I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

This novel is a retelling of Mary Stuart. The novel tells how Francis was Mary’s one true love when many biographies claim that she loved him as a brother. The writing can be a bit silly, and I could help but laugh! Still, I recommend this for fans of Reign!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I love anything to do with history but i completely loved this book. I was so moved by the love Mary had for Frances. It was very touching and I am sure he was her true love. It pains to me to think we will never know how their lives may have ended together.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook! Great read and highly recommend! Loved it.

I really enjoyed reading this book about Mary Stuart, it was a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed the use of the historical events.

This book was poorly written and poorly researched. I recommend that the author spend more time researching the period and the story of Mary Stuart and revise.

I wanted to love this book but it just missed the mark for me. It felt very casual and modern to me (ie. Snooze). I do think it would work for a lot of people, but it wasn't the Mary Stuart I've come to "know"

*Many thanks to Holly-Eloise Walters, Churchill Publishing, and NetGalley for arc inexchange for my honest review.*
I have read several books on Mary Stuart and this one seems to be most intimate. Written in a form of memoir, it is supposed to get us closer to Mary the woman and Mary the Queen. Most of the book concentrates on her first marriage to Francois and the times of happiness. The love for her first husband stays with her throughout her next two unhappy marriages. Mary is still a young woman when she arrives back in Scotland to take over the reign after her mother's death. The world she has to face is harsh and alien. She lacks the experience and cool head her rival in England has.
The book is a little too sentimental to my liking, even too sweet and this is not what I look for while reading a historical fiction. The facts are there and so is the interpretation of her Mary's actions, and it is clealry stated the author is on Mary's side. I consider Mary to be a tragic heroine and I belive all misfortunes befell her because of her inexperience and wrong choices. Ms Walters' Mary is immature, even in her later life, and perhaps this is the right approach while analyzing her downfall and years of imprisonment.

This is my favorite genre of reading, I felt this was wonderfully told from Mary’s young days in France all the way through her life she was not a foolish queen as many thought. She did rule with her heart and ultimately died because of that. I felt I read this book rather quickly because I was eager to learn what the next page was going to tell me. I would gladly read another book from Holly-Eloise Walters

Thank you to NetGalley, Holly-Eloise Walters and Churchill Publishing for an e-ARC of the book in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you think this is just another accounting of the life of Mary Queen of Scots, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. The author writes a very intimate reveal of how Mary perceived her great love of Francis I as well as her other two husbands. Holly also explores how Mary felt about herself and exposes Mary questioning herself and her decisions many times.

I read this book in one day as I could not put it down and felt very connected to Mary. As my maternal grandmother was born and raised in Scotland, I heard many stories of her beloved Queen but none touched me as this book did.

I always felt that Francis was always Mary's one true love and this story enforces that. I believe that when you finish this book you will not see Mary as a foolish woman who was ruled by her heart instead of her head, but one who made the best out of all the difficulties her life was riddled with.

Solid 4.5 stars. I deducted a half star because there are some editing and spelling issues.

As Queen of Scots, Mary Stuart’s motto had been “In my end is my beginning.” True, the end of her life marked the beginning of her legend, but Holly-Eloise Walters is eager to remind people that Mary’s not just a name in a history book, but a real person with real thoughts and feelings. For that reason, she’s written, “Eternal Promise: the soul of Mary Stuart.”

Rich in emotion and beautifully told in first person, Holly’s book is a fascinating story of Mary Stuart, the wife of Francis II of France. She’s captured the queen’s happy days in France as a 9-year-old betrothed to 8-year-old Francis, her father in law’s death, her husband’s coronation, ear infection and death, her second marriage to Henry, Lord Darnley, the birth of her son, James I, her third marriage to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, right up to her last breath. Well-researched, Holly’s book brings life into the controversial historical figure and gives Mary an opportunity to tell things from her perspective.

I think my favourite passage was her account of walking down the aisle in Notre Dame Cathedral on her wedding day and seeing Francis, her husband to be. I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. Holly has captured the love between them in masterfully worded prose. You’ll want to go back and reread it again.

Perhaps you’ll be like me as you turn the last page and realize that Mary Stuart was no foolish queen, nor femme fatale, who ruled by her heart and not her head. She was, rather, a rare individual, unprepared for the role she undertook and heartbroken at losing the love of her life, yet, she stood tall, squared her shoulders and carried on. Holly does a fantastic job of reminding us that though Mary’s life was marked by tragedy, it’s her courage that remains remarkable 434 years after her untimely demise.

Thank you to Holly-Eloise Walters, Churchill Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Published February 28, 2021.