Palace of Spies
Palace of Spies #1
Sarah Zettel
Genre: YA Historical fiction
A warning to all young ladies of delicate breeding who wish to embark upon lives of adventure: Don't.
Sixteen-year-old Peggy is a well-bred orphan who is coerced into posing as a lady in waiting at the palace of King George I. Life is grand, until Peggy starts to suspect that the girl she's impersonating might have been murdered. Unless Peggy can discover the truth, she might be doomed to the same terrible fate. But in a court of shadows and intrigue, anyone could be a spy—perhaps even the handsome young artist with whom Peggy is falling in love...
History and mystery spark in this effervescent series debut.
Historical fiction? Mystery? Intrigues? PALACE intrigues? Impersonations?
Who wouldn't want that!?! SOLD.
Peggy Fitzroy had bitten more than she could chew. All but thrown outside of her guardian's house, she traced the address of one who could likely help her out of her circumstances. There's only one catch: impersonate a Lady, enter the palace as one of the Princess of Wale's maids of honor and report back everything to her handler. The gifts she'd receive would be hers entirely. Easy enough, yes?
Wrong.
The best thing about historical fiction is that it could get me interested in a part of history, of another country, that I haven't been interested before or I may have overlooked. It shows that history is not all about dates, important (often those in power) people, wars, dates, rebellions, Shakespeare and Newton, dates and more dates. In other words, it's not all about boredom. Historical fiction shows that, in order for this history that we learn in our classrooms to come to fruition, there are a lot of events and little people behind the scenes that made history happen. Not just monarchs and heroes. And no matter if it is fiction and (sometimes, if not always) highly romanticized, it keeps one's attention.
I could perhaps segue into a conversation I had with a Japanese lady about her son, history and Rurouni Kenshin but that's another story.
Sarah Zettel wove a mystery within the court such that I couldn't take any point from which I could puzzle out the mystery on my own as I am wont to do when I read mysteries. I was as confused as the heroine and was not enlightened until the heroine was. Well done I should say.
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