The Queen's Fool

I finished my first book by Philippa Gregory last night - The Queen's Fool!! Let me tell you, I could NOT put the book down for too long because it was such a great story! I remember seeing her books on the shelf at Barnes & Noble a few years back and thinking "Wow, those look interesting" - it wasn't until The Other Boleyn Girl movie came out before I really started thinking I should read some of her books. So I found this seller on eBay who was selling a lot of 3 of her books...used of course. So I got The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover and The Other Boleyn Girl. Of course I should have read The Other Boleyn Girl first, but I wasn't aware of any chronological order....there is though.The Queen's Fool deals with Mary Tudor and Elizabeth.
These books, combined with the DVD set of The Tudors that my mom let me borrow, has really got me involved in the whole Tudor era. Of course, I've always known I've loved Tudor architecture, it's classically English - and everyone knows that I LOVE everything English!
The way that the author writes is just so easy to read, yet very complex. She paints such an awesome picture, it feels like after reading the book that I've got this whole image in my head of how the story played out - like my own little movie scene. I also appreciate the fact that she's done a good deal of historical research on the period...the characters and story she creates fit seamlessly into the actual history of England. The book itself was just shy of 500 pages but I was able to finish it in under a month (that's good timing for someone working and going to school full time!).
Now I'm on to the Virgin's Lover - I read the first few pages at work tonight and it is a clear sequel to The Queen's Fool - it takes place right where the other left off. Of course, this book will more clearly be about Elizabeth's rein as queen, as she was supposedly the Virgin Queen who was married to England - interesting :)