A Most English Princess is a wonderfully written and incredibly in-depth imagining of the life of Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It is very much in the vein of the BBC/PBS show Victoria in that it follows Vicky through important events in her life and in the world around her and does so in a very humanizing way. We get to see these events through her eyes. There is so much written about Queen Victoria that is refreshing to explore the life of someone else around her. We follow Vicky but by virtue of her relationship with her parents we get a unique view of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as well. This book feels incredibly well researched and I imagine the massive quantity of surviving letters between Vicky and her mother were invaluable in this regard. In fact, these letters themselves serve as the frame narrative to the story. I highly recommend this to fans of Victorian historical fiction especially, but also to anyone who just enjoys well researched and immersive historical fiction, no matter the era.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A perfect read for Downton Abbey/The Crown fans, this book struck a difficult balance between difficult English/German 19th century history and fascinating royal characters. Vicky, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, weds Franz, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and inherits a whole host of difficult European problems with anti-British sentiments that eventually plants the seeds for animosity during World War I. Vicky was a courageous heroine to read about; I immediately needed to Wikipedia her, Franz, and their firstborn son (the infamous Kaiser Wilhelm of WWI fame). Good stuff for fiction British royalty fans fresh off their latest "The Crown" viewings.

This was the story of the daughter of Queen Victoria - Vicky. I enjoyed the story, but thought it was a bit hard to follow at times, maybe too many details. I loved how they gave us insight into the world back then, and the possible thoughts of a princess. There were a few "rated R" parts of the story - so not for students. I was rooting for Vicky throughout the book, so the author did a great job in getting me invested in the character.