LUV LUBKER
"To see Germany great, not only with the sword, but in all that is right and good." - Vicky, Princess Royal & Crown Princess of Prussia
All About Me
Luv Lubker began life in the Animal World, researching creatures great and small since before she can remember, and earning her degree in chicken psychology by age twelve. Not long after, she immigrated to the Victorian era, where she has lived half her life in close company with the Brontë sisters and made friends with Queen Victoria’s extended family, whom she now knows quite as well as her own kin.
Born in a cattle trough in the Appalachian Mountains, Luv currently resides in Texas’ Great Plains when visiting the modern world. When she isn’t writing or reading, she delights in preparing and savoring gourmet raw food with her family and exploring nature on long bike rides. Her special abilities include researching in seven languages and riding a unicycle since age seven.
Luv’s research delves into the unwritten stories that history left behind. Through unpublished letters, altered manuscripts, and deeply buried secrets, she reveals emotional truths concealed beneath the era’s refined exterior. Her novels give voice to the silenced, reveal what Victorians were taught to suppress and what their biographers chose to omit, tracing invisible scars that shaped lives, choices, and history itself.
My newest hp book
THE SAILOR PRINCE
BOOK ONE
He left Windsor an innocent child. The sea would make him a man… and test the depths of his soul. In a world ruled by power, passion, and obsession, can a boy survive the storms?
Queen Victoria’s scholarly second son, Affie, loves family, art, technology – and most of all, the sea.
Rejecting his German destiny, he embarks on a voyage to the unforgiving decks of the Royal Navy.
But undreamed worlds await him: those of psychological manipulation, politics and forbidden desires that culminate into a passionate affair which history denies.
Wrestling with power, obsession, and the seductions of those who shape his world, Affie must learn to navigate family loyalties, Royal ceremony and a Navy caught between eras, as wood yields to iron and sail to steam.
the rival courts series
When Prince Fritz of Prussia visits England in 1851, he steps into a world unlike his own: warm, informal, and full of ideals.
Amid the marvels of the Great Exhibition, he forms a bond of intellect with Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, the curious and talented Princess Vicky.
Years later, their bond, formed in innocence, grows into one of history's most passionate royal marriages, but danger lurks nearby. Fritz's ambitious uncle, Prince Karl, has different dreams for his country. Determined to crush those he cannot seduce, he wields dark powers from the shadows behind the throne.
Through the years, Vicky and Fritz face loss, endure the harrowing birth of their first child - the future Kaiser Wilhelm II - and find the courage to rebuild their love after the unimaginable.
Rather than tracing Bismarck's rise to power, Under His Spell reveals an untold side of German history through Vicky and Fritz's ideals, hopes, and struggles.
Fans of Clare McHugh's A Most English Princess, Theresa Sherman's The Royal Mob, and Daisy Goodwin's Victoria will be captivated by this historically and emotionally rich opening to The Rival Courts saga.
From acclaimed Victorian historical author, Luv Lubker, the author of "Under His Spell" comes the continuing romance of the Princess Royal Victoria and Frederick III of Prussia.
Vicky's father, Albert, the Prince Consort, has just died, leaving her and her family under a heavy cloud of grief, without their dearest friend and advisor, at a most critical time: The political horizon grows dark with storm clouds at the entry of Bismarck to Germany's political stage in 1862.Will Fritz's courage stand the test as he confronts the spider in its web? Is Prussia really fighting for the rights of the Schleswig people, or is so much blood being shed for the sake of Prussia's aggrandizement? Join Vicky and Fritz on their journeys under the blue cloudless skies of the Mediterranean to the peaceful heather-clad hills of the Highlands of Scotland; to the burning heat of the North African desert to the raging blizzards of a winter war in Denmark. When Vicky's closest friend disappears, will she be able to keep the secret? Will old enemies prove to be friends, and old friends prove to be enemies?
Book Excerpt
But we were not the only human creatures in this room. On the other end of the sofa where the little girls sat was a little creature with big eyes – my big eyes except for the color – staring out knowingly at the world as I used to do.
