Franklin's writing is very well done and enjoyable. She paints a vivid picture and tells her tale well. I do, however, have two issues with this book. 
 1. Anachronisms. This book is full of them (I'll address a few under the next heading). She uses the term crusader throughout the book, and that term wasn't invented until about 500 years after the setting of the book. Normally I'd forgive something like this as an expediency for modern comprehension, but the reason why I read historical fiction is to get into the mindset of that period's people, and they thought of the crusades differently than we do. To call them crusades is to color them with modern prejudices. Add to that many of the medical practices (the doctor in the book doesn't do any bloodletting and seems to have a notion of germ theory centuries ahead of her time), the presence of cholera in England, etc., and it kicked me out of the story. 
 2. The main character. I had a real hard time getting to like her, and never really did. The main problem was that she was a 21st-century character with 21st-century sensibilities who spent most of her inner monologue railing against Medieval society with so much awareness of the injustices, incongruities, and hypocrisy that it was distracting. All of her railings are justified, but not believable in this setting. I love that she was a doctor and I loved her skill set and what it could do. I would have loved it even more, though, if I got to see the world through the eyes of a Medieval woman, not the eyes of a modern person. I already have those eyes. That's not why I read historical fiction. 
 I wouldn't recommend this book, unless you're comfortable with my second item, which I completely understand. I'm more of a purist and not exactly in Franklin's target audience. I won't read on in this series, even though I loved some of the other characters (like Sir Rowley Picot). All this being said, if I learned that a lot of this was tempered in the sequels, I'd probably read on.