This book was the easiest of the P&T series to get through (so far), as I did not dislike or loathe Anne Neville. I did like Jacquetta & Elizabeth in their books but with the start of a series, there's a lot of background to get through, so they are just slower going & I hated Margaret Stanley so that one took a while as I kept wanting to throw the book across the room!

I felt that Anne & her sister, Isabel, were a bit like Lydia & Kitty from Pride & Prejudice. While they are both able to think for themselves and make up their own minds, they end up believing whatever anyone else tells them and are quite frankly, a bit simple. Due to the fact that the family trees of both of their families were interwoven, the genetic inbreeding is most likely the reason for this.

I know this is a work of fiction, but I think that if the events of this book unfolded close to this in real life, then I think there is a point in history that if one thing was done differently, it would have completely changed Anne's life. That point would have been when she went to the coronation of Elizabeth Woodville and instead of listening to her mother & sister (whom hated the Queen), she had reached out to Elizabeth (& vice versa--as they were both smitten) to be part of her court, her life would have not turned out the painful way it did.

When you read a book that is about real people that existed and there are large gaps in the actual histories about these people, you do wonder 'what if?'. Philippa Gregory does a lot of research for her characters and I think she does a good job of giving us that 'what if?' even if it leaves us still asking questions.