When Mike came in with Queen's Necklace one day, I was skeptical to say the least. Full of pinks and cutesy blues, the box was certainly off-putting, but in the world of board games, Queen's Necklace is a solid way to get in touch with your feminine side.

It's a great little game besides, with good mechanics like stealing cards, sneaking peaks at other players' hands and three card showdowns with plenty of strategy. The main knock on the game that I can think of is use of tiny gold rings to denote the current price of cards available. Since they're supposed to be moved down a notch after each player's turn, it's easy to lose track of whether or not it's been done, and if the table gets bumped, it can be difficult to remember where they belong. However, these are but triffles.

With Nick's ring being deemed the most fashionable piece of jewelry, he got to start. I jumped out to an early lead with 100 points in the first round, cleverly using my King card to bone diamonds, much to Mike's chagrin. Nick chose to lay nothing down, while Greg scored only a few points and Mike had none. I was in the driver's seat. However, I was increasingly worried about my lack of Musketeer card, since it meant I was open to the thief and the forger. Mike took full advantage by making me throw out 5 diamonds, so I scored nothing in the next round while everyone else caught up. Though I was still in the lead going into the last round, I had few cards and even those were single gems of little value. In the final showdown, Nick just failed to match me, but Greg took advantage and won by 20 points. Despite the loss, it was a diverting experience and there was plenty to talk about before our cool-down game of foosball.

Game: Queen's Necklace
Biggest Winner: Greg's fashionable victory
Biggest Loser: Mike's unfashionably low score
Session Grade: B
Overall Game Grade: B+