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Amber Weinberg liked Sarah's review of Life & Death of Anne Boleyn:

"This is the bible of Anne Boleyn. It is the first book I ever read completely dedicated to Anne and even today it is the first book that I refer back to when I am researching or learning about Anne. My poor copy is dog eared and tattered but to me that only gives it more character and life. If you want to know about Anne Boleyn, want to learn who the woman was who rose to be the jewel in Henry VIII’s eye and then fell shattering into history then this is the book to read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Anne Boleyn. It is the go to book... it is the bible of Anne Boleyn!There is so much detail within these pages. Ives starts off at Anne’s beginnings – what little we know about her first years of life. He talks about her family, where she was raised, and her family’s role at court etc. He moves onto her time spent in Europe and at France and how that period of her life would forever influence not only her sense of dress, but her style, her views on music, dancing, literature, social interactions and use of sexuality.Ives discusses Anne’s first taste of love with Thomas Percy, how her heart was broken and also the attraction that Thomas Wyatt the famous poet had towards Anne. He moves on to talk about how Henry VIII’s eye turned from Mary Boleyn to Anne Boleyn and how he started to court Anne. Ives goes into great detail about the long years now known as ‘The Great Matter’ in which Henry fought with Rome about his divorce and the beginnings of the Reformation. Ives also discusses Anne’s personal religion and her views and beliefs.There is a lot within these pages about Anne and Henry’s marriage and how it started off with great love, passion and shared interest and slowly turned sour… with Henry wanting nothing less than Anne’s death. The anti Boleyn faction is spoken about in detail and how, Cromwell and these men within the faction worked together to bring down Anne Boleyn.And of course, Ives details the Anne’s trial and the trail of her fellow accused, her tragic last days and then her final, gut wrenching moments. He talks about Anne’s burial place and her legacy and her beloved daughter Elizabeth I.My favourite and most touching line from the book is: ‘To Christ I commend my Soul!’ And while her lips were still moving, it was suddenly over. I challenge anyone who is interested in Tudor history not to feel some emotion over Ives writing!I believe that within the pages of this book Ives captures the image of who Anne Boleyn was. The spirited, passionate, vivacious, hot tempered, determined and sometimes cruel, but always bold, Anne Boleyn. If you can only get one book about Anne then I would most certainly recommend this book.She has been a remarkable woman. She would remain a remarkable woman even in a century which produced many of great note. There were few others who rose from such beginnings to a crown, and none contributed to a revolution as far-reaching as the English Reformation. To use a description no longer in fashion, Anne Boleyn was one of the ‘maters of history’. Yet historians see through a glass darkly; they know in part and they pronounce in part. What Anne really was, as distinct from what Anne did, comes over very much less clearly. To us she appears inconsistent – religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier yet the strong grip of the politician – but is this what she was, or merely what we strain to see through the opacity of the evidence? As for her inner life, short of miraculous chace of new material, we shall never really know. Yet what does come to us across the centuries is the impression of a person who is strangely appealing to the early twenty-first century. A woman in her own right – taken on her own tears in a man’s world; a woman who mobilized her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps, in the end, it is Thomas Cromwell’s assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit and courage.This is the Anne Boleyn I have come to know, admire and love. "