REVIEW: The Queen's Tears

10 minutes ago

6 min read

Greetings, readers!

As I have mentioned before, the thing I love best about being an author is meeting other authors.

A year ago, before starting my newest project, one of my writer-friends, Elizabeth St. John, dropped me an email, suggesting we write our first dual-timelines together as "writing buddies." I am an avid fan of her work and respect her a great deal for her editorial eye and understanding of craft. Anyway, before long, we were sending one another chapters we had written and meeting bi-weekly to discuss edits of one another's work.

Sometimes things are simply magical in a writer's world, and our working relationship turned out to be just that. We both finished our first drafts in ten months time and spent this past summer working together on them, sifting through beta-reader comments, and then finally--congratulating each other on a job well-done.

Liz St. John has been a frequent flyer on my blog page. She has a rather amazing British ancestry, and each of her books focuses on a family member. Her newest novel, THE QUEEN'S TEARS, is no different. This book's 17th century protagonist, Barbara Villiers is a "thorny rose"--a character who is both sweet and piquant, holding a reader hostage on every page. In her second timeline, a brand new heroine is introduced: Julia Darke. Professional, with high expectations for starting life anew, Julia becomes embroiled in a mysterious painting and follows its trail, leading to a royal jewel theft.

Welcome back to Brook's Journal, Liz! What a journey it's been and I'm so glad you're here to share your incredible novel, THE QUEEN'S TEARS. Below, I've prepared a review of this book, which is, indeed, one of my favorite reads for 2026.

Read ON, everyone!

ALL ABOUT THE BOOK

A stolen crown jewel and an enigmatic portrait force two women to confront the devastating choices they made for love—and summon the courage to live with the truth.

~1619~

Barbara, Lady Villiers, at the bidding of her brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, has stolen the dying Queen Anna’s jewels—and kept the greatest prize for herself. The Queen’s Tears, a brooch of extraordinary value, torments her: too dangerous to sell, too priceless to discard, and possibly her only means of securing her children’s future. When the family fortunes are shattered, Barbara faces an impossible choice: remain loyal to Buckingham—or betray him by confessing the theft to King Charles.

~Present Day~

Julia Darke opens her Cotswolds bookshop to start life over peacefully. Instead, a Van Dyck portrait of Barbara’s daughter, with tantalising signs of the missing Queen’s Tears hidden in plain sight, brings her face-to-face with Oliver Villiers, the Oxford art conservator she once loved and walked away from. Reluctantly drawn together to uncover Barbara’s secret, Julia and Oliver follow the trail of the Queen’s Tears—and the closer Julia comes to Barbara’s truth, the harder it becomes to hide from her own.

Inspired by the true stories of Queen Anna of Denmark’s stolen jewels and a missing Van Dyck painting, The Queen’s Tears weaves history, fiction, and family research across the centuries. Readers of The Lydiard Chronicles will find old favourites—and a new heroine following in their footsteps.

THE QUEENS TEARS

Reviewed by Brook Allen

Elizabeth St.John has a unique perspective—writing splendid historical fiction about her own family’s history. And what a rich history it is. Her remarkable novels have spanned clear back to ancestors she has researched in the Wars of the Roses, through the English Civil War, and afterward.

Her newest work, THE QUEEN’S TEARS, is a new direction, combining her intriguing family history with a very relatable contemporary story. The historical story is a powerful tale of theft, deceit, guilt, love, and forgiveness that spans the reigns of James I of England and Charles I’s demise. Two dissolute kings and the terrifying civil strife that followed become the backdrop for a novel with a broad time span and a multi-faceted plotline. Barbara Villiers’s incredible life spanned those tumultuous times and becomes the focus of this fascinating tale.

This is St.John’s first dual-timeline, and you will be in for a veritable banquet of a book. The second protagonist is a modern-day aspiring writer, antiquarian bookseller, and adventurer. Julia Darke has a troubled past, to be revealed as the story moves forward. Suffice it to say, this fifty-something gutsy woman intrigued me from the moment we first enter her quaint Cotswold store, strategically named “The Second Chance Bookshop” for good reason.

Barbara’s tale is a meaty one, beginning when she is persuaded by her brother-in-law, the powerful Duke of Buckingham, to participate in a jewel theft while Queen Anna is dying. Barbara is a rather edgy character, as readers will discover. Consumed by dynastic loyalty and ambition, she is a woman full of faults, portrayed as a survivor above all. Indeed, St.John has presented us with a sublime example of a 17^th-century courtier. Her pursuit of court influence takes her across the Channel to France, back to England, on to Ireland, and back again. Barbara’s story has many angles, but for me, it was about seeking a sense of home for her family. Her desperate attempts to manipulate people and provide for her children as only a noblewoman believes she can, become overshadowed by her own daughter’s heroism. It is at that point that Barbara comes into her own, sending a clever message into the future via a stunning portrait of her eldest girl, and the guilt-ridden evidence of her pilfering the Queen’s Tears.

In the present day, Julia Darke is striving to start over after leaving an unfaithful husband in New York. Seeking her own self and a peaceful life in returning to England, like Barbara, she is also looking to “find home” physically and emotionally. When she stumbles across a fantastic portrait that has recently surfaced, emotions are reignited over her first love, the suave art professional, Oliver Villiers. (Hmmm… yeah, that Villiers name is a real historical die-hard!) When mysterious circumstances threaten the welfare of the painting, Julia and Oliver unwillingly combine forces to bring the work’s truth to light. Readers, get ready for a delightful journey through southern England, Wales, Ireland, and France, as Julia’s passion to discover the actual story behind Barbara’s motives unfolds, and her own past gradually creeps up on her.

Every piece of a successful dual-timeline lies within THE QUEENS TEARS; only St. John has expanded upon what is typically a 90K-word novel into a phenomenal family epic. She has likely written her finest and most meticulous work yet, and I found it thrilling to see each character fully developed and fulfilled by the book’s satisfying conclusion.

If you love detailed, well-researched, and structured historical fiction, along with an emotional contemporary story that stands on its own merits, do not miss this one! I've heard that Ms. St.John has planned Julia's story to continue—I can’t wait!

ALL ABOUT ELIZABETH

Elizabeth St.John's acclaimed historical fiction brings to life her ancestors—remarkable women linked to England's royalty—offering unique insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times. Her novels unfold not just as traditional series, but as an interlocking web of lives: The Lydiard Chronicles—including the celebrated The Lady of the Tower—The Godmother's Secret, and The King's Intelligencer explore everything from the English Civil War to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Her newest novel, The Queen’s Tears, a dual timeline pursuing a stolen crown jewel, reunites favourite characters from the seventeenth-century with a present-day bookstore owner heroine.

At the heart of her writing is the transformation of real ancestral histories into narratives of historical continuity. She follows threads of legacy through generations, guided as much by wills, letters, portraits, country churches, ruined castles, manor houses, and lost gardens as by imagination. Locations become constant companions through time, while characters whisper across centuries—their decisions resonating in the lives of their descendants to reveal how choices shape legacies. Grounded in historic sites like Lydiard Park and the Tower of London, her work creates a living archival flow that continues to flourish as the past yields its secrets.

Elizabeth divides her time between California, England, and the past, surrounded by books, gardens, and animals, with a slightly bewildered, ever-supportive husband beside her.