As we are a month into the spring, we are quickly coming into a succession of long weekends (and maybe vacation if you are in luck). And as you might guess, that means even more reading time for me! Historical fiction is always a go-to genre for me, and for many of you, too. For this week’s Book Bite, we have a brand new royal-ish historical fiction book: The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood. If you have a long weekend on the horizon, save this book for then!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Royal Librarian, Daisy Wood
A royal palace. A closed book. A betrayal that will echo through generations…
Windsor, 1940: Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must sacrifice everything she knows to save the future queen of England…
Philadelphia, Present day: Looking through her grandmother’s papers, Lacey Jones comes across a mysterious letter stamped with the Windsor Castle crest. But how did it come to be in her family’s possession?
And so begins a journey that will take Lacey deep into the heart of the oldest inhabited castle in the world, and change her life forever. . .
Why You Should Read This…
I am not a fan of dual timelines, and that is totally on me for not fully reading the blurb, but I do know that many of my readers love dual timeline stories. I thought that earlier timeline in the 1930s/1940s was strong and made a great novel on its own- it was so well written and I was always caught up in the Windsor story.
Wood built the story well, and seeing Sophie in pre-War Vienna as the Nazis gained power was a striking start to the novel. (Some parts were difficult to read, but the past is not always easy to reconcile with.) I would have loved to see more of the Windsor 1940s timeline fleshed out instead of the modern piece, as there were some fascinating characters. However, I think that the spy theme was built up well without being over-the-top- I find that a lot of WWII novels with spy-related plots often turn into a black-and-white movie where everything is done to the extreme. We did not lose Sophie’s overall story for her work as a spy, and that made it a great read.
This is a great choice for anyone interested in historical fiction related to the royal family or the Second World War!
♠
Want more royal historical fiction? Check my full list here: https://anhistorianabouttown.com/royal-historical-fiction/!
Is The Royal Librarian on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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