After reading The Innocent Traitor, I did not have high hopes for this book. The beginning of the book was somewhat tedious and reminiscent of the pitfalls I noticed in the previous book. However, by the second part , when Elizabeth is a teenager in Queen Kate's home, the story really picks up. Because I listened to it as an audiobook, I believe this helped in my enjoyment. Each character was distinct and added to world that Alison Weir was creating. I really liked the fact that you can see Elizabeth grow from a precocious little girl to a wily young woman. While she went back and forth in some of her decisions, she remained as true to herself as possible without losing her head (literally). Alison also provided reasoning behind some of the characteristics and decisions Elizabeth would make as Queen. When it was over, I wanted more, which is what a good book is supposed to do. Overall, it was a great improvement over Innocent Traitor.