The Castle Of Kings

This is a historical fiction adventure set in southwestern Germany from 1524 to 1525. The castle of the title is Trifels Castle (a real place) near the town of Annweiler. Our two protagonists are Agnes, the young daughter of the castellan of Trifels, Philip von Erfenstein, and Mathis, her childhood friend and son of the castle blacksmith. Around this time there's a peasant uprising. At 644 pages, this one took some time, and takes a little time to get the story really moving along. But it was worth it. There's family secrets, hidden passages, castle sieges, robber knights, dungeons, fights, escapes, betrayals, mysterious characters and so forth. The second half of the book has so much going on. Very enjoyable tale.