TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Chalice

Author: Nancy Bilyeau
Title: The Chalice
Publisher: Touchstone
Publish Date: March 2013
Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours & the publisher
Book Blurb: The Chalice is a historical thriller told from the point of view of a young woman caught in the crosswinds of time: She has pledged to become a Dominican nun in an England ruled by Henry VIII, who has ruthlessly smashed his country’s allegiance to Rome. In 1538, bloody power struggles between crown and cross threaten to tear the country apart. Joanna Stafford has seen what lies inside the king’s torture rooms and risks imprisonment again, when she is caught up in a shadowy international plot targeting the King. As the power plays turn vicious, Joanna understands she may have to assume her role in a prophecy foretold by three different seers, each more omniscient than the last. The life of Henry VIII as well as the future of Christendom are in her hands—hands that must someday hold the chalice that lays at the center of these deadly prophecies. As she struggles to forge a life for herself in a country that rejects her faith, she must also decide if her future should be shared with a man–and if so, which of the two men who love her should be chosen.

Review: The Tudor Period....oh how I wish I could quit thee, but I just can't. There's something about those royals that draw me in.

I heard so much about The Crown and The Chalice when it first came out in March. I had to read it. I was bursting with excitement to be on this tour.

I'm so glad this book didn't disappoint. (Don't you hate it when things that receive a lot of hype don't live up to it).

This book was fantastic. (and heavy...literally heavy...)

I have really been getting into books that are historical mysteries and this book is just that, and so much more.

I can really go fangirlly over this book. You have the setting of Tudor England...you have Henry VIII (I am, I am....er..sorry that song always pops in my head when I talk about him) and his reformation of the church...putting all the Catholics out of work basically. Joanna was a Dominican novice.

So many novels set in this period focus on The Crown....this book not so much and that's what makes it so interesting. Bilyeau's writing it engaging and you'll find the pages turning with ease. (And as I said there are a lot of them)

The Chalice is the sequel to The Crown, but it can be read as a stand alone novel as well.

Rating:  5 flowers

About Nancy Bilyeau Nancy Bilyeau is a magazine editor who has worked at such publications as Rolling Stone and InStyle and is now the executive editor of DuJour. A native of the Midwest, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. She researched and workshopped her first novel, The Crown, for five years before finding an agent and selling it in an auction to Touchstone/Simon&Schuster in 2010. For The Chalice, she traveled to England to do in-depth research into the tumultuous late 1530s of the Tudor era. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children. For more information about Nancy and her work, visit her website at nancybilyeau.com