Brendon Prescott was a foundling raised in the household of the Dudley family in Tudor England. Brendon knows that his appointment to be the squire of Robert Dudley is an honor, but it is one he doesn't relish because he has been the butt of the Dudley brother's cruelty his whole life. Once he get to court Robert sends Brendon to the young Princess Elizabeth with a secret message. In the process of delivering it Brendon is recruited to be a spy on Elizabeth's behalf. Meanwhile, Robert's family are plotting to marry off a different son to Jane Grey who is a neice of Henry VIII, and then put them on the thrown in place of the catholic heir, Mary Tudor. As Brendon is led deeper into the dark underside of political rivalry, he begins to undersand he needs to be more than a just a pawn in the hands of the conspirators.
My sister-in-law recommended this one to me and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It is based on historical events, but with fictional elements and characters. I thought Gortner did a good job fleshing out the characters of Elizabeth and Mary, and was also good at clearly conveying a lot of complicated political machinations of the time period. It wasn't as squeeky clean as the Christian historical novels I usually read, but it wasn't too bad and I only had to skip to the end of a chapter once. This book is the first in the series and I would be open to reading more in the future. (2011, 352 p)
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