Dear beautiful Baby – beautiful in spite of red hair and green eyes which speak so plainly of your heritage from Großpapa – I shall never know what you grow up to be, never hear of you again in our common lives. But I shall dream of you, dream I know how you grow and develop each day. You’ll never be a stranger to me, only I won’t know what you do with yourself, or if you still share this beautiful, cruel world with me.
Sometimes I think you will dream of me, too, perhaps? But why would you, dear Baby? But when I look into your eyes – I know, I know! I dream of many things which no one believes I could possibly remember, from when I was your contemporary (I don’t think that’s the right word).
How I wish you could share all these loves with me, but I will never again see your dear eyes light up as I place a rose – stripped, of course, of its thorns – in your dear baby hands, and hear your dear baby laugh. But my love goes with you, out into the beautiful world.
Book Trailer
Under His Spell Book Trailer
Under a Cloud Book Trailer
Book Awards
Book Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars Love historical romance, you will love this book
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2024 - LENA ANDREWS
This is a historical romance written by an amazing writer. She doesn't disappoint in her second book by bringing us into their lives and world with such detail that you feel like you are there and part of it. Her ability to describe everything, you feel like you can reach out and touch that's the sign of an outstanding author.
It begins with Vicky and her father consort Prince Albert, who has just passed away and has to deal with all the chaos that presents itself.
Vicky and Fritz, her husband, have dealt with difficult situations before, but this will really test them and their relationship. There are so many things going on that grab you, and you have you hooked wanting more. Her characters are well written, so you understand their complexities.
I was fortunate enough to read the first book prior to publication, now this one, and waiting impatiently for book 3, which is coming out soon. I'm hooked and will read anything she writes she's that good.
Love historical romance, get this book, and fall in love.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Love and marriage among royal houses of Britain and Prussia
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024 - MALVE VON HASSELL
An interesting ‘inside’ view of the life of the royal family in Prussia as well as in England, in many respects appalling and painful, with a vast amount of ‘skeletons’ in the proverbial familial closet. The story focuses on the relationship between the young Prince Frederick, later Emperor Frederick III, and Princess Vicky or Victoria, the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Tensions between Empress Augusta and Emperor Frederick Wilhelm in their respective approaches, one more liberal and intellectual, and the other rigid and leaning towards the martial are set against the marriage of Victoria and Albert, which appears relatively blissful. The author did a lot of research for her book. She devised an elaborate way to indicate the various shifting points of view in the telling of the story. The two main characters, Princess Vicky, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, and Prince Frederick, known as Fritz, are shown as appealing and likable characters, both highly educated, with a broad range of interests, and a liberal outlook, and their love for each other is movingly portrayed. The young princess had to contend with a profoundly difficult environment in the years of her marriage, always trapped between conflicting demands from her mother, Queen Victoria, and the demands of her in-laws and her mother-in-law in particular, aside from the negative attitudes expressed toward her for her more liberal ideas. Looking back, it is a tragedy that Fritz, who was to become Emperor Friedrich III, died within 99 days of assuming his position. The fate of Germany might have turned out differently.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Romance and Rebellion: The Fight for a Utopian Germany
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2024 - JAYBEE
This story, the first in a series of six by first time promising author Luv Lubker, follows the life & love story of Vicky, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter. From when she meets her future husband Fritz, the shortest reigning emperor of Germany, at the tender age of 10, through the exilerating, and often terrifying, first four years of their life together, as they attempt to unite Germany according to the peaceful and utopian ideals of their parents.
Fritz's uncle Carl, however, has other ideas for Germany's future. His ideas seem to be enforced by the mysterious powers he wields behind the scenes over so many of Germany's most important figures, reminiscent of an evil emperor we all know and despise from one of the most iconic movie series' of our time. Follow this battle of good vs evil to see who will prevail in this Star Wars-like saga set in Victorian Era Germany. But be warned, the historical parallels can be mesmerizing.
NOTE: Though I thoroughly enjoyed reading it to myself multiple times to catch the many nuanced layers of this remarkable story, I must add that the story is really brought to life in the audible version by the wonderful cast of actors. You truly feel yourself immersed in the tale as if you were a fly on the wall. Can't wait to listen to book 2!