Shades of Yellow
By Wendy J. Dunn
By Wendy J. Dunn
Publication Date: 7th September 2025
Publisher: Other Terrain Press
Page Length: 314
Genre: Women's Fiction / Historical Fiction
Who better to write about a betrayed woman than a woman betrayed?
During her battle with illness, Lucy Ellis found solace in writing a novel about the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, the first wife of Robert Dudley, the man who came close to marrying Elizabeth I. As Lucy delves into Amy’s story, she also navigates the aftermath of her own experience that brought her close to death and the collapse of her marriage.
After taking leave from her teaching job to complete her novel, Lucy falls ill again. Fearing she will die before she finishes her book, she flees to England to solve the mystery of Amy Robsart’s death.
Can she find the strength to confront her past, forgive the man who broke her heart, and take control of her own destiny?
Standing near the nave of St Mary the Virgin, Lucy breathed in the smell of incense. The smoky sandalwood with its taint of cinnamon seemed a heady mix of time. Of memories. Had Amy once inhaled the air of this enormous church and, like her, thought of all the people who had come here over the centuries, wearing away the flagstone floor with their footsteps? Countless people now long dead.
Lucy Ellis has battled illness before, her future has seemed bleak, and she still mourns the life that she could have had if cancer had not struck her down before she had the chance to fulfil all of her dreams. If anything had kept her going through treatment, it was the mystery of Amy Robsart, a woman who had suffered during her life, and whose death had been an unknown, resigned to history, never to be solved. Robert Dudley’s first wife held within her history a story that Lucy was determined to pen, and putting her heart and soul into her writing had given her purpose.
With a research trip to England planned, both to fact-check but also to walk the paths and see the buildings that her beloved Amy would have experienced, Lucy’s worst nightmare comes true. Her clean bill of health has come to an end, and there are once again concerns about her future. Having put so much effort into planning her trip, though, she can’t simply abandon it. Her story means too much to her to push aside, to delay. And so, despite the concerns of many, she boards the plane and takes the flight to join her aunt and grandfather on the other side of the world.
Shades of Yellow by Wendy J. Dunn is an utterly captivating and enthralling novel of the plight of a passionate and determined woman as she pushes forth, refusing to be held back from her ambitions by failing health.
The parallels that can be drawn from the past into the present are often shockingly accurate. Delving into the past can often reveal the solutions to present-day dilemmas. But just how much can the lives of people long dead reveal about the lives of those still walking the earth? It is not simply Lucy’s illnesses that have affected her life. Her husband’s infidelity and the divorce proceedings that followed have still affected Lucy, even after a good deal of time. In her time of need, when she needed Ben there to comfort her, to stand by her and reassure her that things would be alright, he was not the one to provide her with such comfort. Instead, it was Amy, a woman who lived hundreds of years ago and had long since been consigned to the history books, that stepped up to bring a semblance of solace to Lucy, to give her life meaning as she recovered. Lucy’s dependence on bringing Amy’s story back to life brings a level of desperation to this novel, as she treks through London on her journey of research. She feels such a deep connection, not only to finishing her novel, but to Amy herself, that travelling to London, seeing the places that Amy would have lived with her own eyes, becomes a necessity, rather than just a desire. She can’t simply delay or abandon her trip because her sense of commitment to Amy runs deeply within her heart, and that raw devotion, the obligation to bring the past back to life, is a quality that clearly shines through the pages to the reader. Lucy is a character the reader cannot help but feel an instant connection with, for her pure dedication to Amy, and her novel is so truly human that she does not feel like a character, but rather like a dear friend.
The intricacies of Lucy’s family and close friends are woven together into a perfectly tangled mess of love and concerns. In London, Lucy stays with her grandfather and her aunt, both of whom are characters who claim the love of the reader as soon as they are introduced. Their collective care for Lucy is immense, and both are there for her no matter the situation. Their worries about her health match the worries of the mother she left at home in Australia, the ever-looming fear of an unknown tumour weighing down on all of them. As Lucy explores London, there is the ever-present knowledge that her time there is on a tight deadline, and not just because of the flight booked home. Her health is failing, and she can’t delay medical care forever. The family that Lucy has gives this novel a very homely feel, for they are always there for her, and the network of people whom she can lean on and rely on at any time of need makes their connections feel all the more special.
Lucy’s love life is a conundrum she can’t quite figure out. Her husband cheated on her, and the divorce is still in progress, but there are things she can’t decide. She has settled herself into a deep hatred for Ben, but like Amy, she finds she cannot bring herself to truly move on from her husband and leave him in the past. Some things are unforgivable, but what must she do to be able to allow herself to move on, even if he won’t? On top of the confusion that comes with Ben, Lucy finds herself reconnecting with Max in London, her cousin with whom she shared a past love, however problematic such a relationship may have been. As a teenager, it had been difficult to walk away, but returning to find him married and expecting a child is more difficult than she ever could have imagined. The quandary of Lucy’s love life bears down on her thoughts, even as more important matters press on. Her health should take the forefront of her thoughts, but she can’t help but push thoughts of her future down as she tries to focus on her novel and the immediate relationships that she finds herself tackling. At times, her refusal to acknowledge her failing health makes her come across as obstinate, for the reader quickly grows to love her like her family does, but it is not without reason. Her determination to finish her novel and experience the trip to London that she dreamed of is reminiscent of her suffering what she lost the first time she fell ill, and quite simply shows her desire not to allow her illness to hold her back, however dangerous it may be at the time.
Amy’s history and Lucy’s research into it bring forth a deeper narrative, allowing the reader an insight into Lucy’s passion for the subject, while also giving voice to Amy’s story. This novel allows Lucy to tell her story, giving her a platform to tell her story through her own, while also immersing the reader into the journeys of both women. It is interesting, not only to learn about Amy’s life, but to watch Lucy’s thought process as the story of her novel adapts and changes with discoveries and plot threads added in. In a sense, this novel breaks the fourth wall of historical fiction writing, for having Lucy as a historical fiction author gives an insight into how stories change, and truths get shaped to create novels that will sell, while authors attempt to remain true to the realities behind the people they are writing about.
A novel that is impossible to put down, and begs to be read in its entirety in a single sitting, Shades of Yellow by Wendy J. Dunn offers a story that will ensnare your heart and overtake your thoughts. This is the kind of story that will stay with you for a long time after turning the final pages, for it is simply enthralling, and the characters are so alive in the pages that leaving them behind feels like leaving behind close friends.
Review by Ellie Yarde
The Coffee Pot Book Club
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Wendy J. Dunn
Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder. Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.
Wendy is married, the mother of three sons and one daughter—named after a certain Tudor queen, surprisingly, not Anne. She is also the grandmother of two amazing small boys. She gained her PhD in 2014 and loves walking in the footsteps of the historical people she gives voice to in her novels. Wendy also tutors at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.
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