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leighsnerdlife 's review for:
The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Princess Margaret, Royal Rebel
by Georgie Blalock
Normally, I love historical fiction as well as stories about the monarchy. But The Other Windsor Girl just didn’t sit right with me.
Don’t get me wrong: the quality of the writing wasn’t bad. I was definitely engaged throughout. But I found the characters and plot line to be a bit problematic. (I’m not going to make any assumptions about the behaviour of the royal family in this book. It’s fiction, people!)
The main character is a young woman named Vera - an author that publishes a series of steamy romance novels under an assumed name. She dreams of becoming a ‘serious’ author in New York and is always searching for her big break.
But then she gives up her promising career (and even love) for the fame of being Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting - a position that leaves her on the receiving end of a tonne of abuse from the royal. Vera actually believes that the Princess is her friend, but in reality it’s a very toxic working relationship. Between Vera’s irritating attitude toward the world, Margaret’s aggressive stupidity and a series of men who can’t keep it in their pants, there truly is not a single likeable character in this book.
The pacing of the story itself is pretty good - it doesn’t drag. But at the end there’s a sudden jump forward in time where things get wrapped up in a happy bow. It was a jarring and unrealistic progression of the story; it could have used more buildup and a firmer grasp of plausible outcomes for Vera.
This book is definitely not a keeper for me, but YMMV.
2.5/5
Don’t get me wrong: the quality of the writing wasn’t bad. I was definitely engaged throughout. But I found the characters and plot line to be a bit problematic. (I’m not going to make any assumptions about the behaviour of the royal family in this book. It’s fiction, people!)
The main character is a young woman named Vera - an author that publishes a series of steamy romance novels under an assumed name. She dreams of becoming a ‘serious’ author in New York and is always searching for her big break.
But then she gives up her promising career (and even love) for the fame of being Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting - a position that leaves her on the receiving end of a tonne of abuse from the royal. Vera actually believes that the Princess is her friend, but in reality it’s a very toxic working relationship. Between Vera’s irritating attitude toward the world, Margaret’s aggressive stupidity and a series of men who can’t keep it in their pants, there truly is not a single likeable character in this book.
The pacing of the story itself is pretty good - it doesn’t drag. But at the end there’s a sudden jump forward in time where things get wrapped up in a happy bow. It was a jarring and unrealistic progression of the story; it could have used more buildup and a firmer grasp of plausible outcomes for Vera.
This book is definitely not a keeper for me, but YMMV.
2.5/5