Thanks to Pen & Sword for the ARC!

As a lover of history and European monarchies, I knew I wanted to get my hands on this book.

To go over all the countless courtiers Queen Elizabeth I had within her lifetime you not only have to go from her infancy to her death. Lloyd also understood that you must explore her half-sister, mother, father, and grandfather's legacies to fully understand why Elizabeth might have made the choices she did during her life and more importantly her reign.

While I enjoyed much of the history and facts surrounding Courting the Virgin Queen I often was pulled out of the story when there were redundancies and tangents. I felt like these tangents could have had more information to go along with the topics that we were exploring but we were cut short on those and went back to the original topic at hand.

Overall this is a great exploration on Queen Elizabeth I the last of the Tutor monarchs.

‘Elizabeth’s first suitor arrived when she was still an infant, when she was considered as a possible bride for the son of the French king.’

After reading The Tudors By Numbers and loving it, I knew I needed to get my hands on Carol’s next book.

I admire Elizabeth for her courage to remain ‘the virgin queen’ despite the constant pressure from the moment she was born to her later years in life to marry and provide an heir.

‘She well understood the values and the dangers of marrying and the cakes and dangers of remaining single.’

Carole has done a great job and I defiantly just want to read ALL of her work in the future!

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=4 | 😘=2 | 🤬=1 | ⚔️=1

summary: basically just Elizabeth I’s love life (but specifically the lack thereof)

thoughts: really good! solid! we are obsessed with a sixteenth century queen who says “I’m literally just a girl 🥺” when she doesn’t want to answer questions but uses male pronouns when she wants people to listen and trust her like that’s so manipulative and iconic I love it