Reviewed: "To Ruin a Queen" by Fiona Buckley

Okay, I have to admit, Ms. Buckley's novels aren't super literary, but they have been fun to read. I like the proper feel to this series.

In the third book, Ursula ended up going to live in France with her Catholic husband, and that is where we find her. We find her delivering a baby - which was a difficult delivery. The doctor went to Matthew to ask who he should save, Ursula or the baby. Meanwhile, Ursula was terrified and kept screaming that she wanted to live. It was a wake up call to Ms. de la Roche (which is Ursula's new married name) showing just how powerless a woman is in the Elizabethan age.

Ursula's daughter Meg turned up missing in England, which sent Ursula back to search for her. Of course it was a ploy to get Ursula back to England to be pressed into service of the queen - another plot to unseat the queen has popped up - Ursula was asked for personally by a distant kinswoman (the terminology rubs off on you) to help sniff it out.

Of course Ursula solves it and receives property in England for her troubles - Mathew's old home. But Ursula can't return home - plague has broken out in France and he does not wish to put her or her daughter in peril.

I liked this story, but the series is starting to fall into a pattern. Ursula goes to spy on someone under protest. She finds out the plot. She gets caught or is put in peril. She gets out of the situation and solves the crime/plot.

I'll probably read the rest of the books in the series as they go quickly and I like Ursula.

It's important that I like the protagonist.