While the story is good and the historical details are well written, I kept myself from giving this book four stars simply because of the length. While there was quite a bit of time to cover, there were sections that were highly superfluous and added nothing to the story. Had they been pertinent issues then I don't think the length would've been a problem. Out of the over 800 pages, I would dare say that at least 100 of them could have been eliminated without having any effect on the book as a whole. That being said, the writing is easy to read and the story did for the most part retain my attention. I would definitely read other books by this author...I'm just hoping that her other novels show more restraint in timeline detail.