Victoria

Daisy Goodwin, “Victoria,”   Thorndike Press, 2016 Large Print, 648 pp.

The author wrote this book simultaneous with writing the TV series Victoria.  The entire book utilizes Victoria’s diaries chronicling the early portion of her 63-year reign as Queen of England; however, the dialogue is, of course, made up.  This is a book of historical fiction and a bit on the fluffy side--few historically important events of the time are even mentioned.  How could it be anything else, by the time of Victoria, Royalty was just for ceremony and show in England.

Early one morning on June 20^th, 1837, 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. Then the book begins the lengthy sojourn to find a husband.  This novel then ends when she finds her cousin Albert who becomes the love of her life.