Engaging, absorbing, meticulously researched and exquisitely detailed, Margaret George's Elizabeth I is her most powerful novel to date. And that's saying something as George ain't a slouch in the historical fiction genre.

Unlike most historical fiction novels, even many of George's previous works, Elizabeth I doesn't start at her birth and move forward from there. Instead the book begins in 1588, during Pope Sixtus V's call to the Catholic faithful to aid in the deposition of "that wicked queen of England, the pretender" Queen Elizabeth. By this time, Bess has occupied the throne for thirty years and has faced many a threat to her crown, both from within and without the realm. Now she must deal with the greatest threat of all, the famed Spanish Armada which, armed with the Pope's blessing, sails towards England's shores with invasion and conquest as its goals. What follows is an intimate look at Elizabeth's life as she navigates this and other crises during the last fifteen years of her reign, detailing both her political machinations as well as the lesser-known moments of her private life.

However, this is not just a novel about Elizabeth. This is also the story of, some might say, the second-most influential woman of the day, Lettice Knollys, cousin to Elizabeth and her greatest rival. Lettice, also flame-haired and strong-willed, married Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's great love, and was mother to Robert Devereux, Elizabeth's greatest headache. In alternating chapters, we see these two women as they both deal with the drama Devereux brings to their lives and the consequences of his actions. Along the way, we are given windows into the private lives of some of the most prominent playwrites, poets, adventurers and courtiers of Elizabeth's era.

Although George has taken a few liberties with timing and the placement of personages, which she dutifully notes in her afterword, her faithfulness to historical accuracy is impressive, yet never dry or tinged with an academic monotone. Elizabeth and her court come to life; they are living, breathing people, not dissimilar from you or I in their desires or feelings. George immerses you in the time period, to where you can hear the rustle and hissing of silken dresses as Elizabeth strides the halls of Whitehall, feel the sting of a chill drizzle as she rides out upon the grounds of Greenwich Park, hear the rambunctious music fueling the unfettered Twelfth Night celebrations. Though much of Elizabeth's life is unknown, especially her private interactions with her close confidants and advisors, George presents those scenes so realistically, it's hard to believe those conversations didn't take place exactly as she describes. Elizabeth, both as a woman and as a ruler, was an enigmatic figure, a woman of contradictions in her behavior and quixotic in her moods. No one in her court ever really knew her, which was just as she liked it, but which makes her all the more alluring and frustrating to later generations. However, George has done a superb job of making a window into Elizabeth's soul, even as Elizabeth, so she famously said, would not do unto others, presenting a fresh, clear-eyed perspective on this complex woman.

This is not a summer-at-the-beach read, unless you're a speed reader. This is a novel to be relished, to mosey through, to read in small snippets so you can absorb all the detail.