REVIEW for Prisoners of the Palace

I was thrilled to be asked to review this book by the Chronicle Gold Reviewer Panel!

TITLE:                 Prisoners of the Palace

AUTHOR:           Michaela MacColl

GENRE:              Historical YA Fiction

RATING:            4 Stars

As a rule, I am not a fan of historical novels and at first glance, I thought this book was basically going to be retelling of Queen Victoria's life - before she became the queen.


I was extremely surprised and pleased to see that this book - aimed at a YA audience is actually a very clever novel telling an interesting "what if" story, all the while giving us a very subtle history lesson on the years before Queen Victoria was "Queen". I use the word subtle because the storyline is so entertaining that I never really sat back and thought "this is actually more about history than it is about the characters and the plotline".

The author is wonderful at intermingling a combination of plot, character, history, romance, suspense which, in turn, gives us a YA novel (which by the way is perfect for adult also) that is incredibly entertaning and an absolute page turner.

I also have to point out that the author is a great, great writer. The prose is perfect and so is the tone and the pace - we don't get bogged down with useless detail and the author manages to get the point across without having to resort to "tactics" that seem to be a little too common lately.

I loved the character of Liza who thinks she is going to live a life of luxury and comfort - only to discover that "fate" has other ideas. This character meshes perfectly with the Victoria character who has her own set of issues and this sets off a perfectly defined and writen plotline.

I won't give too much away as reading the plot unfold is one of the joys of this novel.

Suffice it to say that you have to read this one - its a must.