On the eve of her coronation, Elizabeth Tudor is preparing to officially take the throne of a country she has been ruling for the past few months. England is recovering from the loss of both of her siblings shortly after the death of her father. The country is surrounded by those who would like to see Elizabeth fail, from the Pope to the leaders of France, Scotland, and Spain. Elizabeth feels like she is up to the challenge.

Her closest advisors, Dr. John Dee and Lord Cecil, meet with her to let her know that there is an even bigger challenge. There is an ancient evil that has bedeviled England for hundreds of years, and it will now fall to her to protect England not only from its exterior enemies, but also the hidden one from within.

The trouble all started during the time of Camelot. The tales that we heard of Arthur, Mordred and the rest are not as reliable as everyone had assumed. It seems that Mordred, the bastard son of Arthur, had wanted to defend against the invading Saxons, and he was willing to do whatever it took, including allying himself with the vampires that had settled on the island. In doing so, Mordred sacrificed his humanity to become one of the vampires in order to bring about what he thought was needed to defend England. It ended up costing him everything, including his love.

Morgaine, a Slayer from his time, was the one thing that stood between the vampires and the human residents of England. While she did not quite succeed in defeating Mordred, her line continued and Elizabeth is of that line. Dee and Cecil believe that she is destined to be the next Slayer to take on Mordred. They prove to not be far off the mark. In fact, Mordred not only arrives, but he appeals to Elizabeth to join him by becoming his queen. Together, they can defend against all of England's enemies.

Doing so goes against everything in Elizabeth's nature. She knows that she must defend against the core vampiric evil that is Mordred in order to protect her country from it. And she has additional supernatural powers as well as the support of Dee, Cecil, her beloved Robin Dudley, and a few other trusted court servants to take on the evil.

The tale is presented in the form of a diary kept by Elizabeth about the events that has been obtained by Lucy Weston, who many may remember as being one of Dracula's victims in the classic tale written by Bram Stoker. Periodically, Mordred's perspective is presented with what appears to be excerpts from interviews. The result is a very comfortable narrative that brings the characters to life.

The author is surprisingly reliable with the way that historical figures are presented as the supernatural elements are embedded into the story. The pace of the novel is quite quick. In fact, the events all occur in about a week's period. Elizabeth quickly gains comfort with the secret history of her country and her own developing powers as she takes on the evil plans of vampires who are far older than her.

My one complaint is that the resulting story proves to be the first in what will clearly be a series of stories. While I know that I will look forward to future installments, it would be nice to have a chance to read a book that can tell a complete story in a single volume rather than being drawn into more and more stories. With that said, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read that I finished in just over a day! Of course, I probably shouldn't be surprised since it merges two of my favorite genres: Tudor England and vampires.