Interview with Brandy Purdy and The Queen's Pleasure

Today, I welcome Brandy Purdy, author of many wonderful books. She is here to discuss her latest published novel, The Queen's Pleasure or The Court Affair by Emily Purdy for those of you in the UK!


Which of the main characters do you identify with?  

Amy. I’m not the most confident person in the world and I do have a desperate longing for love, but the right man has proven elusive, and there have been too many human chameleons, liars, abusers, and men who think women’s hearts and heads are tokens on their own personal game board.

 Do you think that Robert lost his love for Amy?

Yes. I also think they married too young and fast. And that Robert's enchantment with the novelty of what Amy was, compared to the type of women he had always know, the sophisticated, elegant, bejeweled beauties of court, soon wore off and, after the honeymoon was over, they discovered they really had nothing in common. It's hard being with someone when you have no common interests to draw you together, it's awful to just sit in silence with nothing to say to each other, aware of this awful, tense silence hanging between you.   

 Do you believe  Amy wished she would have granted Robert a divorce?

I think a part of her may have. But change is difficult, sometimes it’s hard to walk away from something familiar, even if it is horrible and an emotionally toxic environment for you, and go into the great unknown, especially if you don’t have the support of friends and family, which by that point in the story, Amy didn’t, she’d lost everything, mostly because of Robert. Her head was at war with her heart—she knew the man she had fallen in love with was gone and wasn’t coming back again, but a part of her never stopped hoping he would and trying to find a way to rewind, and bring back the happy days.

Some mocked Amy's country ways, while others praised her honesty and goodness. How did England feel about Amy?

She was a very isolated person, so most people didn’t even know her, but she was seen as a wronged and neglected woman. I’ve read messages from foreign ambassadors at the time remarking how Robert had a beautiful and loving wife waiting at home for him, but never went to see her.

How hard is it to write a story that everyone knows the ending to?

It depends on the story. With this one, we don’t really know how Amy ended up lying at the foot of that staircase with her neck broken, only that she did, that’s why this is one of history’s great unsolved mysteries. And many people have their own theories about what happened. So with this book it was something of a challenge.

You can find the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour Page here.  Use the twitter hashtag: #QueensPleasureVirtualBookTour

And now for the giveaway. I have one copy up for grabs for a US Resident. Follow The Musings of a Book Junkie and leave a comment with your contact info! Giveaway ends on June 28th at midnight!! Good Luck!