Time-traveling twins, Charles and Alexander, are sent to England when Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn but has designs on Jane Seymour. The twins are part of a secret network, The 48, and have trained for this assignment their entire life. The 48 is run by a group of people who want to change history, in this case, they want to make sure Henry doesn't marry Jane. The goal is to rid the world of religion.
First of all, that's a very different type of time travel than most stories. Usually, it is all about never doing anything that will change the future. And I thought it was strange that they didn't worry about the other changes that such drastic actions might cause. The "butterfly effect" was never mentioned.
This is Charles' and Alexander's first mission and it goes off the rails immediately. In many ways. Something is up with The 48, so they aren't getting the support they need. Someone wants at least one of them dead. One of the narrators is Lady Margaret, one of Queen Anne's ladies, and she wants to marry Alex. Cromwell is up to no good, as you know if you are aware of anything about this time period. For some reason, Alice, one of the time travelers who is still in training, ends up with them, having been pushed through time by one of the other 48.
Once things get going, the tension builds nicely. Everyone is in fear for their lives, and some characters come very close to losing theirs. It does take a bit to get going, and some of the characters make stupid decisions -- but when don't they. I didn't get much history that I wasn't already familiar with, but the atmosphere of the time period was very well done.
Just FYI, the book that got this started was Fatal Throne, which I loved. So read that one first, and then The 48 is a great follow-up.
I would recommend this to time-travel fans first. The historical elements are there, but not as strong as the time travel elements. Fans of Tudor England will be entertained by the potential upheaval this time travel may cause.
Published by Holiday House, September 4, 2018
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
384 pages
Rating: 4/5
The time of Henry VIII is a great time period for a book since there is so much going on and students tend to be familiar with it.
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