Virtual Book Tour - Blood Between Queens (Thornleigh #5) by Barbara Kyle

Title: Blood Between Queen's

Author: Barbara Kyle

Series: 5th (The Queen's Lady, The King's Daughter, The Queen's Captive, The Queen's Gamble)

Pages: 448
Published: April 30th 2013 by Kensington 

ISBN: 9780758273222

Source: Arranged Tour

Description: Following her perilous fall from a throne she’d scarcely owned to begin with, Mary, Queen of Scots, has fled to England, hoping her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, will grant her asylum. But now Mary has her sights on the English crown, and Elizabeth enlists her most trusted subjects to protect it. Justine Thornleigh is delighting in the thrill of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to her family’s estate when the festivities are cut short by Mary’s arrival. To Justine’s surprise, the Thornleighs appoint her to serve as a spy in Mary’s court. But bearing the guise of a lady-in-waiting is not Justine’s only secret. The weight of her task is doubled by fears of revealing to her fiancé that she is in truth the daughter of his family’s greatest rival. Duty-bound, Justine must sacrifice love as she navigates a deadly labyrinth of betrayal that could lead to the end of Elizabeth’s fledgling reign…
I Give This ...

I've had a habit lately of agreeing to historical fiction that is part of a series.  Series that I haven't read any of the previous books.  In this case it was a positive experience.  Not once did I feel lost because I hadn't read the previous books.  And now, I would like to go back and read them.

I think Justine might be my favorite character in this book.  She's just the right mixture of naive, loving, and adventurous to spark my curiosity.  She blindly believes the good in people almost to a fault.  Odd considering she's the daughter of a known traitor.  I really expected her to be much more cautious.  But, she's a young girl in love and I think that skews her judgement a little bit.  Everybody around her manages to manipulate her to justify their own means.

I really enjoyed the chains of events.  There's a lot of fact woven in with fiction to the point that the entire story seems plausible.  Plus, the interactions between Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary greatly intrigue me.   It's amazing to me that its seems Queen Mary never stopped at conspiring to overthrow and even kill her cousin.  Yet, Queen Elizabeth was so hesitant to harm her in any way.   Queen Mary was very good in this book at casting blame anywhere else but herself.

There are a few instance that I really wanted to say "yeah right,"  but the story would not have worked without those events.  So, I let them go at face value.  Overall I really just enjoyed the story.  I would like to go back and read the previous books in this series.