Cavalier queen

I never knew that...

That is the way I should always start a review of a novel about a character I have only ever come across as a supporting actor in other stories. I knew nothing about Henriette Marie before reading this but I am certainly interested in learning more now. She is an interesting, if not particularly likeable, character who played an enormous part in English history, if this book is to be believed.
Fiona Mountain's take on the lives of Henriette Marie and her husband Charles I is interesting with good character development although Charles comes across as weak and Henrietta as headstrong but rather vacant: neither of which does much to endear them to the reader although they both have their redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, the graphic sex scenes have dragged this book down from being a solid historical novel to something rather trashy in places, that should have had Harlequin or Mills and Boon stamped on the cover. I'm no prude but sometimes less is more.