The Queen’s Lady

How accurate a historical novel should be is a matter of debate, and readers are quick to spot anachronisms. It is essential to give some flavour of the time, and writers tend to do this through background descriptions rather than through their characters. Eve Edwards is no exception as she weaves various details of Elizabethan life into The Queen’s Lady. The main characters, however, hold remarkably twenty-first-century ideas, making themselves more attractive to readers.

The Queen’s Lady is the second of a series concerning the Lacey family and, although there are references to the previous book, The Other Countess, it is a stand-alone text.

It has all the necessary ingredients of a romance, with eighteen-year-old James Lacey falling in love with Lady Jane, Dowager Marchioness of Rievaulx, who despite being a widow is also only eighteen herself. In the first book,Jane was being courted by the Earl of Dorset, James’ elder brother, but she loved James. There is a parallel plot that also involves a strong love interest in which the couples must overcome obstacles so that they can be together. The characters are stereotypical, but the story moves at a fast pace with plenty of incident and suspense, making The Queen’s Lady a good, light read for romantically minded late teens.=