I got a very nice little surprise a few pages into this when I realised it's a sequel to one of the first 'My Story' books I ever read: 'Bloody Tower'. So after a very quick refresher on the last few pages of that one, I was very quickly absorbed into the story. This diary belongs to Kitty Lumsden, the daughter of the protagonist of 'Bloody Tower', and it was really enjoyable to see how the author had matured the original characters and their relationships. Plus, it's a great hook into the premise of this story!

Unlike the previous two of these I've read, this one is part of the 'original' series, where the author of the diary is a normal girl. As a result, it did take me a second to remind myself that our main character was not going to be in the thick of political intrigue. However, the author does a great job at balancing the representation of a normal girl of the Elizabethan era with bringing her into close enough proximity to a real historical event. Kitty's utilising of codes and ciphers to communicate with her cousin after hearing about Mary Queen of Scots' methods of sending messages is really sweet, and how's this for being a total nerd, it reminded me of myself as I did the same thing at school when I first learned about it! 🤣 

Her relationship with her brother Joseph and her cousin/best friend, Edmund, is really cute throughout. I particularly liked that Joseph is almost idolised by her, even while she admits he is too trusting, and reading between the lines ot seemed that he might be representing some kind of cognative difference? In any event, it was beautifully handled. I wasn't as convinced by the character of Kitty's female cousin, Kathryn, though. Again, she reminds me of me, a stickler for the rules and generally a bit of a party-pooper, but there seemed to be no real explanation for the extremity of her character flaws. Even her own parents seem to despair of her, and ultimately she came across as something of a Puritan. Part of me wondered if she was perhaps being set up as another link in the chain, with her descendants' story perhaps being told in another instalment set during the Interregnum. Otherwise, it just seemed a bit of an odd choice and it didn't gel well with the rest of the story.

I enjoyed the premise generally, with Joseph being the linking point to the true historical event of the Babington plot. It was very cleverly tied in and interesting to look at the event from an alternative point of view. I also felt that Kitty and her family's reactions to the drama were well portrayed, particularly when it came to the grizzly business of executions. I found it refreshing that there was no sense of a 21st century morality being forced onto the characters, even given they are children; they want to go to see the events, and see it as entertainment as people did during that era. But likewise it's acknowledged that even they have lines in the sand and know when things go too far.

I think that the main issue with this was the pacing towards the end. Things were trundling along quite nicely, but then it all gets wound up seemingly in the abstract, with very little information or detail. It felt to me like a better ending would have been for Kitty's father to have been present at the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, and then for Kitty to relay his telling of the tale in her diary. As it is, it feels like we don't proper closure for her as a character, or for the story itself.

Overall, very enjoyable!