Title: The Virgin’s Lover 

Author: Philippa Gregory

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Touchstone

Format: Paperback

Pages: 441

Rating: 4/5 stars

*Warning: mature content. Parents please be advised.*

Synopsis:

In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen. One woman hears the tidings with utter dread. 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.

Elizabeth’s excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country where treason is rampant and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisor William Cecil warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth is her childhood friend, the ambitious Robert Dudley. As the young couple falls 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.

Philippa Gregory’s The Virgin’s Lover answers the question about an unsolved crime that has fascinated detectives and historians for centuries. Intelligent, romantic, and compelling, The Virgin’s Lover presents a young woman on the brink of greatness, a young man whose ambition exceeds his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them.

Review:

This was another book by Philippa Gregory!!! The relationship between Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth is highly thought to be real!! While she was called the virgin queen, many speculate that she had a relationship with Dudley!
I like how we got a glimpse into what the life of Amy Dudley, Roberts wife, might have been like at the time. I imagine she was a sad woman, knowing her husband was the queens favourite, and her death is still unsolved today!!
Elizabeth was portrayed as a selfish, as well as a manipulative queen. She was heavily influenced by those advising her, and was controlling of those she loved. This is a different picture than how she is usually presented. History likes to show her as a blessed virgin queen who was married to her country, so it was interesting to read a different portrayal!
I highly recommend this book, it is a great read!!