Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

La regina Carlotta by Julia Quinn

15 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I loved the Bridgerton series and loved the Queen Charlotte mini-series and when I saw this was becoming a book, I wanted more of it and hoping it was different. It was a good book, but it is a tie in from the series, which was slightly disappointing.  

This book is based on Queen Charlotte, and in 1761 on a sunny day in September, the King and Queen meet for the very first time and they were married within hours. Queen Charlotte was born a German Princess. She is beautiful, headstrong and fiercely intelligent, not precisely the attributes the British Court had been seeking in a spouse for the young King George the Third. But her fire and independence were exactly what she needed, because George had secrets . . . secrets with the potential to shake the very foundations of the monarchy. Charlotte is now thrust into her new role as a royal and she must learn to navigate the intricate politics of the court, all the while guarding her heart because she is falling in love with the King even as he pushes her away. Above all she must learn to rule, and to understand that she has been given the power to remake society. She must fight – for herself, for her husband, and all her new subjects who looks to her for guidance and grace. For she will never be just Charlotte again. She must indeed fulfil her destiny as Queen. 

My favourite things about this book were Julia Quinn’s writing style. It didn’t feel like I was back in time. I mean, obviously they weren’t going on about Snapchat, but it just felt like a modern-day story with a bit of mystery. The only thing that kept me from remembering that it was set in the 1750s was the references of letters and carriages and that they couldn’t text each other to say what was going on without people finding out what is happening and the fact that they were so rich they could just summon people to go to their other houses whenever. I loved Charlotte and George’s relationship and how it grows like friends to enemies to lovers. I loved Charlotte’s gross and how she went from this timid girl to a Queen who stands up for her people and isn’t afraid of anything. I loved the multiple POVs and how they all knew what was going on, but they didn’t want to say anything to each other, so they were just struggling in silence. 

I would have loved for Reynolds to have a point of view and to see where he was gone because we never found out in the show or the book. Where has he gone? Is he dead? How did he die? I have so many questions and I don’t like not having the answers. This book was just a repeat of the TV show with no new information, so I did find myself skimming the information on some of the characters when it felt like more of a script than a book. I am aware this book came out after the show, but I would have liked some more titbits that wasn’t in the show.  

I would love another book in the Bridgerton universe like from Violet’s point of how she met Edmund or Agatha finding the duke and raising him herself.  

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mirandasagerhode's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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jgruman's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny lighthearted sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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aishallnot's review against another edition

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challenging emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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abby_can_read's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

📖
This is probably my favorite book in the series. I had a good time reading it.

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial 

This is basically the tv show/limited series but you get to read the inner thoughts/context behind certain moments, such as George’s experience running into the gardens naked late at night and Charlotte claiming she was Venus. We get the third-person, past-tense POVs of Brimsley, Agatha, Charlotte, and George. 

It was a tender and bittersweet read, and I teared up while reading because I could vividly remember the scenes from Netflix lol. I definitely winced each time characters were discussing George’s mental health because he is called “broken” and “a mad man” multiple times. He never receives a specific diagnosis and everyone talks around it, but it was frustrating to hear mental health discussed as such a horrible, disdainful, shameful thing. I recognize that is representative “of the times” but it still felt uncomfortable reading the ableism and prejudice they all possessed. 

Overall, this was a quick and easy historical romance to read, mostly because I was envisioning the tv series the entire time. I highly recommend the audiobook as the narration was excellent! 

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mari1532's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I was lucky enough to get to listen to this audiobook from my library. I have yet to watch Queen Charlotte (I know), but decided to read the book anyway. I found this to be a nice cozy read. Quinn and Rhimes do an excellent job of shifting the narrative between characters without getting too weighed down in any one perspective. Brimsley and Lady Danbury were my favourite characters because they had the most intrigue throughout the story. However, I found Charlotte the most endearing and likable character and when she was not the central focus I often found myself wondering when she would come back because I felt her personal development was beautifully written. If you are a fan of the Netflix series or the Bridgerton universe I would recommend this read.  

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I've read all of the Bridgerton books and I do think I liked this better? Maybe? It has more going on than the typical Bridgerton story and I liked that we got perspective chapters from characters outside of the romantic couple, it made the scope of the story bigger and allowed the reader to see the stakes more clearly. I did find the story a bit repetitive and frustrating though.
One of the main plots is that the king "is mad" and has these "episodes" and he hires this super evil sadistic doctor (who literally tortures puppies) and the king repeatedly dismisses and then re-hires this doctor. If something goes well, he dismisses him, at the slightest conflict, he's back to the clearly horrible doctor to get tortured. Apart from that, there are two occasions of either the king or queen overhearing and misinterpreting something the other one said in conversation to the king's mother and then that causing a big conflict that they could have resolved by just telling the other person they overheard and asking what they meant. And they don't EVER talk about it! The queen eventually just gets over what she heard (even though it was taken out of context) and the king never finds out if the queen meant what she said either, she just eventually goes and rescues him from the doctor and he never brings up what he overheard.
I think the Lady Danbury chapters were my favorite, they had a good balance of humor and gravity. I liked the chapters from the perspective of the attendants for the King and Queen
and their little romance
I wish there had been more for them, though. I listened to this on audiobook and I thought the narration was good, but I did speed it up (1.25 I think). I have not watched the corresponding Netflix show yet, I wanted to read the novelization first, but I will say that the intros to the chapters that were like "[Character name][place][time]" reminded me of the headings of scenes in a script.

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