So you get 2/3rds of the way through the book to find out what the secret is that the Queen Mum hasn’t told her husband, Bertie (King George VI) and every chapter but the last of her asking herself if she will reveal the secret about the time his brother (former King Edward VIII) attacked her. Turns out at the end, in the last chapter, the Queen Mum didn’t have to give over her secret....just annoy us with the same tedious question over and over! ( )

I read the book with an open mind, but kept wondering how much of any of this is true. Of course, the author would have to make up conversations no one is to know, and the obvious facts of the war are true, but what about the other details? What is "The Queen's Secret" when she had so many. I mostly enjoyed the scenes that had her daughters in it. ( )

This was actually a really good book. I didn’t know much about the Queen’s mother so I feel like the author did a good job of portraying her. The book gave a good glimpse into the Royal Family during WWII. There were surprises throughout the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend this book! ( )

Pure fiction! But if a fictional account of the life and times of Elizabeth Bowes Lyons, her husband King George VI and their daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret is what you are after, it will give the reader a perspective of the life and times of King George VI's reign, but not a factual account. ( )

Absolute drivel. This book caught my attention because it was described as "If you like The Crown" but apparently those are just random words and, silly me, I got the impression that the writer had something to do with the TV series.

After the first 30 pages I was forcing myself to read on in hopes that it would get better, after 160 pages my husband said "some books just don't deserve to be read". Good advice.

The book starts with the Queen Mother at 100 years old, reflecting back on 1939, but then tells the story from the perspective of the Queen in 1939 as if the author completely forgot her intentions. The story is heavy with dialogue and so there is almost no description of surroundings or people save for some forced and unnatural insertions into conversation. The dialogue itself is a terrible attempt by an American author trying to imitate British speaking and failing badly.

By biggest peeve was amateur level of research and writing done by the author. As I was reading, I could imagine that the author had pages of notes about the royal family or 1939 Britain and was crossing her notes off as she inserted them into the dialogue and then kept recycling the notes. So the Queen sees the poster "Keep Calm and Carry On" on the streets of London and then repeatedly mentions her favourite poster (nevermind that the poster was never used and any amount of real research would have informed the author). Or at some point the author heard mention that the King liked sugar in his tea so she works that into the dialogue for no apparent reason.

I stopped reading at 160 pages but up to that point I saw no character development. Everyone around the Queen was just a name from history that she could spill dialogue over. The Queen herself was rather 2 dimensional and the few traits she was given were hammered into the reader over and over. For example, every 3 pages there was a reminder that the Queen had some extra pounds and would eat sweets "even though I knew I shouldn't". This book easily could have been whittled down to a short story. ( )