NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The author of the American Royals series invites you to visit 19th-century Europe amid the glamour and intrigue of the Victorian era. In this historical romance inspired by true events, three princesses struggle to find love—and end up vying for the hearts of two future kings. A WOMAN'S WORLD BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In the last glittering decade of European empires, courts, and kings, three young women are on a collision course with history—and with each other. Alix of Hesse is Queen Victoria’s favorite granddaughter, so she can expect to end up with a prince . . . except that the prince she’s falling for is not the one she’s supposed to marry. Hélène d’Orléans , daughter of the exiled King of France, doesn’t mind being a former princess; it gives her more opportunity to break the rules. Like running around with the handsome, charming, and very much off-limits heir to the British throne, Prince Eddy. Then there’s May of Teck . After spending her entire life on the fringes of the royal world, May is determined to marry a prince—and not just any prince, but the future king. In a story that sweeps from the glittering ballrooms of Saint Petersburg to the wilds of Scotland, A Queen’s Game recounts a pivotal moment in real history as only Katharine McGee can tell it: through the eyes of the young women whose lives, and loves, changed it forever. "This wild, romantic gallop through a fascinating moment in history will delight both history buffs and readers looking for high society escapism ." — School Library Journal " Readers pleased by romantic machinations will be satisfied , even when gossip and blackmail threaten all three happily-ever-afters in the last moment, leaving them gasping for the sequel." — Booklist Katharine McGee is the New York Times bestselling author of the American Royals series and the Thousandth Floor trilogy. She studied English and French literature at Princeton University and has an MBA from Stanford. She’s been speculating about American royalty since her undergraduate days, when she wrote a thesis on “castle envy”—the idea that the American psyche is missing out on something because Americans don’t have a royal family of their own. She lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband and sons. Chapter One May May of Teck hated weddings. It hadn’t always been this way: she used to stare in girlish awe at the white-gowned brides, dreaming of when it might be her turn. And May had seen plenty of brides in her day. Say what you would about Queen Victoria, she’d certainly been prolific in the childbearing department; the family tree of the British royals was vast and tangled, and some family member or other was always getting married. Today it was May’s cousin Princess Louise. May had long ago stopped enjoying these occasions. Now every wedding she attended felt like a reproach, a reminder of her own dwindling possibilities. For six years she had been out in society: rotating around London’s ballrooms and reception halls, always gowned and perfumed and stupidly hopeful. Yet no one ever took a bite, as if she were some appetizer that had grown stale on the platter. May saw the future stretching mercilessly before her, a bleak existence filled with charity work and Sunday church and, worse, forever living under her father’s roof. She forced herself to smile and sit up straighter. The ballroom at Marlborough House, the home of the Prince of Wales and his family, wasn’t as grand in scale as the one at Buckingham Palace—no private ballroom was—but today it was the only place worth being. Women in dresses and men in tailored suits spun around the dance floor, the musicians struggling to be heard over the low hum of gossip and flirtation. May wasn’t a part of it. Like all the unmarried, unwanted women, she’d been relegated to these chairs tied with awful pink bows, tucked away along the ballroom’s edge. She noticed John Hope across the dance floor, and her smile softened, became more genuine. Perhaps her prospects weren’t entirely bleak. Before she could question herself, May stood. “John,” she said warmly, when she’d come to stand near him. She and the earl’s son had known each other for long enough to dispense with the formalities. “May. It’s always a pleasure.” His smile revealed a turned canine tooth, though somehow the effect didn’t diminish his attractiveness. “How are your parents?” Bad, and getting worse. “They’re doing well, thank you. And Dolly is still at Sandhurst,” May added, naming her brother Adolphus—one of the few people in the world she actually trusted. She hurried to change the subject. “I wish Estella could have made it. I miss her.” May had grown up visiting the Hopes at their estate every summer; her parents were friends of the earl and countess. John’s sister Estella was a few years older than May. She hadn’t come to the wedding today, stuck at home with her newborn son. “Estella sen