OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Royal Marriages" by Susanna de Vries.]

Royal Marriages: Diana, Camilla, Kate, Meghan and Princesses Who Did Not Live Happily Ever After by Susanna De Vries is a non-fictional account of unhappy marriages and indiscretions throughout the history of Britain's Royal family. How Britain's kings and princes were forced to marry young virginal girls who were many years younger than themselves only to provide heirs but at the same time keeping their mistresses on the side.

A large portion of the book is about Princess Diana's life, and how her storybook wedding turned out not to be the fairytale marriage of her dreams. I discovered the story of Diana was indeed very tragic. Not just her death, but also her life. The very public image of her life, marriage, divorce, and death highly contrast with her very private and secretive life. It very clearly explains how Princess Diana's experience has resulted in a change in the tradition of arranged marriages for her children and possibly future generations.

Not being from Britain, I have not been as exposed to the tabloids and rumors of the Royals as much as those who live there. Consequently, I found this account of their history and lives intriguing. I learned many things I was not aware of about their experiences.

Royal Marriages is not Ms. De Vries' first novel about the House of Hanover-Windsor, their lives, and their sometimes public, but more often private indiscretions. It is evident to me that Ms. DeVries has done extensive research to bring this account to us.

This book is an excellent account of the effect of arranged weddings, the tradition of infidelity, and the difficult marriages found throughout history in the royal lineage of Britain. It very clearly depicts: "Princesses who did not live happily ever after" as the title states. Keeping track of the Royals, their family members, ancestors, mistresses, and relationships were at times confusing. However, there is a family tree diagram on the first page of the book that outlines all of the Royals including mistresses.

I give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. Overall I found it to be well written, but I found several grammatical errors, and I believe it would benefit with one more round of editing. There were a few words such as mould, furore, favourite, and councillors spelled in the British tradition that threw me but did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.

The author specifically requested a female review her book, which helped prompt my interest in reading it, but I think anyone interested in the British royalty would enjoy reading it as much as I did.

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Royal Marriages
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I don't know much about the royals either as I live in the US. This book intrigues me. It sounds more like something from the middle ages as opposed to being so recent. I'll have to put this on my list. Thanks.

"Not being from Britain, I have not been as exposed to the tabloids and rumors of the Royals as much as those who live there. Consequently, I found this account of their history and lives intriguing. I learned many things I was not aware of about their experiences."

This is precisely why I'm interested in reading this. Great review!

I love everything about the Royal Family, and this book sounds so interesting. I like that you pointed out that it can be confusing to keep track of the royal lineage. I agreee; it's very hard to keep up with who is related to who.

I've always been fascinated by the lives of the royals, especially Princess Diana. I'd love to read this one. Thanks for writing such a compelling review!

Interesting book. There would be a lot to learn from it. Thank you for the review!

This sounds like a great book for a snowy afternoon. The tradition of arranged marriages would be difficult but interesting to learn about. Sounds like the book has more depth to it than I imagined when I saw it. Thanks for the review.

A very interesting book but marriage as a whole is a different thing but was glad when The writer made it clear it’s a British marriage and its explains the origin of marrying from the royal family

Although I do not know much about royal families, from what I've gathered from tabloids (I know, reliable source), I think their lives do not differ much from those celebrities who have to uphold a certain image and an inviting facade in order to maintain status and wealth. I look forward to learning more about their stories from this book. Thank you for this detailed and well-rounded review.