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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Rozsa Gaston’s Queen of Diamonds, book three of The Anne Boleyn Chronicles, follows young Anne Boleyn in France after she joins Queen Claude’s court in 1515. Anne is no longer the English girl learning manners abroad; she is watching powerful women build authority in rooms where men hold the titles. Diane de Poitiers teaches her how to use wit as self-command and mystery as protection, while Louise of Savoy shows how politics can move through family claims and inherited money. Anne serves the young Princess Renée, studies King Francis’s court, and becomes fascinated by poet Clément Marot. As France moves from Italian victory toward religious reform, Anne begins shaping the woman who will one day unsettle England, with every court lesson pointing toward a future far larger than service.
Rozsa Gaston’s Queen of Diamonds is excellent historical fiction, and Gaston makes Anne’s French years feel like the forging of a queen before England ever sees her. The court detail is completely fleshed out, and Gaston even rolls out Leonardo da Vinci, who receives Anne and Princess Renée at Château de Cloux and turns the visit into a lesson in invention, not just how to be mere decoration. I also loved the way inheritance law makes an appearance. The French poet Anne Malet de Graville fights her father, Pierre de Balsac, to recover her daughters and property, mirroring Louise of Savoy’s Bourbon claim on a royal scale. The juxtaposition of Anne at a crossroads rears its head many times. Clément Marot is a wonderful foil whose poetry tempts Anne, while Marguerite’s salon pulls her toward Scripture. This book is beautifully written and exhaustively researched, and readers who enjoy Tudor historical fiction will adore it.
