In the English countryside Kat spends her days embroidering fine clothes to sell and dreaming of the royal life of Queen Elizabeth. Whenever her mind has a free moment, Kat thinks about how she would give anything to know who she really is and how she ended up in that cottage with Grace and her daughter Anna. When a stranger seems to have the answers that Kat’s always craved, she’d go anywhere and do whatever it takes to find them for herself.

This is one fun piece of young adult historical fiction. The court intrigue alone is so fun (although some readers may be frustrated trying to keep everyone’s names straight). Kat’s a very imperfect character but very real — and the time period feels authentic, with all the horribleless that goes with it. The Queen is as hardened and yet fragile as I’d imagined and the whole story just felt plausible enough that I couldn’t put it down. When things could’ve easily broken down into complete bawdiness, the author reined it in, giving us a sense of what life was like without actually making us live it. With a touch of the mystical throughout, this fun one hit the four-star mark for me.

Rated: Mild: a few uses of mild language, a few scenes of chest ogling and clearly things are going on behind closed doors.