Review: Victoria by Daisy Goodwin

Victoria

by Daisy Goodwin

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 352

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  “They think I am still a little girl who is not capable of being a Queen.”

Lord Melbourne turned to look at Victoria. “They are mistaken. I have not known you long, but I observe in you a natural dignity that cannot be learnt. To me, ma’am, you are every inch a Queen.”

In 1837, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria – sheltered, small in stature, and female – became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Many thought it was preposterous: Alexandrina — Drina to her family — had always been tightly controlled by her mother and her household, and was surely too unprepossessing to hold the throne. Yet from the moment William IV died, the young Queen startled everyone: abandoning her hated first name in favor of Victoria; insisting, for the first time in her life, on sleeping in a room apart from her mother; resolute about meeting with her ministers alone.

One of those ministers, Lord Melbourne, became Victoria’s private secretary. Perhaps he might have become more than that, except everyone argued she was destined to marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. But Victoria had met Albert as a child and found him stiff and critical: surely the last man she would want for a husband….


Kritters Thoughts:  If you are a historical fiction fan, stop what you are doing and get this book!  

Ok.  Started this review with an exclamation, but I am serious.  I absolutely adored this book.  A fiction tale based on a real person (which are always good!) on a former Queen of England who took the throne at an early age and had to put her foot down to give herself the authority to make the decisions a queen should.  

At first I didn't know that this was based in truth, but quick google search proved my instincts incorrect and I am glad I didn't read her whole wikipedia page or it would have ruined the big plot point - who would she marry!  Avoid wikipedia!

This book ends as she could be marrying and I liked that it took a deep dive into a small timeframe of her life.  My hope is that we can get another book or two on the rest of her reigning years.  

I love historical fiction, but this one was above a lot of what I have read.  I was completely sucked into the story from page one and had the hardest time just setting it down.

Sidenote - if you have watched The Crown on Netflix you would love this book and vice versa


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St. Martin's Press.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.