Alice-Miranda at the Palace by Jacqueline Harvey

Title: Alice-Miranda at the Palace

Author: Jacqueline Harvey

Genre: Mystery/Fiction

Publisher: Puffin Australia

Published: 17^th September 2019/2^nd February 2015

Format: Paperback

Pages: 384

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: Alice-Miranda is off on a royal adventure!

It’s Queen Georgiana’s silver jubilee, and Alice-Miranda and her friends are invited. While Evesbury Palace is every bit as magnificent as they’d imagined, some of the staff are behaving strangely. Edgar and Louis, Aunty Gee’s grandsons and the palace’s resident mischief-makers, don’t exactly give their guests a friendly welcome. When they team up with an unexpected visitor, things soon go from bad to worse.

Behind the scenes it seems something much more sinister is at play. Why is Aunty Gee so determined to keep Alice-Miranda at the palace for the rest of the holidays? And who is her mysterious milliner? With the help of her friends and a trusty butler, can Alice-Miranda uncover what threatens to bring down the royal family?

~*~

It’s holidays again, and Alice-Miranda, Millie, Jacinta, Sep and Lucas are off to Evesbury Palace with Hugh, Cecelia, Lawrence Ridley and Aunt Charlotte. They’re off to Queen Georgiana’s silver jubilee, yet there is more going on than meets the eye. Caprice and her mother are there as well, and Caprice seems to be hitting it off with Queen Georgiana’s twin grandsons, who don’t like Alice-Miranda at all.

As celebrations and preparations commence, some of the staff appear to be acting odd. There are whispers and rumours, and Caprice doesn’t want to help her mother at all. In fact, she’s rather put out that Alice-Miranda, Sloane, Millie, Jacinta, Sep and Lucas are going to be involved and invited. It doesn’t seem that she has learned anything yet. Alice-Miranda is still determined to be nice to her though.

The children are thrown together when Aunty Gee asks them to stay for the week when threats start appearing, and Louis and Edgar, her trouble-making twin grandsons are determined to show off and cause havoc. Like Caprice, they don’t seem to like Alice-Miranda that much either.

But between that and oddly acting staff, things aren’t as they seem. It’s another mystery for Alice-Miranda and her friends to solve. And it’s going to be something that could change things for a lot of people. This is another great Alice-Miranda book that builds on the series and gives hints at what could come next.

There are so many questions for Alice-Miranda and her friends to answer in this book, and each one has something complicated behind it, yet it is possible that everything is linked. Alice-Miranda and her friends are often left to their own devices in this book, with an adult somewhere close by to keep an eye on them in some way.

It’s intricate without being complicated, tugging on threads, going back and forth between the characters ad events to build the tension and plot, ensuring that it all comes together to create another engaging Alice-Miranda story.

There are still threads that look as though they will evolve throughout the second half of this series, especially with Caprice. It will be interesting to see how and if she changes from the next book onwards, or if she’ll keep trying to outdo Alice-Miranda and throw tantrums when she doesn’t get her way.

The eleventh book is a new adventure in a new place, shining a light on Alice-Miranda and her family’s connection to the royal family. I am loving getting to know these characters and watching them grow. Each book builds on the previous ones, but I think can also be read as you pick them up, as I started doing. I think it’s fun reading the rest of the series in order now.

Each character in the eleventh book is interesting and has intriguing motivations, and some I am sure we will come back to or see evolve throughout the rest of the series. The palace and characters in this book are fun, and it made me want to be there, enjoying time with the characters and exploring the palace. Because how many of us get to enjoy exploring a palace in our day-to-day lives?

The mystery in this book is like the others, has a serious tone, but dealt with in a light way for younger readers. It’s been a joy to read this series, and I have six left to get through in between my other reading. I have loved reading this series and hope it helps new readers find it and rediscover the joys of the Alice-Miranda series and Jacqueline Harvey’s writing.