Reviews

Queen Charlotte by Shonda Rhimes, Julia Quinn

Only show reviews with written explanations

suchonalways__'s review against another edition

2.0

I watched the series few nights ago. The show was soulful, heart wrenching, beautifully executed with wonderful acting performances by the cast members. The minor characters shine bright and the story is just so perfect.

So then after I was done sobbing, I went ahead and was scrolling all the show content and realized they decided to turn the story into a book. I read the book the following night.

As much as I loved the show, I can't say that about the book. It lacked the soul and heart that was present in the show. I thought I would find more inner turmoil, the mental headspace of the characters. But the book simply felt like video to essay transcription.

In the show, the stories are show in two timelines in parallel. That didn’t happen in the book. I am giving it 2 star. You can easily ignore this book.

mtstellens's review against another edition

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2.0

You can definitely tell that Quinn got some help in this one. This was much funnier than the other books which was nice, and I liked that there were things going on other than the romance. I think the thing that I disliked about it is everything they added about race, NOT FOR THE SAME REASONS THAT BEN SHAPERIO WOULD DISLIKE IT. I think that the way that the show has handled race up to this point was good, having it be color blind but incorporating some other cultures as well like with the second season. When you start to actually analyze race there are implications to that. It is already hard to root for the Queen of England already knowing the horrors of colonialism, but the implications of having an openly Black queen if a nation whose wealth is built on slavery and subjugation of people that look like her and have her not think about that at all is weird, it felt kind of jarring. I think that if the rest of the world was more fleshed out, the history of having non white people in the ton at all, having some sort of history would help us understand the context of this world and how it differs from actual history. Without that we assume that the history is the same as in our world. I also was confused by the premise of the book? I am unsure as to why the ton needed to be integrated in the first place? Why would they choose Charlotte when they were racist? They would definitely care much more about having an ‘impure bloodline’. Just wish that there was more internal consistency. Maybe I missed something, but overall it's hard to stop questioning and thinking about the actual history of England when you open the can.

ashiepooh521's review against another edition

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5.0

If you loved the Netflix series you are going to love the book even more. It touches what you see in the show aside from Lady Danbury's affair with Lady Bridgerton's father (Which I did not miss) but there are moments in between that are just magical. You get the perspective of Our Queen Charlotte, Her love King George, Her most trusts friend Lady Danbury , and Her most helpful man servant Brimsley.

The novel stayed within the time frame of when Charlotte and George became wed to the ball where they announced their son George VI. From there it jumps to Charlotte and George under the bed where she tells him that their line will continue. This part had me in tears. Much like the show did. Julia truly put her magic touch on it all. What we saw the doctor do to poor George is nothing compared to what we learn in the book since we get it straight from George's perspective. Which makes it that much heartbreaking since you now know what is going through his mind during it all. You can feel the love he has for Charlotte through the pages. Out of all the books I have read so far by Julia Quinn this one is by far my favorite. I hope we get more of Charlotte and George's story. You'll fall even more in love with them and their story while reading.