TLC Book Tours – The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick

Ending the month strong with more books and more tours 🙂

Thanks to Graydon House and TLC Book Tours for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

THE PHANTOM TREE – Nicola Cornick (out now!)

Book Description:

Browsing an antiques shop in Wiltshire, Alison Bannister stumbles across a delicate old portrait—identified as the doomed Tudor queen, Anne Boleyn. Except Alison knows better. The subject is Mary Seymour, the daughter of Katherine Parr, who was taken to Wolf Hall in 1557 and presumed dead after going missing as a child. And Alison knows this because she, too, lived at Wolf Hall and knew Mary…more than four hundred years ago.

The painting of Mary is more than just a beautiful object for Alison—it holds the key to her past life, the unlocking of the mystery surrounding Mary’s disappearance and how Alison can get back to her own time. To when she and Mary were childhood enemies yet shared a pact that now, finally, must be fulfilled, no matter the cost.

Bestselling author of House of Shadows Nicola Cornick offers a provocative alternate history of rivals, secrets and danger, set in a time when a woman’s destiny was determined by the politics of men and luck of birth. A spellbinding tale for fans of Kate Morton, Philippa Gregory and Barbara Erskine.

My Thoughts: 3.5/5 stars!

I will always appreciate a book that blends different genres and elements together. This always makes for a very unique and intriguing read. In Nicola Cornick’s THE PHANTOM TREE we get historical fiction blended with some supernatural elements, mystery, and even some time travel. I have seen some people compare the time travel theme to The Outlander series.

While browsing in an antique shop, Alison stumbles across a beautiful portrait of a woman from the 1500’s. The portrait is wrongly labeled as being Anne Boleyn, but Alison knows better because she knew the girl as Mary Seymour. Mary is the daughter of Katharine Parr (one of Henry VIII’s wives) who later divorced him to marry Thomas Seymour. Mary is a historical figure that there isn’t much information on after the death of her parents, she seemed to simply disappear. What makes this portrait so important to Alison? She believes it holds the key to where she can find Mary and how she can return to her own time.

I love historical fiction and I’m always so curious to see how an author will spin history or dive into the lives of these historical figures. What I did enjoy about the time travel element was that Alison was brought into the future when, typically, characters end up going back in time (at least from what I’ve read before). One thing that kind of took away from the story was that I wasn’t entirely sure how she was able to time travel. Maybe something I missed while reading, but there wasn’t a standout object that enabled her to do so.

What I loved about this book were the relationships between the characters and the author’s writing style. It was so enchanting and flowed so beautifully – you are almost instantly captivated. If you’re looking for a lighter historical fiction read with some unique elements blended in, then this will be the perfect book for you!

About the Author:

International bestselling author Nicola Cornick writes historical romance for HQN Books and time slip romance for MIRA UK. She became fascinated with history when she was a child, and spent hours poring over historical novels and watching costume drama. She studied history at university and wrote her master’s thesis on heroes. Nicola also acts as a historical advisor for television and radio. In her spare time she works as a guide in a 17th century mansion.

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