Prisoners in the Palace
Author: Michaela MacColl
Series: ---
Publisher: Chronicle Books
How Received: ARC from author
London, 1838. Sixteen-year-old Liza's dreams of her society debut are dashed when her parents are killed in an accident. Penniless, she accepts the position of lady's maid to young Princess Victoria and steps unwittingly into the gossipy intrigue of the servant's world below-stairs as well as the trickery above. Is it possible that her changing circumstances may offer Liza the chance to determine her own fate, find true love, and secure the throne for her future queen?
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Prisoners in the Palace is a debut novel from Michaela MacColl that leaves me wanting more books by her.
It's a solid piece of fiction - a main character I liked, a situation that was interesting to read about, and as always, court (ish) dynamics that I loved.
Liza is a very strong main character - the past few books I've read, I've had to put up with a lot of characters that dissolved into tears every few pages for no or little reason. (Crusade, anybody?) But the few times Liza did mention crying were warranted - she was mourning her parents, after all. Besides that, she held her head high and did what she had to do, and I LOVED that.
Not only is there that, but she's fun to read about. I liked the diary entries, where we got to peak more into her head. Little character quirks also make me happy, so the fact that she loved learning new languages, even if it was just flash patter, made me happy.
I'm a big Queen Victoria fan, so the fact that she was portrayed as a self centered girl throughout most of the book annoyed me a little bit - but it did make more sense, as did the rest of the minor character portrayals, as the book moved on. Just like Liza developed, so did they, and MacColl gets mad props from me for that. Sometimes authors forget that the other characters need to develop, too.
And was their romance? Yes. Was it overwhelming and overshadowing the rest of the plot? No! It was there, and it was lovely, and I was rooting for it, but it didn't take away from the main plot of the book - it enhanced it, as romance should do.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 9/10. It takes a few chapters to get into it, and you may not like Victoria at first, but it's overall fantastically done.
Cover Comments: The title of the book is not on the cover. WTH?