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• The Queen's Secret: A Novel of England'...

The Queen's Secret: A Novel of England's World War II Queen

• About the Book

If you love Jennifer Robson or "The Crown," you will love New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper’s novel about Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

1939. The wife of King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth—“the queen mother” --- shows a warm, smiling face to the world. But it’s no surprise that Hitler himself calls her the “Most Dangerous Woman in Europe.” For behind that soft voice and kindly demeanor is a will of steel.

Two years earlier, George was thrust onto the throne when his brother Edward abdicated, determined to marry his divorced, American mistress Mrs. Simpson. Vowing to do whatever it takes to make her husband’s reign a success, Elizabeth endears herself to the British people, and prevents the former king and his brazen bride from ever again setting foot in Buckingham Palace.

Elizabeth holds many powerful cards, she’s also hiding damaging secrets about her past and her provenance that could prove to be her undoing.

In this riveting novel of royal secrets and intrigue, Karen Harper lifts the veil on one of the world’s most fascinating families, and how its “secret weapon” of a matriarch maneuvered her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the century.

The Queen's Secret: A Novel of England's World War II Queen by Karen Harper

• Publication Date: May 19, 2020
• Genres: Fiction , Historical Fiction
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• ISBN-10: 0062885480
• ISBN-13: 9780062885487

Rosanne E. Lortz

Adventure. Mystery. Romance.

REVIEW of The Queen’s Secret: A Novel of England’s World War II Queen by Karen Harper

Mother to the current Queen Elizabeth II, the Elizabeth of this story married into the royal family when there was yet no thought of Bertie ascending to the throne. As the title indicates, Elizabeth had secrets in her life, secrets that she has never dared to share with her own husband, secrets that drive a wedge between a perfect intimacy in their affectionate marriage. The story is told inside Elizabeth’s head, and at first, her constant obsession with a past event, began to annoy me as a reader. As the book developed, however, I realized that this obsession was an integral part of her character and important to understanding what made her “tick.” I desperately wanted her to be able to reveal the stories of her past so that she could have closure. In the end, I think the author made an interesting choice about what revelations take place.

Karen Harper has woven a well-researched tale that fills in the cracks of what might have happened in the private lives of the royal family. The character she creates for Elizabeth is both indomitable and human, ready to risk everything for England and her family, but still tender to all the slings and arrows that come her way.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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My review of this book is scheduled to be posted on the 22nd. It was good, but not WOW for me.

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The Queen’s Secret: A Novel of England’s World War II Queen

$ 16.99

Adolf Hitler once called Queen Elizabeth (the current queen’s mother) “the most dangerous woman in Europe” for her effect on English morale. Karen Harper’s new novel shows that side of her, but also a softer side. Readers get to see the queen awkward around her husband, affectionate with her children, and vulnerable. It’s a touching portrayal that brings humanity to a woman who could easily be nothing more than coolly unflappable and queenly.

My enjoyment of the book was somewhat marred by the narration at times going too far in the opposite direction. Elizabeth’s bemoaning her weight as the result of too many “chocs” and “drinky poos” felt rather flippant, especially given the oncoming war. Unless something happened which immediately affected her or London, the war felt very far away, despite the book spanning the full length, from the Phoney War at the beginning to V-E Day. The titular secret at times felt overblown.

What you get out of The Queen’s Secret depends a great deal on what you look for in it. If you want a serious novel about the home front, you’ll be disappointed. If you want a breezier novel that humanizes an often unknown queen, you’ll enjoy it a great deal.

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The Queen’s Secret

Karen harper. morrow, $16.99 trade paper (384p) isbn 978-0-06-288548-7.

Reviewed on: 03/04/2020

Genre: Fiction

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The Queen's Secret: A Novel of England's World War II Queen Hardcover – Illustrated, May 19 2020

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If you love Jennifer Robson or The Crown you will love New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper’s novel about Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

1939. As the wife of the King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth—“the queen mother”—shows a warm, smiling face to the world. But it’s no surprise that Hitler himself calls her the “Most Dangerous Woman in Europe.” For behind that soft voice and kindly demeanor is a will of steel.

