A Queen’s Game

Gr 9 Up–In this juicy triple romance, McGee builds off the true—and scandalous—entanglements of three princesses angling to marry, bed, or escape Prince Eddy, the grandson of Queen Victoria and the heir to the British Empire. Beautiful, shy, German-born Alix of Hesse has been selected by Queen Victoria as Eddy’s future wife; in secret, Alix tries to hide the panic attacks and depression which will surely end her marital prospects in a word that has embraced Darwinian approaches to breeding. When Alix meets Nicholas, the earnest and kind heir to the Russian Empire, she knows she cannot obey the call of duty. Alix’s cousin, the plain, impoverished May of Teck is a spinster (at 24) and desperate to marry so she can escape her parents’ chaotic household. She sets her sights on Eddy as the most financially and socially secure prospect—but starts to harbor feelings for Eddy’s younger, overlooked brother George. May’s plans go awry when Hélène d’Orleans—the daughter of the deposed French king—starts a rebellious, secret affair with the British prince, despite the impossibility of any marriage. This is certainly a dramatic story worth telling—and reading. The novel has occasional, small blunders: no English child would think Napoleon had a moustache; McGee’s Alix is a bit too aware of social inequality in Russia. However, these are mere quibbles, and readers will desperately hope for a sequel.