The Reluctant Queen is a novel by historical novelist Jean Plaidy which tells the tale of Anne Neville, the wife of King Richard III of England.

She recalls growing up in the English countryside with her noble family: her father Richard, her mother Anne, and sister Isabel.

Anne's father as the Earl of Warwick has played a crucial part in placing Edward on the English Throne, and plans to marry him to French noblewoman, Bona of Savoy, much to his daughter Isabel's chagrin as she secretly wants to be Queen Consort.

Soon all of England is shocked to discover that Edward has secretly married a young widowed mother, Elizabeth Woodville Grey who is five years older than he is, and is considered by many to be a commoner.

Isabel, dismayed that the King did not choose her for a bride, sets her sights on his younger brother George, Duke of Clarence.

George and Isabel marry just as Warwick severs ties with King Edward and joins the Lancastrian side of the War of the Roses.

Queen Margaret is imprisoned and Anne is sent under the watchful eye of George and Isabel, as her mother in fear of her life is living in sanctuary in an abbey.

George, wanting the inheritance of Warwick only for himself, drugs Anne and arranges for her to be spirited away to be taken in by servants and force her to believe that she is a disillusioned scullery maid.

Anne worries about the health of her young son, and her own imbalances of illness which leads her to believe that Richard is attracted to his niece Elizabeth of York.

[1] Unmentioned in the novel are Richard's eventual downfall and death at the battle of Bosworth and Elizabeth's rise as consort of the new king, and mother of a new dynasty, and the fate of Isabel's children Edward and Margaret who were executed in 1499 and 1541 respectively.