Although many of Plaidy's books can be on the dry side, I really liked this one. It is pretty straightforward and Plaidy doesn't seem to try and portray Mary too sympathetically. A pawn in various power struggles from the time she is an infant, Mary makes decisions based on emotion without stopping to consider the consequences. But seeing as how she was really given very little guidance on how to rule (people just told her what to do) maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise. The first in a two-volume series, Royal Road to Fotheringay covers Mary's years at the French court and her two subsequent marriages after she returns to Scotland.
