The 48
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Henry VIII's Tudor court meets time-traveling teen assassins in this riveting thriller.
Twins Charlie and Alex Douglas are the newest time travelers recruited to the Forty-Eight, a clandestine military group in charge of manipulating history. The brothers are tasked with preventing Henry VIII from marrying Jane Seymour and arrive in 1536 feeling confident, but the Tudor court is not all banquets and merriment: it is a deep well of treachery, torture, lust, intrigue, and suspicion.
That makes it especially dangerous for young people who refuse to "know their place"--young women who might, say, want to marry for love instead of status, or young men who would feel free to love each other, if it weren't forbidden. Told in alternating perspectives among Charlie, Alex, and sixteen-year-old Lady Margaret, a ladies' maid to Queen Anne Boleyn, The 48 captures the sights, smells, sounds, and hazards of an unhinged Henry VIII's court from the viewpoint of one person who lived that history--and two teens who have been sent to turn it upside down.
Includes an author's note touching on her inspiration for the book and the research she did to bring the Tudor Court to life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hosie folds elements of science fiction into a story set in 1536 England that features the alternating perspectives of three teen protagonists: Lady Margaret, a lady's maid to Queen Anne Boleyn with secrets of her own, and twins Alex and Charlie, members of "the 48," a time-traveling secret police force. The brothers voyage to 1536 on a mission to "eradicate religion from the ages" by preventing the marriage of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII and the subsequent rise of Catholicism. In this effort, Alex and Charles, along with an accidental third time traveler, Alice, cleverly infiltrate the court. Hosie fills the story with court intrigue, gossip, romance, and action. Additionally, she offers substantial background on the future world in which Charles, Alex, and Alice normally reside. Hosie's teen characters are somewhat lacking in authenticity; the voices of Charles and Alex seem to belong to adult men. Fans of time travel stories will enjoy this unconventional blending of present-day ideologies and past politics. Ages 14 up.
