Queen of Bedlam by Laura Purcell - Blog Tour and Book Review #QueenofBedlamTour

I received a free e-copy for my honest review.

About the Book:

Publication Date: June 10, 2014
Myrmidon Books Ltd
Paperback; 432p
ISBN-10: 1910183016

London, 1788. The calm order of Queen Charlotte’s court is shattered by screams. Her beloved husband, England’s King, has gone mad.

Left alone with thirteen children and a country at war, Charlotte must fight to hold her husband’s throne in a time of revolutionary fever. But it is not just the guillotine that Charlotte fears: it is the King himself.

Her six daughters are desperate to escape their palace asylum. Their only chance lies in a good marriage, but no Prince wants the daughter of a madman. They are forced to take love wherever they can find it – with devastating consequences.

The moving true story of George III’s madness and the women whose lives it destroyed.

About the Author:

Laura Purcell lives in Colchester, the oldest recorded town in England. She met her husband working in Waterstones bookshop and they share their home with several pet guinea pigs.

Laura is a member of the Historical Novel Society, The Society for Court Studies and Historic Royal Palaces. She has recently appeared on the PBS documentary The Secrets of Henry VIII’s Palace, talking about Queen Caroline’s life at Hampton Court.

Laura’s novels explore the lives of royal women during the Georgian era, who have largely been ignored by modern history. Her debut Queen Charlotte was originally self-published as God Save the King, receiving excellent reviews as an Amazon bestseller in biographical fiction.

You can find out more about Laura and read her history blog at www.laurapurcell.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

My Opinion:

I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of King George and Queen Charlotte is minimal. I knew George was the King during the American Revolution and I knew he went mad leading to The Regency but much beyond that and we start hitting a period in history that I just have not really studied. Or to be honest have had much interest in until lately. I find myself now wanting to know more about these later periods in history after having spent so much of my reading time so far in the past.

This book is really Charlotte’s story – George’s poor Queen. She was left with a husband who went off the deep end, a son who was an ungrateful wretch (the Prince of Wales, the Regent) and a boatload of other children now suffering with the taint of their father’s madness. Even though the girls are princesses what royal house would want to marry them knowing that they might carry that same madness in their genes?

I so wanted to love this novel – Ms. Purcell’s storytelling is very engaging. Where I had problems was in how it was all put together. The chapters seemed disjoint and were bouncing in time and place with little explanation. Now I did have a preview copy so perhaps there are headers of some type in the finished books to help with this but it was very confusing for me. It also switches between Charlotte and the Princess Royal as narrator and I sometimes had to sort who was running the chapter. The breaks were quite abrupt at times.

I did, though once immersed in a chapter find the reading interesting. I just wish it hadn’t been so disjoint.

Rating:
3

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Queen of Bedlam by Laura Purcell – Blog Tour and Book Review #QueenofBedlamTour

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