Karen Harper
404 pages
Mistress Shakespeare is a story about Anne Whateley, the true love of William Shakespeare’s life. It is written in Anne’s point of view and is basically her writing her own memoir for future generations. The memoir begins when she is a girl and first meets Will. It then follows their young friendship, budding romance, and Romeo & Juliet-esque life long relationship/marriage. The only true fact is that there was a marriage license filed for a Will Shakespeare and Anne Whateley, however, all other aspects are based on the author’s personal research and opinion. Despite the debate on fictional vs non fictional, it is a great love story set in the Elizabethan period. It guides you on an interesting tour of Shakespeare’s best works and the events going on in his life that could have influenced why and how he wrote them. Anne is a very strong and independent woman and not the typical damsel-in-distress heroine of the times. She tries very hard to not live her life by her feelings for Will. Yes, she is one of Will’s biggest promoters but that is because she also believes in the work, his talent, and theater as a whole.
I am glad I read this but it did not overly thrill me. I enjoyed mostly the anecdotes about the works of Shakespeare but the love story aspect left me unfulfilled. But that could be because I am not a big romance person. I enjoy a good relationship in my story but not as the focus on my story (as long as you don’t look at my tween-vampire book weakness).
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