Princess Elizabeth’s Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I had high hopes for this series after reading the debut novel, “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary.” Unfortunately, the second novel does not live up to the promise of the first. The prose has a simplistic tone, which made me feel like I was reading a “Dick and Jane” book. The foreshadowing was clumsy, which made the plot twists predictable. The plot twists that remain open are uninteresting. If I sound cranky, it’s because I am. I was entranced by the characters and the frothy nature of the first novel. But the entrancing characters turned whiny and entitled in the second book, and the secondary characters were flat and boring. This book is more leaden than the first–it lumbers as opposed to skips, and I was left feeling disappointed after finishing it.
I am uncertain whether or not I will risk reading the third in this series. My to-be-read pile is so large that I suspect that my time will be better spent elsewhere. A pity, given the auspicious beginning.