Hilary Mantel meets Sylvia Day: the first instalment in a deliciously erotic trilogy, set against the sumptuous backdrop of the scandal-ridden Tudor Court.[...]

She is a fallen woman, an object of men's lust...Margerie Croft yielded up her virginity before her wedding, and then fled from her eager suitor - knowing that she could not marry a man she did not love. Now she is viewed as soiled goods, fit for only for the role of courtier's plaything. He sees so[...]