** spoiler alert ** Like everyone else on the planet I have seen “The Other Boleyn Girl” which was written by this author. Actually, I’ve seen both adaptations multiple times. lol I’m always on the lookout for new authors to read, I figured I would give Philippa Gregory a try. TOBG wasn’t SO outlandish… the story, while embellished, had a large enough sprinkling of historical events and facts in it to make it intriguing. I started out with one of her works I was not familiar with, that way I’d get an honest look at her work. I started reading The Queen’s Fool last evening and I couldn’t stop! Again, the fictional story weaves itself around so much fact that even though you know it’s not true, you still have to hear more! We had to write essays like this in one of my college history classes. We had to create the life of a fictional character and somehow work in all the major events and true-to-life facts of our specified time period.

PG gives exquisite detail to everything, she knows just how to keep you on the edge of the action to where you HAVE to know what is going to happen next. I caught myself laughing out loud, getting a little teary eyed, actually feeling a little sick with worry, cheeks tired from smiles, arms aching from being tense with anticipation… you name it, this book will put you through it! It reminds me of the first time I read through some of my favorite Austen books, so enraptured with the characters that you couldn’t stop til you saw them safely through the end of the tale. There is such a theme of unrequited love, restrained or unrealized love, separated love and complete loss throughout the book that when I finally finished it early this morning, after a completely sleepless night of devouring the pages, I had to call my husband just to tell him I loved him and how great this book was!

I went into this sort of thinking it would be badly written or at best a glorified dime-store romance and could not have been more surprised at what it actually turned out to be. No wonder I never see these at the thrift stores, people don’t want to give them up! There were some parts that were of the adult nature, but (even though the opening involves one tawdry scene) they are brief, few and far between. I just realized that this was #4 in her Tudor series, however I think this novel was intended to be able to stand alone. I can’t wait to start the next one! If I didn’t think I would fall fast asleep right after beginning, I would open it right now!