Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History—without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History—without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

My Rating: ★★★★

Continuing my search for books on women throughout history, I came across this book that touches on princesses remembered for not acting the way people thought they should. I picked it up as soon as possible and was not disappointed. If you’re looking for a serious history book, this will be a hard pass for you. This is a collection of mini biographies on princesses who are remembered for not acting the way people thought they should. It’s written in a fun style meant to give readers a short and sometimes entertaining run through that may inspire further research. If this sounds up your alley, I urge you to pick it up because you won’t be disappointed.

I thought this was a fun read that gives a series of snapshot views into the antics of princesses ranging from ancient times to now. Some of these princesses are fictional, which are noted at some point during their sections. I was aware of some of these fictional and non-fictional princesses from other books I’ve read. However, it’s always interesting to see what new information might appear as well as what a different author’s take on them is.

The people covered are separated based on what group the author believed they fell under. For example, there are warriors, partiers, floozies, and phonies. Yes, you read that right. You will find princesses and those who ran a scam and pretended to be one in the pages of this book. Other than fake princesses, you will also find people who are very loosely royal. The author may have stretched the term “princess” a bit and included queens and empresses and those who pretended to be royal, but it doesn’t make them any less fun or interesting to read about.

One of the things I liked is that we get an overall view of each person’s life, what they did, what may not be true, and how their lives went. I also liked when the mini biography began with what is usually told about the person before diving into what really happened. It’s always interesting to see how things were condensed or exaggerated before reading about the truth, or as close to it as one can find.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I learned about some people I had never heard of. I found the section on people who pretended to be princesses very interesting because I can’t believe people actually believed the stories they had created. I learned about some interesting people that I might find in-depth books on later. All in all, I highly recommend this book.