My Name Is Victoria

Short and Sweet: A fun, easy to read take on the young list of Queen Victoria that will have you smiling and desperate for more. When I got the opportunity to read Lucy Worsely’s debut novel last year from Bloomsbury India, I jumped in joy. While I enjoyed the beginning, and learning all about Tudor court and how it functioned, the latter half of the book dragged a little bit, making me not love the book as much . I guess that’s probably why it took me a little while to pick up My Name is Victoria, because of the slow nature of the second half of the previous book and I really needed to get myself in the mood for it. My Name is Victoria, however, had none of the problems that I faced in Eliza Rose and proved to be an easy to read and immersive middle grade tale about the era. Let’s go more into detail: PLOT AND IDEA: The author is a curator at the Kensington Palace where the young Queen Victoria spent her days in seclusion under the control of her mother and her comptroller. While the idea itself was based on the author’s knowledge of the Queen’s life, with one major change to the storyline, it was still a good read. The story flowed really well, starting from the time Miss V. Conroy is taken to be playmate to a young Princess Victoria and ends during Victoria’s ascension to the throne. WRITING: Lucy Worsely managed to capture the era and the mind sets of the world at that time through a girl of ages twelve to eighteen. As Miss V. Conroy and Princess Victoria grew through the book, the writing grew as well. From play time and dogs to boys, marriage and the throne I loved seeing how the future queen and her friend grew. CHARACTERS: While I’m talking about the characters is where the reason that this book isn’t a five star read comes out for me. While the book constantly had the same entertaining pace, it was the narrator, Miss V. Conroy who I had a slight problem with. There was nothing wrong with her but I just found her lacking a strong personality that I associate with teenage girls. She felt no hurt at being called “a bit boring” and “the little mouse.” She felt like she had to do nothing but care for Victoria and didn’t care about herself. Her sense of duty and responsibility overpowered everything she could have been and she just felt like too good a character with absolutely zero flaws and it made it slightly annoying and unbelievable. CONCLUSION: If you’re into middle grade historical novels, there will probably be none more accurate than My Name Is Victoria! An easy flowing, wholly immersive tale. 4 stars.

This book was fantastic and I wanted to read it over and over again. At the start I was slightly confused but definitely get this book because it is the best I have read in a long time. I think Lucy Worsley is an amazing author. I reccomebd this book10/10

A really good take on what we do and don't know about what really happened in the years of the Kensington system.