"where were you, when you learned the news? possibly like me, you were at home. 'Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II has died, aged 96.' and how did you feel, when you learned the news? this wasn't some theoretical notion from a textbook. this was THE Queen"

I picked this up through Netgalley, with thanks to Sweta Rana, Head of Zeus and Bloomsbury Publishing for gifting me this e-ARC

tania hasn't spoken to her mum in months. not since, well, since she got engaged. she thought that her mum loved her boyfriend, now fiance, so what happened? why did she react that way? so when she gets a call off her mum asking her to join the queue in london, against everything tania goes to join her mum rani. maybe along the way they'll find a way back into being a family again, reconnect and maybe find a community who otherwise they'd never know.

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

my thoughts: as someone who wasn't a royalist, but on the day of the announcement and days that followed i was glued to the tv, unwanting to move and unsure of what this means for the country and how she was our queen, the only queen a lot of people have only ever had. this book captures all of that. the adoration people had for the queen, how she brought people together from all nationalities, from all backgrounds, and of all ages.

when the queue happened, i remember knowing that in the future id want a film or a book about the queue for the queen, about people falling in love during the twenty-four hour lines, about people seeing each other for the first time in a long time, however i did not expect one this soon! technically, it was seven months ago, but sometimes it feels like it was days ago, sometimes years. sometimes it feels like it never even happened. i guess that's because we've spent so long with our queen, that it doesn't feel right to now say king.

having a strained relationship with my mother myself, not because of my choices with my culture and heritage, but because of other reasons, i still found myself relating to the disconnect between rani and tania, especially with rani's story and journey with her husband and tania's father. it shows how grief if not expressed can sometimes cause you to fracture, and how hiding things and your past may mean that future you can't forgive yourself for the choices you made, even if they were the right ones.

the way that the book isn't truly about the queen, but about what she stood for. about the people. i found myself becoming attached to little owen, finding myself excited to find out what colin had planned for the golden jubilee bridges, agatha and gerry's mutual pining for each other when they've lost each other. it is a beautiful sense of community and everyone coming together to celebrate the life of the queen in their own way.

there isn't a strict plot. no heavy reading. but wow it is a beautiful book that completely helps to just solidify all the memories that i have surrounding this event of a lifetime. i loved it.

This book was beautiful to read, being set during such a recent event, one that we all remember and following the story of a mother and daughter, not only over 24 hours but over 60 years was very touching. The story had the perfect balance of current and past. Sometimes it is so easy to spend so much time in the past that the present in a book feels rushed and not properly developed but that wasn't the case with this book. Meeting such a wide variety of characters, even without a lot of in depth information of them, they were written so beautifully that you cared for them, you knew who they were, you grew to feel things for them as much as for the two main characters. Looking at this strainged mother/daughter relationship and learning a little at a time why that's the case, but also understanding each woman's point of view made it so easy to feel for each of them. Rani's story was heartbreaking, and the way in which the loss of her relationship with her own family led her to push herself and her daughter away from their culture so that her daughter would never feel the loss that she did and how that led to such disconnect between Rani and Tania, neither understanding the other, or opening up to the other, showing how relationships can become so fractured by holding things in, even if you think it's for the right reasons. Of course there's so much more to it than that as anyone who reads the book will discover. It was just a beautifully written story and I am so glad I read it.

What can I say about this amazing book? I certainly didn’t know what to expect when I saw the title but the reality of this book really is a rollercoaster and I was kept on the edge of my seat throughout.
The story centres in the estranged mother and daughter who join the queue to view the Queen lying in state. The queue is longer than they anticipate but in the 24hours duration they meet a wonderful cast of supporting characters in Agatha, Colin, Denzil Harold and the oh so wonderful Owen. The action veers between the queue and Rani’s past life that builds up to explain her reasons for being in the queue.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I laughed, I cheered and I shed more than 1 tear - some happy and some less so.
This book falls into that rare category: I couldn’t bear to put it down until it was finished but felt a real sense of loss when I finally finished it. I so wanted to follow each character home and find out what happened to them.
This may be the author’s first novel but I truly hope it won’t be get last.

When I first saw this, I was a little concerned about how respectful it would be. I'm a huge royal family fan, and like most, admired the late Queen, and I supposed I was worried that by using her death and funeral for entertainment would be insensitive. But it didn't feel like that. It's clear that Swéta has some love for the Royals, or at least the Queen, to be able to write with so much passion.

I do have some questions thought. From what I know about the publishing industry, the time between signing with a publisher and it coming out can be as long as 1-2 years. Now, the Queen died in September 2022, which, at time of writing this review, was 7 months ago. So, my question is this: did Swéta write this prior to the event and just got lucky that it matched? Did she write a similar story prior to the event and then make changes after the Queen died? Or did she write it in just a few months and it was fast tracked through to be timely?

Whilst it is a fiction book, it does bring back memories of that sad time. I didn't go to see her in state myself, but I followed it online, watched it on the news, and diligently sat in silence when her children and grandchildren stood vigil. It's hard to believe it's been 7 months. Sometimes it feels like it was years ago, and sometimes just yesterday. It was a very sad, but not unexpected, time in British history and I became even more of a royalist in those few weeks. There was this warmth and sense of community about it all. Where else in the world would strangers voluntarily queue for 24 hours to stand for 30 seconds in front of a coffin to say goodbye to someone they didn't know? It seemed jolly, even in the circumstances. And I think this book showed that within the first few chapters. This sense of strangers becoming friends.

I liked that the main protagonist has an Indian background with an Indian-born mother. The chapters alternate between the queue in London, and the protagonist's mother's childhood in India, and it was interesting to read about what the Queen meant to people who are often seen as "outsiders". Those who weren't necessarily born in the UK and therefore didn't necessarily see the royals as that important. It's proof that she wasn't just the Queen of the UK, but was admired around the world.

I liked that the in-between chapters that are set in the past are written backwards. So they start at around 60 years ago when the mother was a child, and then end just a short time before the queue. This gives more context to the present scenes and more understanding as to the characters' relationship and emotions.

It is a very easy book to read. I read it in a matter of hours. It flows well, has great description, and just rolls off the page.

What I will say, is don't go in expecting a really full-on action-packed story. Not much actually happens. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. I read this just after I'd finished an intense war story, and this gave me what I wanted: happiness, joyfulness, hopefulness, and togetherness. It's a gentle story about the people in the queue. It's more about conversation and memory and emotion than it is about action. It is the epitome of a feel-good book.

This was a very enjoyable read exploring family secrets, losses, hidden identities, multi-cultural issues, the kindness of strangers and a plethora of other issues impacting the lives of several people who spent a day queuing with random strangers to pay tribute to the Queen following her death.
It served to highlight how when we are taken away from our technology driven, busy lives and have time and less distractions different types of communication can be opened and relationships can be both developed and enhanced.
The key theme which was addressed in the latter part of the book was that of inter-racial marriage and I thought the author approached the topic with a great deal of sensitivity and compassion.
A very thought-provoking and enjoyable read.
I am grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

Great book focusing on a mother and daughter queuing to see the Queen when she died. They meet some interesting characters along the journey through London.
Going back and forth through their lives the ups downs and upsets which has brought them to where they are today .

What a unique book and concept. I was deeply affected my the queens passing as Zi know so many others were both young and old. I think this book will be a beautiful story on how her loss affected people from many different walks of life. Will be sharing a full review so. Very pleased to acquire this for our location.