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" When young Anne Boleyn is sent to French court with her father and sister Mary, she believes she's going for an innocent adventure. But when the ambitious Ambassador Thomas Boleyn leads them into the highly sophisticated and sexually permissive court of Francois I, Anne quickly learns that they are merely pawns to be used for their father's own political purpose. Since all good English girls are expected to do their father's bidding, Mary becomes mistress to the outrageous French king and is ultimately seduced into his dangerous world by the luxuries of court. But Anne has a different fate in mind. Anne is younger, cleverer, and stronger willed than her elder sister, and with the guidance of chosen, powerful allies and unlikely friends, such as Leonardo da Vinci, she learns how to navigate the challenges, passions and betrayals of court. As she grows into a beautiful young woman, Anne undergoes her own sexual awakening, each daring exploit taking her one step closer to the life that is her destiny."

Welcome all to my historical book blog. I have always been Historically Obsessed. My latest obsession was triggered with a book that found me and it was meant to be, Mademoiselle Boleyn by Robin Maxwell. Robin brought me into a new beautiful world of Anne Boleyn in France. It light a fire in my mind. Lucky for me Mademoiselle Boleyn was only the beginning part of Anne's story. I loved every word of this book, the intricate details were amazing.This book is a must buy.

I immediately went on to read The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn also by Robin Maxwell. Since I now was on a furious crusade for the rest of Anne Boleyn's story. What I did not expect was it was her daughter Elizabeth who is reading the diary. Instead you get two intertwined stories that take place in totally different time periods. This book opened my eyes to what Anne could have been thinking realistically. I have come to view her more in what others would view as "sympathetic". Torn from her real love Henry Percy. Forced by family ambition to love the pursuing king. Anne had no chance. She realized the unattainable demands she made in trying to rebuff the king would entice the great Henry into moving the heavens and earth to be with her. But at the price of civil unrest, separation from Rome, and abruptly her own head.

"Anne was the second of Henry's six wives, doomed to be beloved, betrayed and beheaded. When Henry fell madly in love with her upon her return from an education at the lascivious French court, he was already a married man. While his passion for Anne was great enough to rock the foundation of England and of all Christendom, in the end he forsook her for another love, schemed against her, and ultimately had her sentenced to death. But unbeknownst to the king, Anne had kept a diary.

At the beginning of Elizabeth 's reign, it is pressed into her hands. In reading it, the young queen discovers a great deal about her much-maligned mother: Anne's fierce determination, her hard-won knowledge about being a woman in a world ruled by despotic men, and her deep-seated love for the infant daughter taken from her shortly after her birth. In journal's pages, Elizabeth finds an echo of her own dramatic life as a passionate young woman at the center of England 's powerful male establishment, and with the knowledge gained from them, makes a resolution that will change the course of history."