Maybe I’ve read too many books and seen too many movies about the Tudors. We’re big Ann Rinaldi fans around here, and I’m fascinated by the Tudor kings and queens of England, but Ms. Rinaldi’s latest about Princess Elizabeth Tudor, the red-haired daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was just O.K. Nothing to write home about.

I didn’t get any new perspective on Elizabeth the princess or Elizabeth the queen. I didn’t find myself attracted to her character, and indeed I thought Ms. Rinaldi’s Elizabeth was a lot too ambitious and self-serving for me to want to be anywhere near her. I suppose most absolute monarchs, or those who think they might become absolute monarchs, tend to be all about power and self-preservation. It just wasn’t very attractive to read about.

I felt as if the author wanted to make Elizabeth likable, but was constrained by the facts of history. Every time I started to like her, Elizabeth would do something that she really did do, and the only motivation that Ms. Rinaldi’s book could find was a rather ugly one. Elizabeth’s servants are arrested, and although she’s terribly upset about it all, Elizabeth doesn’t even write a letter in their behalf. Her good friend Robin Dudley is in the Tower, accused of treason, and Elizabeth wonders if she’ll ever see him again. But she doesn’t bother to write him either, maybe because she thinks it would be too dangerous for her. She’s jealous of Lady Jane Grey and only mildly sad when Miss Jane is put to death.

I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed being friends with the real Elizabeth, but the person portrayed in this book is just petty and not very pleasant. Red-headed, rich, intelligent, and popular, none are a guarantee of either virtue or amiability.

I would recommend any of Ms. Rinaldi’s American historical novels or her book, Mutiny’s Daughter, about the supposed daughter of HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian, over this fictionalized biography of Elizabeth I. Read it if you’re a collector and fan of any and all books about Elizabeth. If not, it’s skippable.