Princesses Behaving Badly - Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
Book Synopsis: You think you know her story. You’ve read the Brothers Grimm, you’ve watched the Disney cartoons, you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But the lives of real princesses couldn’t be more different. Sure, many were graceful and benevolent leaders—but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets. Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe was a Nazi spy. Empress Elizabeth of the Austro-Hungarian empire slept wearing a mask of raw veal. Princess Olga of Kiev murdered thousands of men, and Princess Rani Lakshmibai waged war on the battlefield, charging into combat with her toddler son strapped to her back. Princesses Behaving Badly offers minibiographies of all these princesses and dozens more. It’s a fascinating read for history buffs, feminists, and anyone seeking a different kind of bedtime story.
It's hard to imagine princesses, I mean real life historical princesses, not some damsel stuck all day in a tower waiting for her prince charming to come along. I'm talking about take charge kick butt, take no prisoners princesses with an attitude to boot.
This book really delivered for me, at first I saw this book on a picture on Instagram or bookstagram as it is known and immediately I put it on hold at my library.
The rest is history, well not really, but I did read it in the span of a day and I was shocked that I only knew the names of two princesses in this book off of my own knowledge prior to reading this book.
Some stories begin with once upon a time and end with a happily ever after, but in this book, those happily ever after endings never happen or almost never. My favorite short story in that book was about one of the Chinese princesses and I just found it interesting and enjoyed learning much more.
If you are a history buff or just like to read books about princesses while getting a short lesson on the past, I would highly recommend this book to you. However, if you tend to not like books about princesses and the real history and legends then I suggest you read something else... but I think you will really be entertained by this book. It is pretty short and I think that people will flock to it like these birds:
What are you waiting for? Go and read this book!
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars!