Why this rating
I appreciated this one slightly more than the first. For a few reasons. One, I knew the characters. Two, I was a bit acclimated to the strange old writing style and weird choices around tense and pronouns. And three, this book was shorter and the timeline more crisp and the plot straightforward. That said, I still don't find the books to be particularly good. Interesting, yes. But not enjoyable or moving. I look forward to finishing the series and seeing how Cromwell ends and how the succession story lands (even though it's a Wikipedia scan away, I'm not tempted to peek ahead).