A QUEEN’S GAME, by Katharine McGee, Random House Books for Young Readers, Nov. 12, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up)
Discover the intrigue of the English court during Victorian era in A Queen’s Game, a historical fiction novel by Katharine McGee.
In the last glittering decade of European empires, courts, and kings, three young women are on a collision course with history—and with each other.
Alix of Hesse is Queen Victoria’s favorite granddaughter, so she can expect to end up with a prince . . . except that the prince she’s falling for is not the one she’s supposed to marry.
Hélène d’Orléans, daughter of the exiled King of France, doesn’t mind being a former princess; it gives her more opportunity to break the rules. Like running around with the handsome, charming, and very much off-limits heir to the British throne, Prince Eddy.
Then there’s May of Teck. After spending her entire life on the fringes of the royal world, May is determined to marry a prince—and not just any prince, but the future king.
In a story that sweeps from the glittering ballrooms of Saint Petersburg to the wilds of Scotland, A Queen’s Game recounts a pivotal moment in real history through the eyes of the young women whose lives, and loves, changed it forever. —Synopsis provided by Random House Books for Young Readers
Fans know author Katharine McGee from her American Royals series. This time around she tackles the British aristocracy, but pulls her ensemble from real life.
Told from the points of view of Alix of Hesse, Hélène d’Orléans and May of Teck, A Queen’s Game is a fictionalized look at three of the most prominent women of their time — Alix (later known as Alexandra Feodorovna, the last Empress of Russia as the consort of Tsar Nicholas II); Hélène (a member of the deposed Orléans royal family of France and, by marriage to the head of a cadet branch of the Italian royal family, the Duchess of Aosta); and May (aka Mary of Teck was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India from 1910 to 1936).
There are a lot of moving parts in A Queen’s Game, and it’s because McGee explores it from these different viewpoints that it all makes sense. In fact, it adds to the intrigue. McGee’s writing is strong and assured, and she does a fine job of maintaining each separate voice, but bringing their stories together as a whole.
A Queen’s Game is sure to be the first book in what looks like an entertaining series.
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