Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this book. This is a really good read for any fans of the British Royal family.

This novel discusses Queen Victoria’s children and grandchildren. While the subject matter is interesting, there was not anything that I hadn’t already known about Victoria’s descendants that I have gathered from other novels. Thus, this book is more for the general reader rather than an avid British royal enthusiast!

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Great book! Full of History! I am just fascinated with this type of history. Highly recommend!

I want to begin by saying I got this book for free through Netgalley, but all thoughts are my own. This book is about the children & grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Farah did something unique with this book, as he wrote each chapter from the perspective of the person. This although different wasn't something I was keen on. To me, although a lot of research would have been done about attitudes towards certain aspects of life at that time, along with letters and accounts, a lot of the emotional side of each chapter would have included a fair few assumptions. This means that although educational with the information given about each person, the personality created could have been inaccurate, and I thought the tones of each chapter/letter seemed informal, not likely how a royal would have written. I thought that the idea of each chapter being written from the perspective of the person towards the end of their life, including a post-script section about the death and aftermath of the death of each person was an intriguing concept, but overall just not my cup of tea. However, I do feel more educated about each member of that royal family, as each child and grandchild really did lead interesting and in some cases quite difficult lives. I've heard a few times with this book that it provides no new information, however as I didn't know too much about her children and grandchildren I benefitted from that, but I can imagine this would be fairly dull for those who are more educated on the subject. Overall it's an interesting concept to write in that way, but I don't think it was executed quite as well, although as I did find it somewhat educational, it has been given a 3 star rating.

Children of the Empire is the history of Queen Victoria's children and grandchildren. It is probably the most in depth book about her heirs that I have come across.
The formatting is unusual as it takes each person and essentially has them tell their own life story. Each segment is short, like it could be a presentation being given.
What I appreciated most was that Farah included the emotional side of each person. He made sure to talk about how they (probably) felt and not just what they did.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This felt very much like a children's book. It was very childlike in the writing and I didn't care for it at all.

I find the royal family endlessly interesting while under the watchful eye of Queen Victoria. Her maneuverings to marry off all of her children and grandchildren is concerning and fascinating. However, this strange first person account of each of their lives was not what I look for in a nonfiction book. It is an interesting idea, but it was not for me.

This book is an interesting and detailed look into the lives of Queen Victoria's grandchildren. The first person account is an unique take on a historical retelling.

This is a very readable book in my opinion and provides a very good brief of the offspring of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It shows how close the European royal families were with the family ties. It is a great introduction for anyone to modern British history and I can see a real use for it in primary/secondary schools for teaching history. Very user friendly book and pitched at an appropriate level to keep it flowing and maintain readers interest.

I was sent a free arc on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this a lot! It offers a different perspective of Queen Victoria's children and grandchildren. I recommend it if you want to read from them, not about them.

The reason why I cannot give it 5 stars is because I think it could go deeper into what happened. It seemed simplified to me.

I a quite interested in Queen Victoria, and her reign. She is considered "the grandmother of Europe", and this book gives an interesting overview about why. This is the story of forty-seven children and grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, told from their own point of view.
The chapters are short and accesible for both history fans and newbies, but they don't give a very thorough, deep biographical profile, so don't expect a lot of information about each subject, but enough to give you general knowledge on each character. Sometimes several characters repeat the same information, that can be annoying for some readers but not for me.
The author is writing a similar book about Austria’s House of Habsburg, and I'm really lookig forward to reading it.
It's an interesting book, perfect for history/royalty fans.
My thanks to NetGalley and Matador Publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating read a book that history buffs will devour full of information about each of the children.Reflecting on how we are still influenced by these times.#netgalley #troubadorbooks

Children of the Empire - Michael Farah

I’ve always been quite fascinated with the reign of Queen Victoria, she came to the throne as a very young woman (18), had a large family and then married them off across Europe with the intention of gaining more influence across the continent. As a result she gained the epithet “Grandmother of Europe”.

The premise of this book intrigued me, the idea of first person accounts from forty seven different people... how on earth did the author manage that?

This is a history lesson, with a personal voice and without the dry ‘dates and places’ feel that may put you off reading a history book. Each member of the family has their own chapter describing the key milestones of their lives, from birth to death and how their lives intersect with the other members of the family and the Royal houses that they marry into.

It does get a little convoluted as you weave in and around the next generation, and found myself flicking back and forwards a little to remind myself how each person fit in.
There was also some repetition as you hear the retelling of an event from different points of view, but that was a minor annoyance easily overlooked. The first person retelling was very engaging and reads like a novel.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and have gained a better understanding of the history of this era and Queen Victoria’s reign. It has piqued my interest to seek out more books to further my reading on the subject.

Thank you to NetGalley and Troubadour Publishing for the chance to read and review this book.

Very well written and interesting book, it shows how far Victoria influences and genetics spread through her children and told their stories in an interesting fashion!

Michael Farah
has given the reader a very unique perspective into the legacy of Queen Victoria in capturing the lives of her children and grandchildren. Reflecting on their lives, each heir highlights the road they have travelled in a first person narrative. As if composing a letter, they unfold their personal biographies filled with love, loss, scandal, intrigue, successes and failures. Without getting deep into the history of the monarch, this is a wonderful introduction filled with interesting facts. Photographs and family trees further identify and connect each individual in this very amazing family.
This is a fun read and recommended for anyone interested in the Royal family.
My thanks to NetGalley and Matador Publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the way it was put together, Starting with the eldest child to the last... so informative... great photographs. A must for a history fiend.... I loved it and was so disappointed when it ended...

This was hard going for me, felt at times I was reading a fact/text book and not really driven to pull me in. That being said it was informative if a little dull.

This book approaches its subject, descendants of Queen Victoria, from an unusual direction. Its reach is broad but not deep, and it attempts to personalize each of the 47 portraits by “telling” their stories in the first person singular. The voice of all the stories is, however, the same throughout. Men, women, children who died young - all sound like the same person, which neutralizes the author’s goal of making the portraits more interesting and personal. I think that would never have been possible.. Victoria and Albert had nine children and thirty-eight grandchildren, and that adds up to forty-seven (!) profiles. A few are more interesting than others, such as Tsar Nicholas II and his family; the Mountbatten branch (that changed its name from “Battenberg” to de-emphasize its German identity after WWI); the 20th century Windsor dynasty; and some descendants whose lives were quirky, especially disreputable, or terribly tragic. Most of the forty-seven, however, tend to blur together and are not interesting enough to warrant even this sort of thumbnail biography a la Wikipedia. If you need a reference book that tells you major timeline points of Queen Victoria’s children and grandchildren, this might be useful.

Really enjoyed this. Would recommend to lovers of historical nonfiction like The Romanov Sisters and The Traitor and the Spy. Very interesting and lots of educational tid bits I ended up researching further in application to other areas they extended to. Really enjoyed and personally debating picking up a copy of my own.

This is in no way a history book, but more like a compendium of the lives of Queen Victoria, her children and their children. They're mostly two or three page blurbs of the salient parts of their lives and the grandchildren's bios do feature their children.

Though this is not on the level of an encyclopedia, it's more than you would find in a dictionary. If you want to know who married who and became Queen of this or that, it's great for that.