Give Yourself The Royal Treatment And Cozy Up With Victoria #VictoriaNovel

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Victoria

• Author: Daisy Goodwin
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (November 22, 2016)
• ISBN-10: 1250045460
• ISBN-13: 978-1250045461

Fall is here. One of my favorite things to do on a chilly or cold day is to curl up in a blanket and read. I get so comfy and involved with book that I often don’t pick my head up for hours. My current (and new) favorite place to get lost in a book is in the reclining chaise chair in my living room, located right by the big picture window. I love to curl up there under an afghan while the window lets some of the outside world in over my shoulder while I’m reading. If you’d have seen me there this past week, you’d have noticed that I was reading a book entitled “Victoria”, a novel by Daisy Goodwin that hits shelves in the next few days.

Let me introduce you to Victoria.

“Victoria is an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria’s story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit.” – Amanda Foreman, British/American biographer and historian

Drawing on Queen Victoria’s diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, Daisy Goodwin―creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria and author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter―brings the young nineteenth-century monarch, who would go on to reign for 63 years, richly to life in this magnificent novel.

Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world.

Despite her age, however, the young queen is no puppet. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name.

“I do not like the name Alexandrina,” she proclaims. “From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria.”

Next, people say she must choose a husband. Everyone keeps telling her she’s destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously.

On June 19th, 1837, she was a teenager. On June 20th, 1837, she was a queen. Daisy Goodwin’s impeccably researched and vividly imagined new book brings readers Queen Victoria as they have never seen her before.

Historical literature is not one of my favorite genres. I always thought that it was the eras themselves that bored me. As it turns out, maybe it was just those particular books themselves, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading Victoria.

At the beginning of the book when we first meet Victoria she is 17 years old. A child in line for the throne, Drina (short for Alexandrina, Victoria’s given name at birth) lives with her mother, the Duchess of Kent. The Duchess keeps the child very sheltered, going as far as sleeping nearby and not letting her daughter be alone with male adults. The Duchess and her friend John Conroy are molding her to be the queen they want her to be. They are hopeful that the King will die before Drina becomes a legal adult, which will in turn let them indirectly rule the kingdom. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for Drina and likely the whole country), the King doesn’t pass until after Drina is an adult.

Drina decides she will take the royal name Victoria, after a great Queen before her that she admires. As is the case with most teenagers, Victoria can be impatient, sassy and petulant. She finds herself having to deal with situations that she is not prepared for, and leans on Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, for guidance. Victoria comes to trust Lord M, as she calls Melbourne, far more than she trusts anyone else. Her mother and her uncle are convinced she needs to marry and try to arrange courtships. Victoria isn’t interested in courtship or marriage, she aspires to be an unmarried and powerful leader like Queen Victoria had been before her. Eventually she does develop feelings for someone. When that relationship cannot come to fruition she is heartbroken. She does eventually find happiness with Albert, but you need to read the story on that because it’s not an ordinary relationship.

Victoria would make a great holiday gift for anyone that enjoys a light read, especially if they enjoy romance or historical writings. You can preorder Victoria by Daisy Goodwin now, before it hits store shelves on November 22nd.

Who are you shopping for this holiday season that might enjoy receiving a copy of Victoria?

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