Dense but compelling.

The title of Gristwood’s sixth book, The Tudors in Love, might produce an eyeroll from those who are tired of our long love affair with England’s most romantically dysfunctional dynasty. However, this book stands out on the crowded bookshelves by showing that the Tudors were just as obsessed with reading about the doomed romantic royals who had gone long before them.

Sarah Gristwood skips the pretense of the standard historical political study to get right to the courtly love.

Enticingly titled, deeply researched, but ultimately disappointing.

Engrossing.

This book includes more literary scholarship than the average history buff expects, and most readers will be relieved when, around Page 80, Gristwood reaches the late 15th century and begins an appealing account of the Tudor years.