The Importance of Pawns

It's obvious that a great deal of research went into writing this book and I loved the period details such as the details of the food they ate. I also appreciated the author's note explaining how she arrived at her conclusions and how she had departed from history. Good to see a book with mostly female characters and set in France too. It was fascinating finding out about the real royal family of France and to see Mary (Henry VIII of England's sister) in action in the French Court and her future husband, Charles Brandon.
I think however that maybe by let the reader know a little too much about the thought processes of the characters it meant that there weren't many surprises in the plot. Also, whilst the characters were well drawn, I wanted the villainous Louise to be something more than just a villain as it felt a little like most of the book was Claude reacting to another villainous scheme. Claude was more of a multifaceted character who grew as the story progressed, but I felt like Louise was a bit too much of a moustache twiddler and we could have had more about the motivations of a complex character. Still, I did think it had promise and will look out for the follow up.
I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.