The Virgin’s Lover is a historical novel that focuses on the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It tells the tale of the young queen, her lover Robert Dudley, and his wife Amy. Despite being married, Robert Dudley seeks to court the queen and thus gain the crown for himself.

I noticed that there was a significant discrepancy between the writing around the story and the story itself with regards to the focus of the tale. The author’s note seemed a strange note to end on because it left me with the impression that the book should have been some great mystery or at any rate that it was in some way Amy’s story. This was backed up by the blurb and the fact that the opening chapter was written with a focus on Amy. However, Amy herself gets very little stage time and the title gives a better indication of the focus of the story—Robert Dudley. Perhaps this could have been made clearer from the beginning.

I was pleased to see that Gregory got rid of the irritating first person perspective she used in The Queen’s Fool, however there was plenty else to irritate me in its place. The opening paragraph was particularly annoying and all the more so for being repeated in the next chapter—the metaphor seemed forced the first time and the repetition did it little favour.

The characters were, again, thoroughly unlikeable people, with the possible exception of Cecil. The female characters in particular were incredibly weak. Elizabeth’s situation did remind me of an abusive relationship at one point, but overall her vacillation and her arrogance did very little to endear her.

Though Amy wasn’t quite the raving lunatic she was at times in The Queen’s Fool she is nevertheless deluded to the point of absolute stupidity. She manages to redeem herself a little after the first 250 pages (during which she still gets very little stage time), but slides back again with the way she grasps onto anything that even remotely resembles hope. I felt like shaking her and telling her to have some self respect.

The book does have a few things to recommend it, however. It gets points from me for sharing continuity with The Queen’s Fool. It also illustrates very clearly what it means to be pariah in the closing stages of Amy’s story when not even her family will shelter her and the doctor refuses to treat her. A sad highlight indeed.

Overall, I’m left to conclude that Gregory’s work is not really for me.

The Virgin’s Lover is a really good portrayal of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The characters are nicely developed and it’s nice that Gregory decided to include Amy Dudley into the mix, as she usually gets pushed to the side in stories about Queen Elizabeth I.

Very nicely done. Akin to The Other Boleyn Girl and a lot better than The Boleyn Inheritance.

The book is amazingly written. You learn something about the time period and you learn to sympathise with people that you would otherwise have known very little about. So yeah, altogether, it’s a really great book. Just make sure you’re ready to read a book this long.