Dear Heart, How Like You This?

Dear Heart, How Like You This? won the 2003 ABPA for Adult fiction.

Dear Heart, How Like You This? won the 2003 ABPA for Best Adult Fiction.

 

A woman who sees her destiny as England’s Queen.
A King who destroys what he no longer wants.
A poet’s love that will never be forgotten.

A KING WHO WOULD NOT BE DENIED. A woman who would be queen. And a gentle poet forced to watch helplessly as his one true love slipped out of his arms forever. These are the elements in Wendy J. Dunn’s poignant novel, Dear Heart, How Like You This?
Dear Heart tells the story of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The novel is written in first person, from the point of view of Anne’s cousin, Sir Thomas Wyatt. Tom has secretly loved Anne his entire life, but has always been told he is not highly born enough to pursue her. He carefully masks his feelings, especially after Anne catches the eye of the king, and remains at Anne’s side as one of her staunchest friends and supporters. Then the unthinkable happens. After marrying Anne, the king tires of her and falsely accuses her of adultery. Imprisoned himself on the whim of the king’s arrogant brother-in-law, Tom watches helplessly as his true love and his closest friends go on trial for their lives…
Dear Heart is a novel that grips you before the end of the first sentence and doesn’t let go until the bitter end. In Dunn’s more than capable hands, Anne Boleyn comes to life, first as a whimsical child, then as a hurt and angry teenager, then as a woman both frightened and exhilarated by the dangerous game she is playing, and finally as a bruised-but not broken-victim of the king’s cruelty. Through Anne’s tumultuous life, her cousin Thomas is a spellbinding narrator, reporting the events around him with a reporter’s keen eye and a poet’s tender heart.

“Though framed as an account of arguably the most famous of Henry VIII’s six wives, DEAR HEART, HOW LIKE YOU THIS? is far more than another re-telling of a well-trodden tale. For entwined with the glamorous, ultimately tragic, story of Anne Boleyn’s life and death, is that of an inherently good man’s struggle with the evils of his time, and of the toll that is often exacted of those who finds themselves immersed in the sweeping tides of historical change.” – C. W. Gortner

“I would recommend “Dear Heart” to anyone who enjoys a love story or who has even a passing interest in English history. It is a beautifully written novel of love and betrayal. In fact, I’m off to read it again, just as soon as I dry my eyes.” – Debra Stang.