Shakespeare's Lady by Alexa Schnee c2012

New Author ~*~ Alexa Schnee

Alexa Schnee has always wanted to be a writer. She loves the smell of the bookstore, because nothing in the world smells exactly like it. She enjoys spending time with her family, including her parents and her sister and brother. She also likes shopping, playing the piano and guitar, and traveling. She listens to Indie music and drinks way too much coffee. She will never, ever like math and she will always love dancing in the Montana rain. She is currently attending Sarah Lawrence College in New York City.

Alexa is the youngest recipient ever of the Mount Hermon Most Promising Writer Award and a first place winner of the Authors of the Flathead 2010 High School Writing Contest. Her book, Shakespeare’s Lady, will be released under Guideposts Books February 7th, 2012.


Author's Overview

Shakespeare’s Lady (Guideposts, February 7th, 2012)
Emilia has always done what others have wished. She lives her life safely, obeying others’ commands and she is never fully content with her life. She even accepts a marriage proposal from a man she does not love to appease the ruthless Queen Elizabeth and to remain in her glorious court.
But then she meets the dashing William Shakespeare and he shows her words, love, and freedom are what she has been missing. The two lovers find themselves playing a dangerous game against the Queen herself. Will the things that William has shown Emilia be what tears them apart?


Publisher's Review
For centuries, readers have debated the identity of the mysterious Dark Lady in William Shakespeare's sonnets. Emilia Bassano--lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth and one of the first women poets in England--could be the answer.

In Shakespeare's Lady, Emilia is one of the most dazzling ladies at court when she meets the little-known playwright William Shakespeare. Shakespeare sees the world like no one ever has before, and despite all odds, they fall in love. But the course of true love never did run smooth, and these star-crossed lovers must fight for their love--and, eventually their lives. From the plague-ridden streets of London to the throne room of Greenwich Court to the stage of The Globe Theater, Shakespeare's Lady explores grace, forgiveness, and the forbidden love between the greatest poet the world has ever known and the woman who may have inspired him.

Shakespeare's Lady is the debut novel of author Alexa Schnee, the youngest-ever recipient of the Mount Hermon Writer's Conference's "Most Promising New Writer" award.



My Review
I read new author Alexa Schnee's Shakespeare's Lady in one sitting. She definitely is a very excellent wordsmith. Her story builds and has been deeply researched. This is revealed through the detailed account of the court side observant of Queen Elizabeth I's reign and "Do as I Say, Not as I Do" rule.

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)       Emilia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645)

Henry Carey (1525-1596)           William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

However well written and it is their lives to tell, I cannot recommend this book because of content. For readers it is condoning a life of infidelity. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Although their lives have been lived and their choices made, a mistress and adultery is without value in any generation.

I was sent Shakespeare's Lady from Guideposts Publishing/Summerside Press for evaluation. This review was written as my own opinion.