Tome Thursday: The Virgin's Daughter

Hello everyone!

This week, I actually had quite a pick when I was choosing a book to write about in the review section, because at this point, I've amassed SO many notes that my poor notebook is basically falling apart from the middle out.

But it's good, because it means I don't have to scramble as much as I did in the beginning!

And I will confess, I'm under the Tudor influence at the moment, as you can probably tell by looking to the right of this blog to my Goodreads currently reading bookshelf. My friend Maegan told me about the fictional Autobiography of Henry VIII she had read, and I thought to myself, sure, why not, so I'm currently munching my way through it. According to my Kobo e-reader, I'm 60% through. The plan: finish it this weekend.

In the meantime, however, I checked to see whether or not I wrote down some notes about another Tudor-esque book I read a while back, during summer, and I did!

Allow me to start with my review of Laura Andersen's The Virgin's Daughter.

First thing's first.

This is the author's second planned trilogy. The first one, titled 'The Boleyn Trilogy', was an alternative universe story about what COULD have been if Anne had given Henry a son during her second pregnancy, and how history might have been different. The books in the series are The Boleyn King, The Boleyn Deceit, and The Boleyn Reckoning. I have to admit, I fell in love with the AU story but especially with the intricate dealings of the characters - not to mention Dominc of Exeter! He has to be my absolute favourite from the whole trilogy.

This second one, The Tudor Legacy, begins with the book I'm writing about, and picks up almost two decades after the end of the first trilogy.

In this one, however, we're dealing with the children of the original protagonists; Elizabeth I, Queen of England, has married Philip of Spain (contrary to what we know in history) and they have a daughter together, Anabel, but they are currently in the process of a divorce. In the meantime, Anabel has spent much of her childhood with the Courtenays and their children, namely the twins Kit and Pippa, but the oldest daughter Lucette has also been around, as was Stephen, another son. The book in itself focuses primarily on Lucette.

The plot twist is that it's uncertain whether or not Lucie is Dominic Courtenay's daughter, or the daughter of the late king Henry IX (who had forced himself on her mother, Minuette, back in the original trilogy), and Elizabeth alludes that she's a bastard child, roping her into working for Walsingham and sending her to France to spy out a plot called Nightingale.

The trick?

She's sent to the place where she was born, the Le Clerc household, where she remeets with the two sons, Nicolas and Julien.

Obviously, we see where this is going to go, but nevertheless, I quite enjoyed the build up of romantic tension between Lucie and Julien, even though Nicolas seemed to have been panting around her as well, using a 'oh woe is me' a lot to get her to sympathize, though truth be told the guy had been castrated during religious upheval in Paris, and lost his wife later after she gave birth to his son. 

What we don't know so obviously is who of the brothers is part of the plot to take down Elizabeth (the Nightingale), because both of them have secrets, and it's up to Lucie to get to the bottom of it, with help of course.

I was worried the author would let it all fall on the woman since that would have been completely untrue to the time she wrote about, BUT Andersen surprised me yet again by showing how Walsingham pulled strings from behind the scenes all the while and managed to turn everything so upside down I could barely keep my head on straight!

Lucie had promised to marry Nicolas, but only to draw him further out, although the man turns out to be quite deranged and takes both her and princess Anabel hostage at Lucie's family home - which naturally pisses off her father, the Duke of Exeter, who, if I may say so, was basically the one man in the kingdom that not even the King ever wanted to piss off. Still, Nicolas has done so, and you know there's going to be a reckoning.

And there is, but not in the form I would have expected - Julien and Nicolas battle to the death, Anabel is safe, and Nicolas dies.

No one cries for him, believe me, because we realize this was all a diversion for a much more prominent plot: the one to get Mary of Scotland out of Elizabeth's clutches. She sails to Spain - and marries the newly-single Philip. Powerhouse Catholics, much?

The book itself ends with Lucie and Julien's wedding, much to my relief since I didn't want a three-book romance like the first time around anymore. But now the focus might shift to the other Courtenay kids - all thoroughly linked to the Tudor court as Stephen is sent to Ireland by Walsingham, and Pippa and Kit remain with Anabel ... and Kit isn't happy with her marital prospects.

I really liked the book, it sets a fantastic premise and I can't wait to see what happens next, as the preview for book two says Mary is pregnant with Phillip's child now! This means trouble. But at the same time, the title itself is a little misleading as Anabel doesn't feature as much as one would think, since it's mostly Lucie's book.

But who cares, it's worth the read!

xx

*image not mine