A review by aliterarylion
Royal Love Stories: The tales behind the real-life romances of Europe's kings & queens by Gill Paul

5.0

Whenever I'm not enjoying a book I brought to the call center, I hit up my Hoopla account for any digital books to read instead. This was one of my choices I found after my recent Royal Family obsession. This was a wonderful non-fiction to breeze through love stories in royal European households. Most of these couples were not married to the object of their affection and the mistress rather than the wife had the king wrapped around her finger. I know royals married more secure connections rather than love but it just made my empathetic heart a little sad to imagine how the queen felt. Anyway, this was a fascinating read featuring Catherine the Great, the Romanovs, and the women who inspired the Taj Mahal. My favorite story was Prince Bertil of Sweden and Lillian Craig who were not allowed to marry because she was a commoner and "morgantic" marriages were not looked upon kindly in royal circles. These two had to wait 30 years for the succession to pass them and someone else could be king. Bertil and Lillian got married in their 60's and it was the sweetest story. It made me very happy and I am pleased to have learned about so many great royal European romances in history.