We all think we know the Queen, right? We've seen her in her pastel outfits, on her long loved horses, with the family that she adores. But what about the other side of the Queen? When a guest at Windsor Castle turns up dead, it's up to good old Lizzy to nudge the police in the right direction, and get to the truth of what happened.
I loved the idea for this book, and was thrilled to be able to read an extract on Readers First. Those first few chapters were amazing - I loved the description of the setting, and the behind the scenes of Windsor Castle, I loved this imagination of the Queen, how she's sharp and funny, loyal and interested, and I was really looking forward to reading the rest of the novel.
There were some aspects of this book I really enjoyed all the way through, and that was mainly the characters. Most notable was the Queen herself, and I really think S.J. Bennett did a wonderful job of respecting the persona of the queen, while also giving her a joyous, mischieveous, quick witted and trustable (is that a word?) character.
Other characters I enjoyed reading were Rozie, formidable and fun, and Prince Philip, who I'm sure does have a cheeky side to him when he's around the Queen.
However, there were parts of this story that lacked for me. I felt the writing was either too heavily focused on the mystery element and not on the Queen, which for me was the selling point of this book, OR it was too focused on the Queen, and we lost any plot development or hook with the mystery. Unfortunately, the balance between these two wasn't great throughout the whole book, which was disappointing.
The mystery as a whole was lacking for me. I lost interest in it many times, because lost with connections and theories, and generally just wasn't feeling it.
So while I didn't love this book, it was a fun read and a really unique idea, and I just wish the outcome were more up my street. I have heard this will be a series with more stories about the Queen solving mysteries, but I don't think I'll be picking them up, sadly.
I loved the idea for this book, and was thrilled to be able to read an extract on Readers First. Those first few chapters were amazing - I loved the description of the setting, and the behind the scenes of Windsor Castle, I loved this imagination of the Queen, how she's sharp and funny, loyal and interested, and I was really looking forward to reading the rest of the novel.
There were some aspects of this book I really enjoyed all the way through, and that was mainly the characters. Most notable was the Queen herself, and I really think S.J. Bennett did a wonderful job of respecting the persona of the queen, while also giving her a joyous, mischieveous, quick witted and trustable (is that a word?) character.
Other characters I enjoyed reading were Rozie, formidable and fun, and Prince Philip, who I'm sure does have a cheeky side to him when he's around the Queen.
However, there were parts of this story that lacked for me. I felt the writing was either too heavily focused on the mystery element and not on the Queen, which for me was the selling point of this book, OR it was too focused on the Queen, and we lost any plot development or hook with the mystery. Unfortunately, the balance between these two wasn't great throughout the whole book, which was disappointing.
The mystery as a whole was lacking for me. I lost interest in it many times, because lost with connections and theories, and generally just wasn't feeling it.
So while I didn't love this book, it was a fun read and a really unique idea, and I just wish the outcome were more up my street. I have heard this will be a series with more stories about the Queen solving mysteries, but I don't think I'll be picking them up, sadly.