I ended up being gifted the audiobook of this Victoria biography, so I ear read rather than eye-read. This is a thorough deep dive of an iconic monarch. The writing is engaging, and I look forward to reading more of Baird's writing.

Victoria: The Queen is a memoir by author Julia Baird.

Queen Victoria was a mere 18 years old when she became queen on June 20, 1837. She was a lady who loved her husband and loved opera. I wanted to read this biography because I wanted to learn about this Queen.

This book was well researched, with lots and lots of notes at the end. It brought out issues that affected the queen from childhood until her death (January 22, 1901). However, it is a very, very long book and at times my mind would drift. A few times I just listened to the audio on my Kindle.

I would recommend it to readers interested in learning more about Queen Victoria and the issues brought forth in her lifetime.

Disclaimer: I receive complimentary books from various sources, including, publishers, publicists, authors, and/or NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review and have not received any compensation. The opinions shared here are my own entirely. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

The Victorian Age was so important to England and Europe, and of course it all starts with Queen Victoria herself.   I learned a great deal about her from this book.

This is a top-rate biography of Victoria.  I learned a lot from reading it and was fascinated by the life of the queen.  Even though it is long, this book is thorough and is an excellent reference.

I loved it! It was such a beautifully, detailed biography. There were times I forgot I was reading a non-fiction book. The language read like a novel but provided a useful learning experience. I learned so much about Queen Victoria after reading this. No wonder her reign was so memorable. Her longevity and endurance is such an inspiration and unlike any I have ever read about. Truly the best Queen Victoria biography I have read to date.

Very good. Enjoyed reading all about a well known figure in a different light. In some places the chapters were a little bit too long. Recommend

I loved this book.  The attention to detail was phenomenal. This book details the entire life of one of Great Britain's monarchs. Victoria may have been a small woman, but she packed quite a punch.  She was willful, and stubborn. Her relationship with Prince Albert is the stuff of legends. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys British history.

Quite an encompassing read. There's so much about her that I didn't know. Marvelous job.

An excellent biography of a woman I thought I knew but ended up learning so much about. Victoria is in many ways an enigma. A far more interesting monarch than I'd originally thought.

Sometimes you just need a little historical royalty to float your boat and this detailed insight into England's Queen Victoria and her reign from beginning to end, did just that! 

"When Alexandrina Victoria was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 20 June 1837, she was 18 years old and barely five feet tall... " "She was a tiny, powerful woman who reigned for an astonishing 64 years. By the time of her Diamond Jubilee Procession in 1897, she reigned over a fourth of the inhabitable part of the world, had 400 million subjects, and had given birth to nine children."

A surprisingly bold portrait of this regal figure, told with such depth allows a fascinating glance at her life both before and during her reign. Destined to face controversy and prejudice right from the day of her birth, this biography shines an honest light on how Queen Victoria fought her way through the many layers of imprisonment of her own gender and how she shocked and awed not only a nation but the world and continues to do so today.

I highly recommend this read for any fans of history or the royals or even someone seeking a little motivation for never taking the easy road and fighting for what you believe in.

What an incredible read! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing. This is now one of my all time favs! A must read for anyone who LOVES the British royalty! She was a truly strong woman! I think I'll have to read this story again. She was just so good! We need leaders like her today in this world!!

Before hand, I always had an interest in Queen Victoria and have watched several documentaries on her and her reign. This book answered questions I always had left inside of me when I was watching these documentaries. This biography is well written and one I recommend to all history buffs.

Seemed to include to many details that did not add to the story theme. It was more information that I was after and parts were repeated. I thought this book could have been more thoroughly edited and found myself frustrated with following the progression of events...too much going back and forth in time.

Such a detailed and fascinating history on one of the United Kingdom's most famous monarchs. I have read several books on Victoria and this one was quite detailed. It did give a lot of information that I had not previously read. Overall I think this is a great look at a woman who lent her name to a whole era.

This biography explores the two sides of an extraordinary woman—the public side, involved in politics and negotiating the tensions of monarch as real power, and the private side of wife, mother, and widow.

When Victoria came to the throne in 1837, the monarchy was a very different thing than when she died in 1901, and Julia Baird successfully negotiates the pressures Victoria dealt with over her long life, particularly the succession of prime ministers, not all of whom were comfortable dealing with this powerful woman.

It is the tension of being a women in power in a time that did not see women as having a role outside the home, and the demands of her personal life as mother to nine children that make this book so interesting. Julia Baird moves effortlessly between the private woman and the public monarch.

The book balances the demands of a monarch with the demands of a wife, mother, and widow, with a deftness that makes this book so readable.

Amazing!  Filled with historical information gleaned from archives, yet written in a delightful manner.  You will be filled with tidbits that make Victoria, the Queen come to life.  Enjoy!  NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Random House provided an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Exhaustive biography of Queen Victoria, with use of less familiar archives to supplement the meager official material heavily edited by the Queen's daughter. Well written, exhaustively researched, meticulously footnoted--the best review one researcher can give another.

This book is well researched on Victoria not only as a queen, but also as a mother, a wife, besides being very good at calculating the politics of her time.  The author focuses on Queen Victoria's family life including love and sex.  She also watched what happened with the Crimean War., uprisings, Ireland's famine and several social pressures.  It appears at times that she was a feminist but of course that didn't exist in her time.  She however wanted to be seen as more than a wife but as a queen of power and influence.  It is an excellent biography.  I feel as if I got to know Queen Victoria as a woman and as a queen.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. This is one of the best books I've read in 2017. It was an amazing read. Although it's non-fiction, it completely read like a novel. I could hardly put it down. I ended up reading Daisy Goodwin's *Victoria* at the same time which made it even more enjoyable. This biography was so good, I would definitely read more from this author.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

This book of is a well-researched biography of Queen Victoria, who lived from 1819 to 1901 and ruled Britain from the age of 18.  Julia Baird was allowed access to documents not released in the past, so she is able to shed additional insight to a queen who is already so well-known.

Victoria seemed to be a woman of many dichotomies.  She hated being pregnant and feared childbirth, yet she bore 9 children.  She loved her husband, Albert, passionately and believed everything he told her, but he used that power to make her feel unworthy.  She did not feel women deserved the right to vote, yet she was the most powerful woman in the world.  After Albert died, she yearned to join him in death, yet she clung to life to the end.  In many situations, she talked of how weak she was, yet showed her strength in her actions.

I did not know much about Victoria prior to reading this book, but I learned a lot from it.  It was a fascinating look into one of England’s longest-reigning monarchs.