** spoiler alert ** Oh, for cryin' out loud...Bridget Jones has more backbone than Elizabeth Tudor, at least as she's portrayed in this novel.

If Elizabeth I was as portrayed in this book, she wasn't just a queen of England, she was a drama queen. As portrayed by Miles, Elizabeth is a whiny, histrionic little brat with absolutely no strength whatsoever. She never commands her people; she "sobbed," she "wept," she "screeched," she "howled," she "screamed," she "told them tearfully," and "wept afresh." As far as I can tell, she spent about 50 years alternately sobbing, screaming and screeching.

One choice example, when she is signing a death warrant, "Madly I traced my way through the serpentine forms of my Elizabeth R, sometimes keening in pain, sometimes laughing the disordered laugh of a bedlam woman." Really? REALLY? You're telling me that Elizabeth I spent her life behaving like the lead in a bad Theda Bara film?

Miles also never gives any sense of place or time. Elizabeth is constantly in a sense of panic, going from crisis to crisis. The periods without crises aren't even mentioned in Miles' book. The problem with this is that Elizabeth is 30 years old on one page, and just a few pages later she's about to hit 40 (and has apparently been about to hit 40 for pages and pages). And since she always behaves like a spoiled 15-year-old throwing a tantrum, there's no character development to give the reader insight into the fact that she's aging.

The basic plot is fine - but it's actually Elizabeth's life, so no points there.