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Two warrior angels. First friends, now lovers. Their future? A WILD UNKNOWN.


Watch The Lady

Watch The Lady, June 2015
by Elizabeth Fremantle

Simon & Schuster
Featuring: Penelope Devereux; Robert Cecil
560 pages
ISBN: 1476703124
EAN: 9781476703121
Kindle: B00P434DPG
Paperback / e-Book
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"Risking her life in the court of Queen Elizabeth"

Fresh Fiction Review

Watch The Lady
Elizabeth Fremantle

Reviewed by Auriette Lindsey
Posted September 16, 2015

Historical

Penelope Devereux was a real person, sister of the infamous Earl of Essex and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth. Author Elizabeth Fremantle meticulously researched Penelope's life for WATCH THE LADY, her third novel set in the Tudor court. The novel takes us from her earliest days at court to the aftermath of her brother's fall from grace. Penelope is an eyewitness to history, and we see the machinations of a dangerous court through her eyes. I knew about Penelope's husband, Robert Rich's father; Richard Rich was a key figure in Henry VIII's reign. While I was reading this novel, I watched the 1970s BBC series "Elizabeth R" and was interested to see Lady Rich appear in a couple of scenes. WATCH THE LADY certainly gave me a new perspective on some of the events I was watching unfold. Of course, this is a novel, and Fremantle has fabricated some of the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the key characters. She explains some of those -- and adds some additional facts about Penelope's life -- in her afterward. I have read one other of Fremantle's Tudor court books; they are not a trilogy in the sense that you must read them all and in order. The two I read stand quite well on their own. The only difficulty I have with her work is that they're written in present tense, which for me is a bit off-putting. They are well worth getting through that, however. If you have a particular interest in the Tudor court, the reign of Queen Elizabeth, or strong women in history, WATCH THE LADY will be an excellent addition to your reading list.

Learn more about Watch The Lady

SUMMARY

From “a brilliant new player in the court of royal fiction” (People), comes the mesmerizing story of Lady Penelope Devereux—the daring young beauty in the Tudor court, who inspired Sir Philip Sidney’s famous sonnets even while she plotted against Queen Elizabeth. Penelope Devereux arrives at Queen Elizabeth’s court where she and her brother, the Earl of Essex, are drawn into the aging Queen’s favor. Young and naïve, Penelope, though promised elsewhere, falls in love with Philip Sidney who pours his heartbreak into the now classic sonnet series Astrophil and Stella. But Penelope is soon married off to a man who loathes her. Never fainthearted, she chooses her moment and strikes a deal with her husband: after she gives birth to two sons, she will be free to live as she chooses, with whom she chooses. But she is to discover that the course of true love is never smooth. Meanwhile Robert Cecil, ever loyal to Elizabeth, has his eye on Penelope and her brother. Although it seems the Earl of Essex can do no wrong in the eyes of the Queen, as his influence grows, so his enemies gather. Penelope must draw on all her political savvy to save her brother from his own ballooning ambition and Cecil’s trap, while daring to plan for an event it is treason even to think about. Unfolding over the course of two decades and told from the perspectives of Penelope and her greatest enemy, the devious politician Cecil, Watch the Lady chronicles the last gasps of Elizabeth’s reign, and the deadly scramble for power in a dying dynasty.


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