Title: Victoria  

Author: Daisy Goodwin

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher:St. Martins Press

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 404

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis (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….

Drawing on Victoria’s diaries as well as her own brilliant gifts for history and drama, Daisy Goodwin, author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter as well as creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria, brings the young queen even more richly to life in this magnificent novel.

Review:

I absolutely loved this book! Queen Victoria is such an interesting historical figure and I think Daisy Goodwin did an amazing job capturing her in written form.

The book focuses on Victoria’s early reign and her relationship with Lord Melbourne and her courtship with Albert. I really liked how she was portrayed almost childish, and how she wanted to hard to be taken seriously, but she was never given a chance to shine on her own until she became queen. Lord Melbourne showed her kindness in wanting to help her, so it was only natural she would form an attachment with him.

I think Goodwin represented Victoria’s development very well. We see so many of her learning experiences and how she had her eyes open so much when she became queen, and really how strong of a woman she was for her time. I found the courtship with Albert a bit too short, but that would be my only complaint. If you like historical fiction then I definitely recommend this book for you!

Happy reading!