Besides, The Queen's Fool was a good book so why would you not want to read it? :)There's plenty of intrigue and double crossing in here, so if you're really into that this is the book for you. It's not necessary but it's nice to have that extra bit of info in the small moments where the book makes a reference to the past. It contains a bit background information and a bit of a foundation to carry you over to The Virgin's Lover. I recommend you read The Queen's Fool before reading this one. But the writing of such characters was done well, in my opinion.This wasn't the best of Gregory's books, but it was still a well written book that tells a good, if twisted, story. The characters were not likable, but that seems right for the rotten roles they played. But she didn't deserve the treatment she received.Without giving away the ending, I believe the ending was right for Dudley and the Queen.Regardless if the historic facts are right or not, I enjoyed the storyline. She let him plot and scheme and was thrown away like a bit of old rag. She knew the end result.And Amy Dudley? She loved her husband, but she didn't fight for him. How could she? Many reviewers state she was unable to make a decision, but she made a clear decision. He was motivated by self interest.The Queen isn't sure what to do. I didn't read 'love' in this story anywhere. He uses the fact that they were childhood friends to worm his way in.

I don't think it's like that today, but then again, maybe I lead a sheltered life.Robert Dudley turns his back on his wife, because he sees fame and fortune if he can hook up with the Queen. If this is an indication of history, then they were a nasty lot back then. As the young couple falls back in love, a question hangs in the air: can he really set aside his wife and marry the queen? When Amy is found dead, Elizabeth and Dudley are suddenly plunged into a struggle for survival. Her faithful advisors warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the ambitious Robert Dudley. She has inherited a bankrupt country where treason is rampant and foreign war a certainty. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth’s ambitious leap to the throne will draw her husband back to the center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be.Įlizabeth’s excited triumph is short-lived.

In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen, yet one woman hears the tidings with utter dread. From #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” ( USA TODAY) comes a riveting and scandalous love triangle between a young woman on the brink of greatness, a young man whose ambition far exceeds his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them.

The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory