This wonderful novel is a great addition to similarly themed books ("Children of Men"), movies ("Last Night" of 1998), and TV (Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Inner Light"). Told (freshly) from the perspective of a child, it tells of a difficult coming of age during a time when it isn't clear if there will be much of a tomorrow. But the story is touching not maudlin, aided in large part by excellent writing.

The best of my First Impression books so far!

The book is well paced and well-written, full of lovely imagery and clever wording without being pretentious. But the subject matter is hard - poverty, bullying, mental illness. Still I would recommend it.

Perhaps it was the short days and ensuing light deprivation (like Russia!), but I had a very hard time finishing this book. The main problem is that the two major characters do not meet until 200 pages in and even then they exist in parallel more than together. And they are both are very depressed. But I would say that - apart for some editing mistakes that will hopefully be corrected - the writing itself is very good.

This book was disappointing. First and foremost, the writing itself was poor. Secondly, the characters acted oddly and while their motivations were eventually explained (clumsily), it was definitely too little, too late. And sadly the plot relied on instant relationships of the main character - a maid - with the rich and famous (like Molly Brown) rather than developing a rich below deck story.

This is the second in a series, and while I read the first book, Poison, in anticipation of this one, it was not necessary to do so. In fact, this book was blessedly free of the clunky exposition so common in sequels!

Minor quibbles with the book are: on more than one occasion, the same idea was repeated in nearly the same language (e.g. Francesca doesn't like to ride) and the sex was a tad more explicit than I expected for historical fiction (although it has nothing on bodice rippers).

The premise of the book - behind the scenes Tudor England between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I - is very promising and the book is well written. However I found it off putting that the main character - a squire - would be introduced to so many luminaries and become part of their plots in just a few hours (literally). Perhaps this will be less jarring as the series continues.

I do recommend Gortner's other books, particularly The Last Queen.