The Virgin's Lover (Tudor Court, Book Six): Philippa Gregory

"Elizabeth I has ascended to the throne of England, a position she has waited and schemed for all her life.  She is surrounded by advisers, all convinced that they know what would be best for the country and certain that a young woman cannot form political judgements.  Elizabeth feels that she can rely on just one man:  her oldest friend, Robert Dudley.  it is soon plain that he is more than merely a friend.  In a house in the countryside waits a very different woman, Amy Robsart -- Robert's wife.  She has no taste for life at court and longs for the day when her husband will return home and attend to his family.  She has loved him since she was a girl, but now they are adults she hardly sees him.  Meanwhile, the pressure grows for Elizabeth to marry, for it is unthinkable that a queen should rule on her own.  Elizabeth's preference is clear, but he is unavailable.  But what if the unthinkable were to happen...  Philippa Gregory blends passion, personalities and politics in this stunning novel of the Tudor court and a country divided."

This installation in Philippa Gregory's Tudor Court series took me a bit longer to read than I thought it would (and I'm not entirely sure why).  I very much enjoyed and appreciated the way in which Gregory tied together all of her prior books (even The Queen's Fool, which focused on the life of a fictional character to insert the readers into the time period and give them a better "insider's" view of Mary and Elizabeth, as well as the time period).  Readers were introduced to Robert Dudley in The Queen's Fool.  While I liked his character there, I found him to be very different in this book - perhaps because the readers are given insight into his mind and machinations instead of a rather biased opinion from a besotted young girl (i.e. Hannah from the book prior to this).  Knowing what I know about the real Robert Dudley (being the British history buff that I am), I found this portrayal to be very interesting and fairly in-line with what I know of him.  I struggled a little bit more with the portrayal of Elizabeth I; maybe because I've seen her presented as a powerful, self-sure woman in a man's world so many times over in both fiction and non-fiction.  This specific portrayal and her character quirks were also introduced in The Queen's Fool, but this book really made them evident.  I understand that Elizabeth was still a young woman when she took the throne, but I have long had such a high opinion of her as a queen that this was occasionally difficult for me to swallow (perhaps this is why it took me so long to read?).  Amy, on the other hand, was the character who garnered all of my sympathies.  I didn't care for her at all in The Queen's Fool, where she was portrayed as irrational, clingy, and borderline-insane (granted, this also came from the point of view of a very young woman (Hannah) who fancied herself in love with Amy's husband).  Maybe she seemed more sane and pitiable in this book because we got to see things from her point of view (I wonder if the difference was intentional on Gregory's part because what madwoman really sees her own madness?).  The amount of loyalty, devotion, and love she felt for Robert regardless of his faults and incessant slights against her - his veritable abandonment of her - was truly heartbreaking.  Gregory's artful juxtaposition of Elizabeth and Amy - two very different women in love with the same man - was extremely well done.  This is, I believe, what made the book a worthy read.  There was still a great deal of politics and religious issues, which - though necessary - made the reading a touch dry at times; however, I will say it did not get quite as dry as The Taming of the Queen (the amount of religious information in that book made it a bit of a struggle at times).  I will have to say that The Other Boleyn Girl is still my favorite of all of Gregory's books.  I can absolutely appreciate the common threads and characters Gregory was able to weave into this series (I especially enjoy seeing Mary Boleyn's daughter and granddaughter in this book).  My disclaimer is this:  The Other Boleyn Girl can be a standalone read for almost anyone, but that is not the case for the rest of the books in this series.  The time period becomes more and more complex and, to understand the subterfuge, familial relations/rivalries/interplay, and have any chance of grasping the politics and religious turmoil, one must read all of the books in this series.  This is not for everyone.  Be prepared to delve very deeply into English politics, policies, and religion(s) - yes, that plural was intentional - when reading these books.  I don't want to scare you away, but simply make you aware that not all of the books in this series are as easy to read as The Other Boleyn Girl...this book included.  I recommend this book as a must-read for the series (it's very interesting to see so many things converge), but I didn't love it as much as others (though I will say I liked parts of it much better than some of Gregory's other books).