Reviewed by Lianne on
Once I started reading this book, I just could not put it down, I pretty much ended up reading almost the entire book in one evening. I was absolutely enthralled and invested in Victoria’s early days coming into her inheritance as Queen, asserting her independence, and learning how to navigate through politics, the Court, the matter of her gender. She’s young, she can be impulsive, but she also wants to be the best she can be. She is a ruler, and a young one at that, in a world dominated by men so the bits with all of the powerful men of the country sort of eyeing her every move and concocting ways to tone down her power, assert a regent, etc. was interesting but also pretty wary-making. It was also interesting to see her make up for lost time so to speak after being under the dominating control of Sir John Conroy and her mother the Duchess of Kent, from bounding up and down the stairs to standing up for herself and trying to distance herself from them in some respects. It’s heartbreaking in a sense, but at the same time I really felt for Victoria and her sense of loneliness and detachnment from her mother as she was growing up. It was cute and pretty cool how she looked up to Elizabeth Tudor as a role model.
I was however quite surprised at how much of this novel focused on her relationship with Lord Melbourne. I knew there were some gossip about the two of them because she relied on him so much as Private Secretary during her early days as monarch but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the extrapolation of their relationship here. Meanwhile I wish her budding romance with Albert leading up to the final scene had more scenes/focus, but it’s okay, I thought Albert was precious despite his seriousness and totally opposite personality to Victoria
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 16 November, 2016: Finished reading
- 16 November, 2016: Reviewed