Sam Gilbourne is frustrated with his life with the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Not that he doesn't love the theater, but after having played second fiddle to the striking William Hughes for so long, he longs to play a lead role. Soon Sam finds that his unassuming steadfastness does, in fact, win him the affection of the beautiful Lucie Cheetham. But their love is surely doomed to failure, for the niece of Lord Essex will never be permitted to wed a mere player, and her uncle's reckless behavior is risking the Queen's displeasure - and is sure to bring calamity upon the entire family.

There were some aspects of the story that seemed quite fresh - I rarely come across a Shakespearean tale where the dismantling of The Theatre and its move to Southwark. I thought that was a nice bit of fun. As for the rest of the story - to me, it dragged. The action stretches over almost three years, and while that allows for some time for Sam's relationship with Lucie to develop some, it also introduces an awful lot of downtime where not terribly much happens. Sam acts in plays and pines for Lucie. Lucie is forbidden from seeing Sam and pines for him. Sam has some existential angst over whether Lucie will love him if he has another profession (and whether he can bear another profession when he loves this one so much).

While their relationship was sweetly steadfast, it also simply wasn't terribly interesting. He sees her, she sees him, they fall madly in love, never do they doubt one another. Now all they must do is overcome the adverse circumstances. I mean, it was nice not to have to deal with a love triangle, but Sam and Lucie were simply a bit dull. No one really seemed to be trying to pull them apart, there was no imminent threat to their relationship. I just wanted more than niceness out of the two of them. I wanted a glimpse of passion (not to be confused with lust) between the two of them. Simply put, I was bored with their love story. And since that was most of the book, I didn't find myself eager to return to its pages. ( )