I really like reading the queen's point of view and getting to know her. It was upsetting how much the stress was doing t her body; it made me question what would have happened if she told Julian about everything that was happening. It was an interesting chose to allow readers to mostly be in the mind of the Queen rather than her interactions with people, with was a pro and con of the book. This book gets a 3.5 for me; I do wish that the ending wasn't so sudden and greedy I would have wanted more insight into the relationship between the Queen and her husband, but it alludes to how the war changed him as a person, but I wanted more of a deep dive into that. I also wanted to see her more in the role of a mother, which was really brushed over. Overall, this book could (and still can be) expanded out into 300-500 more pages, letting readers into the corrupt world of the Singer Queen.