Two years earlier, George was thrust onto the throne when his brother Edward abdicated, determined to marry his divorced, American mistress Mrs. Simpson. Vowing to do whatever it takes to make her husband’s reign a success, Elizabeth endears herself to the British people, and prevents the former king and his brazen bride from ever again setting foot in Buckingham Palace.

Elizabeth holds many powerful cards, she’s also hiding damaging secrets about her past and her provenance that could prove to be her undoing.

In this riveting novel of royal secrets and intrigue, Karen Harper lifts the veil on one of the world’s most fascinating families, and how its “secret weapon” of a matriarch maneuvered her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the century.

• Print length 384 pages
• Language English
• Publisher William Morrow
• Publication date May 19 2020
• Dimensions 15.24 x 3.07 x 22.86 cm
• ISBN-10 0062979655
• ISBN-13 978-0062979650
• See all details

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From the Publisher

At HarperCollins, authors and their work are at the center of everything we do. We are proud to provide our authors with unprecedented editorial excellence, marketing reach, long-standing connections with booksellers, and insight into reader and consumer behavior. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins also uses digital technology to create unique reading experiences and expand the reach of our authors.

HarperCollins was founded by brothers James and John Harper in New York City in 1817 as J. and J. Harper, later Harper & Brothers. In 1987, as Harper & Row, it was acquired by News Corporation. The worldwide book group was formed following News Corporation's 1990 acquisition of the British publisher William Collins & Sons. Founded in 1819, William Collins & Sons published a range of Bibles, atlases, dictionaries, and reissued classics, expanding over the years to include legendary authors such as H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis.

The house of Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown, HarperCollins has a long and rich history that reaches back to the early nineteenth century and offers our publishing team a depth of experience.

Product description

“If you thought the Queen Mum was a benign, plump, cheery old lady, think again. In Karen Harper’s novel she is tough, determined, and fabulously gossipy. Reading this novel is like sitting next to an indiscreet royal insider at a private dinner.” — Gill Paul, bestselling author of  The Lost Daughter

"Harper’s enchanting latest (after American Duchess ) explores the private life of Queen Elizabeth, formerly Elizabeth Bowes Lyon...Harper’s evocative prose and able plotting make each twist and turn believable. This displays Harper’s mastery at fictional profiles of prominent 20th-century women." — Publishers Weekly

"...readers will appreciate the Queen Mother's story as the woman behind the crown is given a chance to shine on her own with all her faults and glory." — Booklist

"The Windsors continue to fascinate as we watch a new generation grow up. Harper’s novel draws attention to the heroism and strength of the royal family during a trying time in history. A strong selection for those interested in a more personal imagining of royal life at that time." — Library Journal

“Well researched and beautifully written, I highly recommend The Queen’s Secret .” — Romance Reviews Today

Praise for American Duchess : “Harper’s latest immerses readers in British high society, with intrigue and gossip around every corner...this tender, well researched novel lets readers see the economic, social, and political highlights of the nineteenth-century Gilded Age brought to life through Consuelo Vanderbilt’s eyes.” — Booklist

Praise for American Duchess : “This absorbing and evocative tale is an excellent reminder of what women have long sacrificed over the centuries for family honor and duty, and how they navigated their circumstances and influence to change the world for the better.” — Heather Webb, international bestselling author of  Last Christmas in Paris

Praise for  The It Girls : “ The It Girls  is a glorious romp through the lives and loves of the scintillating Sutherland sisters.... Readers who enjoy historical fiction are in for a treat!”   — Hazel Gaynor,  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Cottingley Secret  and  The Girl Who Came Home

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author KAREN HARPER is a former Ohio State University instructor and high school English teacher. Published since 1982, she writes contemporary suspense and historical novels about real British women. Two of her recent Tudor-era books were bestsellers in the UK and Russia. Harper won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for Dark Angel , and her novel Shattered Secrets was judged one of the best books of the year by Suspense Magazine .

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow; Illustrated edition (May 19 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062979655
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062979650
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 548 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 3.07 x 22.86 cm
• #1,180 in Biographical Historical Fiction
• #1,460 in Biographical Fiction (Books)
• #2,144 in Military Historical Fiction

About the author

Karen harper.

