The Queen's Secret: A Novel of England's World War II Queen

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Harper's descriptions of London during the Blitz (and other elements of the war) were tales twice told---we all know the basics and I depend on good historical fiction to bring those stories to life. To make me feel part of the scene, part of history. This never happened for me with this book and I struggled to complete it. I did, and the end was just as flat as the beginning and the middle. It is interesting to read the view from British perspective about the beginning of the war. When Poland was horribly bombed, it seemed as nothing was happening on the islands. And how royals from other countries fled to England for safety. And later how Londoners used Underground stations for shelter. I love to read about the “Royals”. Even the Royal families have secrets. I enjoyed reading this historical fiction novel about the Queen Mother to ElizabethII, and wife of King GeorgeVI. That's about as much as I can dredge up in ways of something positive. If you did not enjoy the characters of the first book, I can assure you that they do not get any better. Cal and Shadow spend the entirety of the book pining after each other to no avail. I think they have one conversation. When they are not thinking about each other, they are literally just not thinking. Seriously. Their internal monologue can be reduced down to "Ooh, I wonder if I can see Cal/Shadow, and ooh, I wonder if I can get Cal/Shadow to be jealous, and ooh, I wonder if I can just get Cal/Shadow alone for a moment." I don't know if the voice that Ms. Harper imagined for the Queen would have felt "right" to someone who knew the current Queen's mother, but it felt flat to me and, despite her strength and commitment to the Country, I was bored with this book from beginning to end. I wanted to love her. I wanted to be drawn in to her life and her story, but I was simply not interested.

That said, it was an interesting take on the life of the queen and was not at all what I had been expecting. So the "big secret" revealed in chapter 1 is that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the offspring of her father and the family's French cook. Here are the real life facts presented as proof this ridiculous theory: 1) Her middle name is Marguerite, the name of the supposed cook. (I mean is it possible they just liked this name?) 2) The family referred to her and her younger brother as "the Benjamins." According to the story (and I discovered that this came directly from the ridiculous The Queen Mother book, solidifying my belief that Karen Harper did absolutely no research) biblical Benjamin was the son of Israel and his wife Rachel's handmaid. Ha, so there's the alleged proof that Elizabeth and David were the product of a similar union. But a very very simple glimpse inside the Bible would show that Benjamin was actually the son of Israel and Rachel. His wife. I don't know the real reason they were called "the Benjamins" but I'd practically guarantee they were called "the Benjamins" because they were a good bit younger than the rest of their siblings, because that's the actual truth of Benjamin in the Bible. A smidge of Biblical knowledge blows the whole theory out the water.This book is about Queen Elizabeth, wife to King George VI, mother to Queen Elizabeth II, during the years of WWII. During the war years, she was a support to the king, a vital part of keeping the British peoples spirits up, a hostess to Americans critically needed as allies, and she harbored a secret that could bring her world crashing down around her ears.

As the wife of the King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth—“the queen mother”—shows a warm, smiling face to the world. But it’s no surprise that Hitler himself calls her the “Most Dangerous Woman in Europe.” For behind that soft voice and kindly demeanor is a will of steel. So, despite the oversaturation of world war II novels, which I’ve been avoiding for a long while now, I decided to give this book a try. Lilac is the princess of Renovia by birth, and the queen of Stavin from her marriage to King Hansen. But her heart belongs to Cal, an assassin sworn to protect the queen. For awhile Hansen and Lilac have an arrangement, they are married in name only, and each has lovers in secret. But when a series of strange events begin occurring in the kingdom of Stavin, Hansen decides it is time for them to stand together as a unit, and produce an heir to unite their kingdoms. But strange things continue to occur, and Lilac and Cal race to figure out who is behind them before it is too late. What did I just read? I thought the first book was okay.But this book was really bad.The story dragged till the end and the ending was so underwhelming.First book had a plot and character development even though it was slow.But this book ruined it. Shadow/Lilac had a purpose in the first book. But here she has nothing, literally NOTHING to do other than worry about producing an heir while pining for Cal. I thought Cal and Lilac were good in the first book but here both were so annoying being jealous and arguing all the time.Whatever danger/mystery they had was solved just like that in the last moments with lazy writing.And when we talk about lazy writing how can we not mention Hansen.What was he doing in the whole book? And Hansen and Rhema? Seriously? Was it REALLY necessary for them to end up like that without any development?P.S. Highly recommend a parallel story about Winston Churchill’s wife – Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict. There are many facts in this book that are hard to believe, but this is historical fiction. Who knows for sure what is really true. Hitler declares her of being “the most dangerous woman in Europe, making allies, rallying others to England’s cause.”

There's just something about Cal that makes me ooh and aah. I love the guy so much and I was so happy with everything that went down. Well, not the scares and stuff that revolved around him or Lilac. That was not fun to digest but I could see why it happened and how things were going to go down after that. In a past life, I was a history teacher so not surprisingly I love historical fiction. That is why I requested an ARC of The Queen's Secret, though I had never heard of nor read Karen Harper. Unfortunately, I won't be reading her other novels. Most of this book takes place during World WarII. Hitler called Elizabeth “the most dangerous woman in Europe. Elizabeth becomes the Kings advisor and is present at the meeting with Winston Churchill. On top of all of these stupid secrets the fact that there were 5 million references to her weight, she's not slim, I look every kilo in this, I just love my sweets, the portrait didn't show my roundness..... Like I said earlier it made for an incredibly unflattering portrayal of the Queen Mother.This book piqued my curiosity because it was about the Queen Mother, a member of the royal family I don’t know much about. The details of Queens Elizabeth’s place of birth are rather vague; she was born on the 4th of August 1900 and was her family keeping a secret of exactly where she born and why? Or was it because at the time many children were born at home and paperwork wasn’t as through as it is today and nothing was covered up at all?

I came to this book with high hopes, but I was disappointed in the outcome. There are far more interesting books about the queen whom Hitler said was “the most dangerous woman in Europe”. It read more like a day journal of the Queen’s activities and appointments, than an intimate look into the life of monarch. Elizabeth is appointed commandant-in-chief of the women’s services. Now, just the beginning of the war, the exhaustion is already touching her from all the public visits, inspecting preparedness for war.The book is fully narrated by Elizabeth so that the reader is privy to her private fears, her thoughts about the war, and how heavily her secrets weighed upon her as she lived in constant fear of having them exposed. Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat. Also the concluding message of the story with this secret and others is...keep secrets from your husband. So that was disappointing on top of a million disappointments. Despite being called the most dangerous woman in Europe, she has a soft side. She is a caring mother to her children and a caring queen to her people in trying times when good word or warm smile can mean so much. She has her weaknesses and struggles as well. She feels miserable as a wife, at least at times, and its cause is rooted in the past event. – This cause gets repeated quite a lot, especially in the second part of the book. It could be curbed a bit. Her books for adults include the novel Cat’s Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less and The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas.