INTRODUCING “A FEISTY NEW HEROINE” (JACQUELINE WINSPEAR) who’s thirty-fourth in line for the throne—and flat broke.
From the Agatha Award-winning author of the Molly Murphy and Constable Evan Evans mysteries!
Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the throne, is flat broke. She’s bolted Scotland, her greedy brother, and her fish-faced betrothed for London. The place where she’ll experience freedom, learn life lessons aplenty, do a bit of spying for HRH—oh, and find a dead Frenchman in her tub. Now her new job is to clear her long family name.
REVIEW
Fun concept, needs more focus on the mystery element... Lady Georgiana is thirty-fourth in line to the English throne, but the distinction of being a royal, albeit a minor one, hasn't kept money woes at bay during the Depression. However, since royals - no matter how minor - aren't supposed to get "common" jobs, Georgiana's only option, according to the Queen, is marriage to the highly repulsive Prince Siegfried. Georgiana resolves to support herself, even if she has to do it clandestinely. And so she decides to work as a maid (horrors!). When a blackmailing Frenchman winds up dead in her bathtub with her brother as the prime suspect, Georgiana decides to use her newfound freedom as an incognito maid to root out the real killer.
Her Royal Spyness is a light, fairly enjoyable (if predictable) read that's heavy on chick lit elements and short on a solid, well-developed mystery. The novel's biggest strength is the character of Georgiana and her often-hilarious attempts to learn basic skills that most people take for granted - such as making one's own breakfast. Bowen also provides some fascinating "insider" glimpses into the royal social scene of the 1930s (such as the royal reaction to the infamous Mrs. Simpson). However, the story falters a bit by being a little too much of a modern chick-lit novel and not enough of a solid historical mystery. The pacing also tends to plod a bit as it gets bogged down in Georgiana's flirtation with a rakish Irishman and her Bridget Jones-style obsession with will-they-or-won't-they jump in the sack. There's too little focus on the murder mystery and the story is in desperate need of some balance. The novel's concept is cute and original - here's hoping sequels build on this foundation and deliver more solid mysteries.
In the days when only wealthy Korean children are allowed to attend school, a poor boy named Song-ho learns by listening outside a schoolroom door, which eventually earns him a chance to better himself and make life easier for his widowed mother.
REVIEW
The Royal Bee is a royal treasure! This book's underlying issue is the idea that the pursuit of literacy is, consequently, the pursuit of a dream and a way out of poverty. In fact, Song-ho often repeats the phrase, "If I only knew how to read and write..." The message is clear--through persistence, dedication, and with a kind heart, one can achieve anything he or she puts his or her mind to. I believe this book to be very enlightening for children who have difficulties in school, especially if a classroom teacher or parent discusses the book from a critical, socially aware point of view. Illuminate children to the fact that "poor" children are nonetheless very rich in heart and spirit, and are as hopeful as any child. Also point out that even though this book takes place in the nineteenth century, its theme will resonate for any generation. I recommend this book wholeheartedly!
Amazon.com Review"I look up now into the oval mirror and see barely a trace of the mud-splattered girl tearing through the woodland on her horse, or the barefoot girl wading at Schonbrunn... I have become what Mama set out for me to be. Majestic. A Dauphine and eventually a Queen."
So writes the headstrong 13-year-old Maria Antonia--future Queen of France--in her diary on October 23, 1769. In this engrossing addition to the Royal Diaries series (Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile), Kathryn Lasky invents a diary of the young Marie Antoinette in 1769--the year she is to be married off to Dauphin Louis Auguste, eldest grandson of the French king Louis XV. Arranged marriages were common in that day and age--as the Empress Theresa (of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nations) sought to consolidate power among nations by marrying off her children. Thus, the future of Austria and France falls upon Maria Antonia's young shoulders.
To prepare her for this awesome responsibility, she must be trained to write, read, speak French, dress, act... even breathe. Things get even more grim as she is shipped off to the court of Versailles and introduced to her puffy, awkward future husband and confronted with the court's ridiculous customs. Marie--an opinionated and insightful young woman--mocks the court of "impeccable etiquette and manners" that makes up nasty rhymes about those they hate, but panics when her hair is mussed. Lasky has done an excellent job of creating a very human character in the young Marie Antoinette--one whom young readers will want to learn more about. Fortunately, her story is given plenty of context with an epilogue describing the history of the young Queen after 1769, a historical note offering an 18th-century context, a Habsburg-Bourbon family tree, and various portraits of the royal family. (Ages 9 to 13) --Karin Snelson
REVIEW
Another Great Royal Diaries Book. This royal diaries book starts out in Vienna, Austria January 1, 1769. The book continues while Marie Antoina (Marie Antoinette) goes from an Archduchess in Austria to a Dauphine in France. Marie Antoina becomes Marie Antoinette when she marries Louis Auguste. This book kept me entertained from the first page. When Marie Antoinette first arrives in France she is told to leave everthing Austrian behind and she feels alone. She encounters Madame du Barry, King Louis XV's mistress and ends when she makes up her mind to talk to du Barry after ignoring her for a while in the book. The Epilogue finishes up Marie Antoinette's life in a few pages and a brief description. A Historical Note explains how the world was changing and calling for revolution. A family tree that includes the Habsburg-Bourbon family tree with descriptions of Marie Antoinette's parents, husband and children. There are pictures in the last pages too of Marie Antoina, Antoina's mother, Antoina and her children, castles, and du Barry. There is also 2 and a half pages about the author.
Amazon.com ReviewSent from her native Scotland to live in the court of her future father-in-law, King Henry II of France, young Mary, Queen of Scots, spends her time attending balls, hunting and hawking, learning Latin and fractions and music, and playing with her future husband, Francis. In Kathryn Lasky's fictionalized diary of the 11-year-old queen, readers will get a piquant taste of 16th-century life in Europe. Mary is quite aware of her role as the betrothed to France's royal family. Playing chess together one day, Francis comments to Mary, "Did it ever strike you, Mary, that we are not so much children and sons and daughters of parents as we are pieces on a gigantic chessboard called Europe? You are given to me to help checkmate England." As with the other titles in the Royal Diaries series (Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, etc.), a fact-packed historical note, epilogue, paintings, and family tree provide just enough additional information to whet the appetites of readers for more about the ill-fated queen of Scotland and France. (Ages 9 to 14) --Emilie Coulter
REVIEW
some history about this book . . . Mary, Queen of Scotts (Mary Stuart) is the Great- Grand daughter of English King Henry VII. She is the second - cousin of Elizabeth Tudor, Daughter of King Henry VIII. She was Queen of Scotland, and was exiled from Scotland for many years, and lived in England at the palaces of her Cousin, Elizabeth. Mary betrayed Elizabeth greatly, and planned to kill the Queen. She talked behind Elizabeth's back, and even though Elizabeth was kind to her, Mary acted very ignorantly towards Elizabeth! Because she planned to kill to Queen, she was ordered to be be-headed by Elizabeth. THANK YOU!
The Royal Hungarian Army was Germany's largest ally on the Eastern Front, providing a vital contribution in terms of both men and equipment. Information about the Hungarian Army in English is rare, and in this book co-authors Nigel Thomas and Hungarian expert Laszlo Szabo fill in the gaps about an important German ally.
Deployed in Ukraine at the beginning of the war, the Hungarian Army were involved in a number of brutal encounters with the Red Army, including stubborn resistance in Transylvania in the summer of 1944 and the brave defence of Budapest in the face of overwhelming odds. The Hungarian Army was a varied and colorful force, ranging from mountain troops and tank units to horse cavalry and specialist infantry. All of these are illustrated in full color artwork, and the text is full of details about the Hungarian Army's own, quite distinct uniforms and insignia as well as many of its own weapons and tanks. With so little of this information readily available outside of Hungary, this is an essential starter resource for war gamers, modelers, re-enactors and military historians.
Amazon.com ReviewFrom the madness of King George to the equine escapades of Catherine the Great, from the intramural squabbles of Elizabeth and Di to the staggeringly decadent exploits of Charles X: in this gossipy chronicle of regal shenanigans, British journalist Karl Shaw dishes plenty of dirt--and ably demonstrates why royal watching is such a satisfying hobby.
Was there ever a good monarch? To judge by Shaw's account, it's unlikely. Instead, he writes, "Every monarchy in Europe has at some time or another been ruled over by a madman," adding in passing that only Bavaria's King Ludwig had the good grace to turn his madness into a source of tourist revenue for his subjects' descendants. Of the mad and the downright curious there's no shortage in these pages, as Shaw delivers anecdote after anecdote concerning the demented, sometimes awful, sometimes entertaining behavior of the likes of Germany's Frederick the Great, who "drank up to forty cups of coffee a day for several weeks in an experiment to see if it was possible to exist without sleep"; Russia's Catherine I, "a raddled old alcoholic with bloodshot eyes, wild and matted hair and clothes soiled with urine stains ... [who] once survived an assassination attempt too drunk to realize that anything had happened"; and England's Queen Mary, "the only known royal kleptomaniac," whose aides would surreptitiously gather the knickknacks she'd lifted from her subjects' parlors and return them with muffled apologies.
Royal Babylon is a guilty pleasure of a book, and one that does a fine job of explaining, in Shaw's tongue-in-cheek words, "why most continentals can't get enough of royalty, provided it isn't their own." --Gregory McNamee
REVIEW
A purchase that I regret This book was not at all what I had expected. What I thought I purchased was a book with amusing anecdotes about European royalty. What I ended up buying was a book filled with gossip, rumors, and just plain old trash. I could not even bring myself to finish it. Why taint the memory of anyone who is not alive to defend themselves? What ever happened to respect for the dead?
This book is not worth the paper that it is printed on. Period.
Five Stars A fun read that will have you laughing from beginning to end at the wickedest, weirdest and funniest true stories and the witty way the author writes them right down to the funny titles for each chapter.
Amazon.com ReviewAnastasia is a carefreeyoung duchess, daughter of Nicholas Alexandrovitch Romanov, tsar of all the Russias in 1914. While her father attends to the turbulent affairs of a vast and complex country, Anastasia's major concerns are how to get out of her detested schoolwork to play in the snow, go ice skating, or have picnics. She wears diamonds and rubies, and every morning her mother tells her which matching outfit she and her three sisters shall wear that day. Slowly a hint of future trouble enters her happy, pampered life. Anastasia's younger brother, the future tsar, is a hemophiliac--a "bleeder" who cannot stop bleeding if he is cut or bruised. Anastasia begins to learn that all is not well in the outside world, either. Not everyone in Russia worships her father as she does, and the Germans are about to declare war on Russia. Anastasia's world gradually deteriorates, as reported in her youthful, often playful journal.
As Russia entered World War I, hunger and poverty grew among the peasants, and the Romanov ruling family began to lose favor, culminating in their murders--including Anastasia's--by Bolshevik revolutionaries. This fictionalized diary of the mischievous youngest daughter's last four years gives a fascinating glimpse into a life of unlimited wealth--and the subsequent downward spiral. Historical notes, family trees, and photographs round out Carolyn Meyer's compelling contribution to the popular Royal Diaries series. (Ages 9 to 14) --Emilie Coulter
REVIEW
Wonderful way to learn history! We have really learned history from the Royal Diary series. It gives a wonderful time frame to set history in. It really helps you to remember what you need to know!
Fourteen-year-old Prussian princess Sophia finds herself entangled in her mother's efforts to arrange a marriage between Sophia and Charles-Peter, a young German duke and nephew of the Russian empress Elizabeth. As Sophia's mother moves to make the match, she and Sophia must travel from their humble home in Zerbst, Prussia, to Russia--the kingdom of Elizabeth. There, Sophia is renamed Catherine and married to Charles-Peter, but she watches helplessly as her family is torn from her, her own mother is involved in a spying ring against the empress, and all that is familiar to her disappears.
REVIEW
The best Royal Dairy Book ever! All I can say to describe this book is wow!!! It was sooo intresting and kept me reading until when I was at the end. This book was so good, heck my mom even read it in one night unable to take her eyes of it! I even recomended my friends to read it and they loved it.
Now anyways, royal Catherine... well her real name is Sophie since shes from Prussia lives happily until her cruel mother wants to have power and to be known so Sophie's cousin and friend is this one prince from Russia, who is related to the powerful ruler Elisabeth 2, wants Sophie to marry him. Sophie unwillingally excepts and they head to Russia butis scared of Queen Elisabeth 2 sice she even send her own daughter to Syberia and cut her tounge!! But she will do what her mother wants and heads of to Russia to be wed.
It is a exciting thriller that makes me want to read on and most people agree with me. READ THIS!!!
Amazon.com ReviewBeing a princess is not all glittery parties and lavish holidays by the sea. Well, actually, it is, but it's not all fun. Young Princess Victoria is constantly surrounded by family and advisors, allowing her no privacy and very few opportunities to express herself until she purloins an old ledger book from one of Kensington Palace's stables. She promptly begins recording her secrets, daily trials, and naughty witticisms (her uncle, King George IV, has big, plump hands, "the size of a plucked quail.") in this very incongruous journal. The biggest secret of all, however, is one that is kept from our heroine. It is not until well into her two-year-long diary that Victoria pieces together her family tree to discover that she is next in line to the throne. This intriguing installment of the Royal Diaries series will inspire many readers to delve deeper into Queen Victoria's life as the longest reigning queen of England. Author Anna Kirwan's fictionalized account is entertaining and enlightening, packed with facts about royal customs in the early 19th century. Historical notes, a family tree, and photos provide more factual information for the curious reader. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
REVIEW
A dull princess Victoria's diary is dull and boring book. Anna Kirwan's future queen of Wales is whiny and sounds like she is 70. This book is about studies and The catain an advier to the mother.Anna Kirwan's other book Flower of Baccle is also a flop.
