Grace was a real person, but only mentioned once, in passing, in one official record. Therefore, this is not the sort of historical fiction where it's based on the template of a well known historical figure's documented life. However, i read the whole almost 600 page thing, so you know it had to be good. This book tries to tackle the mystery of the princes in the tower, through the point of view of their half (illegitimate) sister, Grace. I'm always hearing about henry viii, so it was interesting to be reading about his parents and grandparents for a change. the writing style was engaging, and well done enough so that i flipped in and out of liking the main character; she wasn't one dimensional. I'm about to tackle another super long book by Smith, hopefully it's as good. The worst thing about reading this is lugging a heavy enormous book with you everywhere. If you can get over that, and the fact that not everything happened exactly as written (but really, that's how most historical fiction is) you can learn a lot about the time period and the politics that were going on at the time.