This book was darling! Just absolutely fantastic! I adored every page of this. I loved the characters and their sweet love story.

5/5 ⭐️

I loved how the author pulled real life history into the story and then made it her own by adding some twists. This story was heartbreaking in ways but also happy and adorable. I liked it as an adult but I would have loved it when I was younger!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to review this book early.

Just like all of Katharine McGee’s other books, this book is a masterpiece and truly immersive. Although it is historical fiction, it evades the all too present problem of “spoilers” already being known, by being somewhat obscure history, in the sense that while reading it, it is unclear what will happen because even if you know the story of the Russian revolution, you do not necessarily know that Alix was Nicholas’s wife. Altogether written amazingly!

This is my first time reading a Katharine Mcgee book so I will admit I haven't read the first book. However, I am very familiar with all of the royal family histories of this novel so I supposed I am forgiven. I will admit that when I first started reading this novel it gave off a "Mean Girls" film vibe but the characters here were alot more mature than the mentioned film. Overall I was very impressed with this novel because it shows a younger side to the young royals who would have a part in WWI.
We have Princess Hélène of Orléans and Mary of Teck who are fighting over Prince Eddy but Mary however, seems to have developed a crush on the younger brother George. We have Alix of Hesse who is pining over Tsarvitch Nicholas while Grandmother Queen Victoria encourages her to look elsewhere. Will these young royals find a way to bring piece into their hearts?
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own.

This is so much better than I feel it has a right to be. That's petty of me, but I cannot lie: I truly wanted this to be a hate read. Read the first one first, no exceptions.

I so enjoyed this sequel to Queens' Game. I loved the different points of view. My only struggle was that May's actions felt really similar to the antagonist in the Royals series by the same author. However I really loved pausing this book to look up all the real historical figures. The first book--and this one-- are so so fun.