Karen Harper is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of romantic suspense and historical novels. A native Ohioan, Karen is a former high school English teacher and English-and-writing instructor at the Ohio State University. (Go Bucks!) The Harpers are avid Ohio State football fans, but they have a serious side too. They were on the 10-year committee which revamped the main library on campus. The Ohio State Library houses her author collection in Rare Books and Manuscripts.

The Harpers love to travel, and Karen often uses her favorite places as settings for her novels. She's recently written books set in Edwardian England and South Florida, the latter where she lived for 30 winters. Her latest trilogy is THE SOUTH SHORES NOVELS, with forensic psychologist Claire Britten and criminal lawyer Nick Markwood. Her most recent historical is THE IT GIRLS.

These bring her published books to over 70 in a 35-year writing career.

Karen belongs to several writer's organizations, including International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and The Historical Novel Society. She appreciates hearing from readers on her website at www.KarenHarperAuthor.com and www.facebook.com/KarenHarperAuthor--and she answers!

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I don’t think I’ve ever said anything like this before, but I’m honestly not sure I have the ability to convey how dreadful a book The Queen’s Secret is. I’ll start with some basic math: I can read a good book in a day. It took me thirty-three days to read this one.

In 1939, Queen Elizabeth is consort to King George VI (he of The King’s Speech ) and mother to two children, including her daughter, today’s Queen Elizabeth II. Her life is a good one by the standards of monarchs and their subjects – filled with a good spouse, healthy children. Would that she were a more content woman. The Queen is steeped in secrets (why they used the singular of secret in the title is beyond me) – of a personal, mostly sexual (though not sexy) nature – and these concern her with a similar immediacy as the prospect of a world overrun by the Third Reich.

This is textbook historical fiction, and I mean that literally. Harper presumes an ignorance on the part of her reader that is staggering – the dialogue and internal narration are filled with dates and facts and numbers, which sound as though they have been lifted from sidebars and chronological lists in a textbook for teenagers, designed to provide only the knowledge needed to get a passing grade on the world’s easiest World History exam. (What happened in Britain in 1939? A) British teens dumped tea over the side of a ship B) Downton Abbey premiered C) World War II began.)

Queen Elizabeth is a mannered, unintelligent, self-centered heroine. What’s especially baffling is that since the prologue begins when the Queen – now the Queen Mother - is one-hundred-years-old, and the story is told in the past tense, you’d think the narration would have the tone of an aged but worldly woman, who’s gained some sort of self-awareness. Nope. She thinks once how she “wished I could trade places with someone like Bessie or Rowena with their simple, straightforward tasks” – Bessie being her maid, who, in addition to the horror of having to call Elizabeth her ruler and work through a war, lost her sister when that sister, pregnant as a result of a rape, killed herself.

This Queen wouldn’t recognize wit if she met it in the street – which she never does, because all the characters around are just like her: husband, daughters, and, tragically, Winston Churchill.

“We are on the sixth day of the sixth month, the year of our Lord 1944, and I have come to let you know how the invasion has gone thus far, Your Majesties.”

- is one of Churchill’s utterances. The dialogue has some variety, I’ll admit. It’s not all textbook prose. Sometimes the characters speak as if they’re figureheads or propagandists – it’s all ‘Keep calm and carry on’, which gets referenced more than once. From what I know of the real Churchill and his feelings about fools, if the real Queen had sounded like this, Britain would have lost the war, because the Prime Minister would have fled to the far corners of the empire to avoid suffering her presence one day further.

As for the secrets, they are the kind of secrets that would fill a National Enquirer , some not even worthy of more than a footnote in Wikipedia – I checked. Secret illegitimacy, secret surrogacy, secret artificial insemination, secret sexual assault. It’s all here. You’d think that between all this and World War Two that The Queen’s Secret would be bursting with plot. Nope. None of the Queen’s secrets ever affect her life outside her own head.

If my review came too late to prevent you from buying this book – God forbid in hardcover – I apologize. I hope you kept the receipt.

Buy it at: Amazon , Audible , or your local independent bookstore

Visit our amazon storefront.

Sensuality:  N/A

Publication Date:  05/2020

Review Tags:  Biographical Fiction World War II royalty

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