The Virgin's Daugher on May 19, 2015 Pages: 352
Format: eARC
What if Elizabeth the First, the celebrated Virgin Queen, had a daughter? For those who just can’t get enough of the scandalous Tudors, the author of the wildly popular Boleyn King series offers an enthralling new saga of the royal family, set in Elizabethan England. Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir.
Andersen explores the thrilling possibility of a Tudor heir, the daughter of Elizabeth I, in her new trilogy, a captivating continuation of the alternate history of the Tudors launched in the award-winning Boleyn King trilogy. With her originality and imagination, Andersen breathes fresh life into this ever-fascinating epoch. Peppered with realistic period-details and genuine historical figures to add dimension and texture to her captivating story, Andersen brings the seduction and glamour of the Tudor court to life in this spellbinding new novel.
It’s official, Laura Andersen is on my auto-buy list and I want everyone to read her books. I almost hesitated in requesting The Virgin’s Daughter only because I had assumed The Boleyn Trilogy had been completed. And it had…this story continues years after Dom and Minuette’s story wrapped up in The Boleyn Reckoning. If you haven’t read that series and you plan to, you may want to hold off on reading the rest of my review as I don’t want to give anything of that story away. Don’t get me wrong – this is truly a companion but if you do plan to read the other series you may want to start there since this is so far in the future.
The Virgin’s Daughter centers around Elizabeth’s daughter Princess Anabel and her friend, Lucette Courtenay. Yes, Courtenay – of the Dom and Minuette Courtenay’s. We also get to meet the other children of Dom and Minuette and I loved seeing the characters of the past make an appearance alongside their children.
Anabel is the daughter of Elizabeth and Phillip of Spain.  She is opinionated and definitely Royal.  She is also comfortable with the politics of court and figuring out the balance between what will make her happy and what will make her mother happy. As Elizabeth finds out about the Nightingale Plot – the plot to free Mary and make her Queen – she enlists the help of Lucette to infiltrate the house of the LeClercs as she is provided evidence that one of the sons is helping the cause.
When Lucette finds herself in France, she is faced with Julien and Nicolas and begins to try to find out who is guilty of plotting against her Queen. What she didn’t plan for was falling in love and as she figures out who is guilty and who she loves, Lucette ends up playing a very large role in how things move forward for both Queen Elizabeth and Mary. You will notice, I haven’t told you who is who between the brothers. You only really have to know that there are definitely some swoony parts and the back and forth mystery of who was really the guilty party was something that had me unable to put this book down.
That’s about all I can say without ruining any bits of the story. Just know that the minute I finished this I was scouring goodreads to find out when the next book comes out because it was that good! The end of this one definitely leaves you wondering what will happen next for everyone involved. Now…go out there and get reading. I want everyone to love these characters that Andersen writes as much as I do. If you have an interest in alternative history or historical books at all, definitely check this out when you can.
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