Historical Fiction

I liked this book. Despite it being a decent size, it took me very few reading sessions to get through. And I was kind of disappointed once it was over.

Oddly, it was the middle section of the book that I enjoyed the most. In the beginning of the book, I felt a bit like I was being told a lot about Henrietta's character without being really shown it, which frustrated me. Then towards the end of the book it began to read more like a long epilogue, which is, I guess, a great risk in historical fiction where the characters fail to have a dramatic death and instead grow old away from the action. The middle though, where Henrietta has to learn how to be a queen, not just look like a queen, and to be a woman, not just look like a pretty doll, provides more conflict. There's the tensions in her heart, tensions politically, and tensions religiously which all combined to keep me reading. ( )