Being Elizabeth
The new reigning queen of Deravenels, the UK’s largest global conglomerate, is Elizabeth Turner, a 25-year-old, auburn-haired beauty who regained control of her family’s multifaceted enterprise following the death of her half-sister, Mary. Ruthless in her grasp of power yet an ineffective manager, Mary nearly succeeded in bankrupting Deravenels, and it now falls to Elizabeth to staunch financial losses and bring the corporation into the twenty-first century. As with any ruling entity, however, Elizabeth has both loyalists who would do anything to protect her and schemers who will stop at nothing to destroy her. Another Mary is lurking on the horizon, a cousin who erroneously believes she is the true heir to the Deravenel fortune; but aided by a triumvirate of trusted allies, including her lover, Robert Dunley, Elizabeth may just be able to stave off another family coup. Milking the royal metaphor for all it’s worth, Bradford saturates her novel with the kind of intricate internecine plotting best suited to a Shakespearean drama. Despite the obsessive restating of characters’ identities, personal connections, and past misdeeds, however, it is imperative that readers have prior knowledge of the first two entries in Bradford’s Ravenscar trilogy to be able to appreciate the complexities of the final installment. --Carol Haggas