Gr 7-10 Doherty brings the court of King Henry VIII vividly to life. She weaves intricate details of the sights, sounds, and smells of 16th-century England into a story of family devotion and court intrigue. Young William Montague loves his family, his gentry home, and his Catholic faith. His life changes drastically when his childless aunt and uncle use him as a pawn to gain favor with the mercurial king. Will is chosen to be Prince Edward's page. His life now entails entertaining an 18-month-old prince. He does his job well, pleasing the prince and pleasing Henry, the most powerful man on Earth. The king favors him, but Will knows how trapped he is. Rumors, lies, and intrigue surround him. When his father is imprisoned for refusing to renounce his Catholic faith, Will must make a choice. Where does his ultimate loyalty lie—with his father or with his king? He flees the palace, falls in with a kind peasant family, and eventually sails to France to plead with his sister (married to Henry's chief liege) for help. Doherty effectively conveys the fear and tension involved in court life, where one's fortune could change in an instant. The writing is flawless, the pacing perfect. This is historical fiction at its finest.— Lisa Crandall, formerly at Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

William lives a privileged life in mid-sixteenth-century Britain, especially when he gets appointed royal page to Henry VIII's little son in the palace. But with spies and rivals everywhere, William has to keep secret that he is Catholic and that his devout father has refused to give up the faith and recognize the king as head of his new Church of England. When his father is imprisoned for high treason, William hides in the back streets of London as he tries to rescue his father from execution. Anne Boleyn has recently been beheaded, and the new queen is on the way, but the boy's first-person account focuses less on royalty and more on the history of ordinary people under the vicious dictator, the desperate poverty on the street, and the horrendous torture in prison. The family fiction sometimes seems added on n William find his sister? Will his father accept him? t readers will be held by the religious and political history made personal.