Katherine Arundell's father is a Catholic in 1602 when Queen Elizabeth is attempting to make England a Protestant country. Katherine's father doesn't do a very good job of hiding his religion and when the queen's guard comes to arrest him, they kill him. Katherine hides and then escapes to London with the horse groom, Jory, who also aspires to be a priest.
Katherine finds the men whom her father was working with on a plan to assassinate the queen and vows to help them to avenge her father's death. Katherine becomes Kit, a boy, who must obtain a part in Shakespear's new play, Twelfth Night, that will be performed for the queen. Kit will kill the queen during the performance. Kit is successful in getting the part but doesn't realize she is walking into a trap.
The other narrator is Toby, who works for the queen to discover the network of people who are planning the assassination. Toby has set up this play just to lure the assassins to make their move.
Things get convoluted when Toby and Kit develop feelings for each other. Toby thinks Kit is a boy, and well, there is also the problem that Kit is the assassin that Toby is supposed to turn over to the queen's guard.
The middle of An Assassin's Guide to Love & Treason gets really slow. After Kit gets the part in the play, the relationship between her and Toby develops very slowly. And the assassination is planned...very slowly. And Toby tries to figure out who the guilty party is -- very slowly. Nothing much happens.
Even though our main characters are teens, the book reads more like an adult book. The pacing is too slow and meticulous, and the details too many.
The ending, however, is very exciting and satisfying. I would recommend this to teens who are very interested in Shakespeare or the time period. Or those that really enjoy historical assassins.
Published by Little, Brown BFYR, October 23, 2018
ARC obtained from School Library Connection Magazine
384pages
Rating: 3.5/5
This sounds like it gets confusing, kind of like a Shakespeare play!
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to reading this one. Historical fiction seems to be making a comeback with my teens. Having assassins in a book doesn't hurt either.
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