Are you looking for a novel in which a young person with no expectation of political power is suddenly put in charge of a country and needs to figure out everything from political alliances to daily minutia, all while keeping an exhausting set of appointments? Do you care who the political appointments are and what order he takes his audiences? If that is your thing, this book will really be your thing. I found that this book had a very soothing comfort food quality from my point of view. It sometimes made me drowsy, but not because I was bored. It was just that relaxing. It does seem to me that the book ends up being strangely pro benevolent monarchy in it's political themes, as a result of the resolution of one of the center plot lines and the choices of its protagonist. There are also a lot of proper nouns here. Seriously, take however many proper nouns you were expecting and double it. To some extent, how much you like this book may come down to how many proper nouns you were hoping for.