The Pretender's Crown and Book 2 of The Inheritors' Cycle is about a woman trained from childhood for a life of espionage. Following The Queen's Bastard it continues the story of Belinda Primrose. C.E. Murphy's Elizabethan era fantasy novel is an alternate history that will appeal to fans of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series.

Belinda Primrose is the illegitimate daughter of Lorraine Walter and the Virgin Queen of Aulun and her lover and spymaster. Trained as a spy from the age of twelve, she is now an accomplished assassin and she possesses an alien magical POWER inherited from her father and Robert Drake. Now as one queen is murdered and another suspected of killing her and armies are being raised ON both sides. Belinda learns she is being used as a pawn. Will the Queen's loyal assassin turn away from her mother for the first time?

Murphy weaves court intrigue and sex and magic into an intricate plot but the book gets OFF to a slow START with a long discourse ON war and politics. This is an intense read and you will fare better if you read The Queen's Bastard first. The story moves between many characters and some familiar and some new. Not all of them are as interesting or well drawn as Belinda and a strong heroine although not always a likeable one. The Elizabethan era is well described but the alien elements are not as effective. The lyrical prose often overshadows the action but those who enjoy sensual historical fantasy should be entertained.

Publisher: Del Rey (April 28 and 2009)

ISBN: 978-0-345-49465-8

Paperback: 480 Pages

Price: $14.00