The Beheading Game: A Novel by Rebecca Lehmann

 

  

The Beheading Game: A Novel by Rebecca Lehmann. Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, 2026. Adult historical fiction.

    If you are a fan of Tudor history, you will want to find this tale of Anne Boleyn!  Lehmann has woven a creative tale of Anne who, of course, was beheaded by King Henry VIII, but Anne awakens, sews her head back on herself, and seeks revenge for her own death.

   With the help of a young man named John and a woman named Alice, Anne begins her journey at the Tower and heads (no pun intended!) to find Henry while hoping to protect their small daughter, Elizabeth. The narrative reads well with many details about life during this era.  While readers know this is totally fiction, it is a fun read filled with historical tidbits. It's hard to imagine a happy ending because Anne is, after all, DEAD, but the story is resolved in a most satisfying and incredible way. 

The Windsor Affair: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin

 

The Windsor Affair: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin. Delacorte Press, 2026. Historical fiction.

    Was it Alice Roosevelt who is claimed to say something like "If you can't say anything nice about anyone, come sit here beside me?" If you are like that, you will love this dishy fictional novel about the former Queen Mum, Elizabeth, and the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson. 

Beginning with the early life of Elizabeth and tracing how she met the Duke of Windsor himself and apparently turned down two proposals from his brother Bertie before she said she would marry him, Benjamin recounts almost every single story about Elizabeth's long life and what she thought about Wallis. Wallis, of course, was American and a fashion plate. What a contrast to the little smiling rose Elizabeth! 

The early life of Wallis is covered, too, and her first two marriages and divorces. The infamous "China dossier" and other scandously details are described. 

When the Duke abdicated the English throne to marry "the woman I love", the newly married couple moved to France, then served a time in the Bahamas during WWII, and traveled extensively to New York. 

Interestingly, Queen Mary, the mother of Bertie and the Duke of Windsor, David, makes an appearance with several of her own chapters to put in her own take on the family. Elizabeth became the mother of another Queen and grandmother of King Charles. Wallis never had children and died basically alone.

An afterword by the author includes several other historical fiction titles. All of the main characters are now long dead. Of course, their thoughts and actual conversations are, for the most part, made up while based sometimes on what others said or observed. It IS a work of fiction!