Friday, April 6

Audiobook Review: Victoria by Daisy Goodwin

Author: Daisy Goodwin
Narrator: Anna Wilson-Jones
Title: Victoria
Genre: Historical Fiction & Romance
Pages: Audiobook
Published: November 22nd 2016 
Where I Got It: My shelf (Audible)

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….



Another audiobook done! It helps that I have a long commute to work and the radio gets boring. 

I adore Victoria so this was a no-brainer for me. I wanted to read the book, but I enjoyed the last audiobook by the author that I thought it was fun. The narrator was different, but she sounded a lot like the other one so I enjoyed it. 

But yes, the story follows Victoria in the early years of her reign. 18 and young and inexperienced. Oufff. Lots of mistakes, but you can’t really blame her. Her mom and mom’s controller, John, were useless. Yes, they wanted to help, but they could’ve helped with her education and socialization. Lord M tried, but he is a politician and wants what he thinks is best. Not the best person to look towards for bias. He does get better. 

Ugh! I wanted more Albert and less Lord M. Sure, Lord M was entertaining and I felt bad for him/her, but I want more Albert. I really feel that all the Lord M scenes and moments took away from the fact that Albert was the great love of Vicky’s life. If someone who was not familiar with this fact would’ve assumed that Albert was a replacement and a back-up. MORE ALBERT!!!! TEAM ALBERT! 

The show is based off the book and from what I remember the show did a good job following the book. Some differences, but overall pretty close.

Young Victoria is always so interesting. We all know the strong woman she becomes in her older years, so it is fun to see her young and in love. 

I have a love-hate relationship with the jumping POVs. I found it interesting, but I honestly just wish that we could focus on Victoria. The narrator did a good job distinguishing who was talking when, but I feel like there were a lot of jumps mid-chapter. 

Overall, I enjoyed the narration and I enjoyed the story. The jumping POVs were tiring, but I enjoyed the story. I feel like the author was more in love with Lord M than lovely Albert. I want to read more by the author! I’ll give this 3. Nearly a 4.








5 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

I sure felt the same with the show, more ALbert!

vvb32 reads said...

I'll keep this in mind as Victoria is a person to read up on after my Elizabeth II focus.

Carole Rae said...

B, yeesss Albert is the best.

vvb32, a very good one when you want to check out young Vicky's early part of her reign.

Anachronist said...

Albert was a bore ;p

Carole Rae said...

egags! Boring but the best