owl Press, via Library Thing.

Deborah Cohen’s imaginative take on the early years of Anne Boleyn steps into fantasy but anchors itself in contemporary times, giving this novel something truly rare – a new look at the endlessly fascinating Tudor saga.

PhD candidate Ellie Bowlan has been assigned a perplexing topic for her Comprehensive Exam: Anne Boleyn. Woman or witch? As she begins her research, she discovers that witchcraft was among the many accusations flung at the unfortunate Boleyn, but most modern scholars dismissed it as just another trumped-up charge designed to help rid King Henry of a now-unwanted spouse.

Cohen takes another view as she imagines an association between the very young Boleyn, Marguerite of Navarre, and – surprisingly – Leonardo daVinci, all taking place in the court of Louis XII of France. And – while unlikely – a meeting between them is not impossible. (Boleyn was sent to Louis’ court as lady-in-waiting to Mary Tudor, who was to wed the French king. Marguerite was frequently present on the scene, as her brother was married to Louis’ daughter. And daVinci was the monarch’s court painter during that time.) Using this tenuous what-if, a tale of intrigue and dark arts is developed.

The story moves back and forth between 16th century Europe and 21st century Canada, as Ellie’s research takes a decidedly personal turn and a longstanding family mystery is slowly revealed. Cohen is pretty generous with clues, so the turn of the story is hardly a surprise, though she does keep a few cards up her sleeve for a revelation late in the book. There’s also a lovely, fleeting, Maiden-Mother-Crone image as three generations of women are described working together in the family kitchen.

The characters are crisply drawn and things move along at a sprightly pace. In fact, the only downside to this entertaining tale is the high incidence of homophone errors – the curse of ebook manuscripts which are apparently largely bereft of human eyeballs in the final editing process. Church bells “peel”, King Henry “reigns in” his horse, bagpipers appear wearing “tams and quilts” (!), a love potion is kept in a “vile”, and a man approaches a woman “with a menacing gate”. These kinds of errors rudely yank the reader out of the story and utterly destroy the flow. (This reviewer continues to wonder about that menacing gate. Was it picket? Chain link? Barbed wire?)

However, if one can overlook these bumps in the road, “The Boleyn Curse” is a new look at an old tale and an engaging read to boot. It will be interesting to see how Cohen develops her proposed “Boleyn Bloodline” series in future entries.

I enjoyed this book. It had an interesting premise, and I liked the dual timelines. The writing was decent but nothing memorable. However, I found the side characters more likable and interesting than the main characters, who felt a little bland to me. Also, there were several twist that were a bit too obvious for me, though I did really like one of the twists. Overall, I would recommend to anyone with a interest in historical fantasy.