I wish that I could say that I liked this book more because the author clearly enjoys research and is passionate about the time period. Unfortunately, in his quest to share as many interesting historical tidbits as possible, the author loses the reader. The story feels secondary to the information that is shared, and I couldn't grow attached to any of the characters. In fact, sometimes I lost track of what was going on amid the lengthy passages of info-dumping. Possibly, the author would be better suited to writing non-fiction, but for this story to captivate it requires some serious editing.