The Chalice

England, 1538. A bloody power struggle between crown and cross tears England asunder. Young Joanna Stafford has already tasted the wrath of the royal court, seen what lies inside the king's torture rooms and escaped death at the hands of those desperate to possess the power of an ancient relic. After seeing such sights, the quiet life is not for Joanna. Soon she risks arrest and imprisonment again, when she is caught up in a conspiracy scheming against Henry VIII. As the powerplays grow deadly, Joanna must realise if her role is more central than she'd ever imagined. As one fateful night at the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket proves, she must make a choice between those she cares for most and taking her place in a prophecy foretold by three different seers, each more powerful than the last. To learn the final, sinister piece of the prophecy, she flees across Europe with an amoral spy sent by Spain. As the necromancers complete the puzzle, Joanna realises the life of Henry VIII as well as the future of Christendom are in her hands; hands which must someday hold the chalice that lies at the centre of these deadly prophecies.

About the Author :
Nancy Bilyeau is a magazine editor and writer who lives in New York City with her husband and two children. She has worked on the staffs of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Good Housekeeping. Most recently, she served as deputy editor at InStyle magazine. Her screenplays have placed as finalist in several prominent industry competitions, including the Nicholl Fellowship, Page International Screenwriting Awards, Scriptapalooza, and Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope competition. Her first novel, THE CROWN, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger award.

Review :
A stunning debut. One of the best historical novels I have ever read THE CHALICE offers a fresh, dynamic look into Tudor England's most powerful, volatile personalities: Henry VIII, the Duke of Norfolk, Stephen Gardiner and Bloody Mary Tudor. Heroine and former nun Joanna Stafford is beautiful, bold and in lethal danger. Bilyeau writes compellingly of people and places that demand your attention and don't let you go even after the last exciting page Rarely have the terrors of Henry VIII's reformation been so exciting. Court intrigue, bloody executions, and haunting emotional entanglements create a heady brew of mystery and adventure that sweeps us from the devastation of the ransacked cloisters to the dangerous spy centers of London and the Low Countries, as ex-novice Joanna Stafford fights to save her way of life and fulfill an ancient prophecy, before everything she loves is destroyed "A brilliant read and certainly one which will get me looking out for future exploits of Joanna Stafford and any other works from Nancy Bilyeau." "A time in which no one at all can be trusted and everyday life is laced with horror. Bilyeau paints this picture very, very well." "Expect treason, treachery, martyrs and more." THE CHALICE is a compelling and pacey time machine to the 16th Century. And when you're returned to the present, you'll have enjoyed an adventure and gained a new perspective on a past you'd wrongly thought to be a done deal An utterly enthralling Tudor thriller. Bilyeau continues from her first novel the subtle, complex development of Joanna's character and combines that with a fast-paced, unexpected plot to hold the reader's interest on every page. Nancy Bilyeau's debut novel The Crown was a tremendous hit... This sequel is set a year later among the backdrop of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and takes in doomed love, treasonous plots, conspiracies and rebellions. Bilyeau creates the atmosphere of 1530s London superbly