It wasn't quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it and that's what matters to me. The story of life in London was interesting, especially from a Spaniards perspective. Seeing the transformation of devotion to doubt in the character's internal analysis of their relationships was intriguing...and realistic. Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder! ( )

Excellent, not what I thought but quite good.
Queen 'Bloody' Mary appears in the book several times, but is not the narrator. The narrator is a Spanish (of Jewish decent) sundial builder who is brought to England with Mary's new Spanish consort and his court. The palace is full and Rafael is placed with a private English family for the duration of his stay.
Rafael is an excellent narrator of this story as he likes and approves of Queen Mary, but is very familiar with Spanish Inquisition and watches in horror as innocents are murdered and burned in the name of faith. ( )

This book was okay but I've read much better ones about Mary Tudor. I found most of the characters insipid and uninspiring and I rarely felt any empathy with the main character, Rafael. Could have been so much better! ( )

Even though the central characters are more onlookers to the royals compared to the ones in her other books, I believe this to be Suzannah Dunn's best book yet. ( )

This has potential, but I'm not quite sure it worked.
Rafael is a Spanish sundial maker who comes to England in the entourage of Phillip of Spain (Mary Tudor's bridegroom). By chance (and with a surprising lack of formality) he happens to meet the Queen in the garden that the sundial is due to be errected in. She is recently pregnant and (at 38) is concerned. Rafael's wife also had her first child late in life, and his story of her cheers Mary.
They have a later encounter after Mary begins her confinement at Hampton court - and this I didn't really buy into.
And then a third when he requests a favour - which probably goes horribly wrong.
In the meantime, he is lodged with a merchant's family and stays in the house with the housekeeper & small staff after the famiy return to the country. He develops a relationship with the housekeeper and at the same time you discover more about his life and wife. Somehow he is a very unconvincing man. His love life is all a bit naieve and two of his partners are described in ways that make you wonder if he has all his marbles - such tacit acceptance of an affair strikes me as distinctly atypical male.
The story ends very sddenly and, frankly, he runs away from the chain of events his request to the queen has set in motion. I can't imagine it ends at all well. But, at the same time, you never hear anything about how he rebuilds his life bac in Spain with a wife he realises he doesn;t love and a son that's not his.
The relationship between Cecily & Rafael I could accept, and her situation, but he just seemed a bit too pathetic. And the ending was unsatisfactory from both of their points of view.
Just not convinced, I'm afraid. ( )