The title of this novel by Rhys Bowen is great foreshadowing for the plot – is the Royal Pain Her Highness, the queen of England and Georgie\u2019s relative? Or is it the Bavarian princess the queen has tasked Georgie with entertaining? Or, is simply being royal a pain, as Georgie isn\u2019t allowed to work for a living because of her heritage (34th in line for the throne), even though she desperately needs the money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This novel produces a riotous situation for the reader as Lady Georgina Rannoch, 34th heir to the throne and stone-broke, must entertain a Bavarian princess at the behest of her relative, the Queen of England. As Georgina (Georgie) lives on her own and cleans houses to get by, she has her grandfather play Butler, his neighbor play Cook, and, for a brief moment, her friend Belinda plays Maid. All the while, she must suitably entertain the shoplifting princess Hanni and her escort, a grumpy baroness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can imagine, Georgie feels that her life is chaotic enough – until she witnesses a young man fall off a balcony to his death. Then, everything really spins out of control, especially when Darcy, a man she\u2019s quite smitten with, makes a reappearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as entertainment, this book provides plenty. Georgie\u2019s attitude is bright, cynical, and unapologetically candid. Her account of events is fun to follow along with, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll be entertained throughout this novel.
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\u201cI made my tea, slathered Cooper\u2019s Oxford marmalade on my toast (yes I know I was supposed to be economising but there are standards below which one just can\u2019t sink) and brushed away the crumbs hastily as I put on my coat.\u201d
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Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although it\u2019s entertaining to follow Georgie as a character, I\u2019m sure I\u2019d find her annoying in real life (or are we just too similar?). Her attitude is optimistic, her tenacity relentless, and she just seems to stumble into certain situations. Most of these situations I\u2019d approach pretty differently, so maybe it\u2019s just a thought-process thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgie is definitely writing to an audience, as she pauses to introduce herself before she gives us the rest of the story. I don\u2019t really mind that style, as I think it\u2019s difficult to do well. However, I don\u2019t like that the book is written almost as if we\u2019re judging<\/em> Georgie the whole time. Take the above quote, for example: \u201c(yes I know\u2026)\u201d The way she immediately defends herself to us, the readers who a. Don\u2019t know any better and b. Would probably be okay with it doesn\u2019t make me feel like a respected reader. I guess I just don\u2019t like being told how to feel, even by the 34th in line for the British throne (perhaps this is where the attitude comes from?). \u201cI stared at the table. It looked as if someone had spilled a line of flour across it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c’My dear, you are a complete innocent, aren\u2019t you?’ Darcy said. ‘They were sniffing cocaine in there.’\u201d Innocence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although her name carries a fair amount of weight, Georgie isn\u2019t wise to the ways of the world. In the first book, she became more independent after learning how to light a fire and make toast. She also started her maid\u2019s service after removing the dust covers and sweeping out her London house on her own. She also hasn\u2019t had sex yet, which her friend Belinda sees as a problem, so she\u2019s continuously trying to set her up with a one-night-stand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think Georgie\u2019s situation is pretty creative move on Bowen\u2019s part. It\u2019s a nice twist on a highborn lady-as-main-character. It\u2019s entertaining to see Georgie learn to do everyday tasks, especially as a reader who\u2019s used to cooking\/cleaning\/dressing for herself. Georgie is also kind of awkward socially, as living in Scotland with her brother hasn\u2019t quite opened her up to a robust social life. So, her dating\/flirting skills are a little rusty, she doesn\u2019t have a lot of friends to get invited to events with, and she\u2019s not allowed to work – which doesn\u2019t give her a lot of opportunities or life experience. Almost needless to say, watching Georgie experience all these new things is very amusing and will make you glad that you can do your own laundry. \u201cThere was silence in the car while I tried not to think of Darcy, and especially Hanni with Darcy.\u201d Darcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, over the course of the first book, Georgie developed a hearty crush on Darcy O\u2019Mara, another penniless noble. He\u2019s in more dire straits than she, as (we discover at the end of the book [SPOILER]) his father has had to sell the family estate. It\u2019s why he disappeared out of her life so quickly after the previous book. We also learn an interesting fact about him: he appears to be involved with the British government somehow. That\u2019s really all we know! We only find out because he takes a bullet and lets the old \u201cwe were tipped off\u201d slip out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Also in that same time frame, we see Georgie unmask her feelings for him. I think it was a good plot twist as she\u2019d been treating him pretty nonchalantly the whole book because of his sudden disappearance and attention towards Hanni (princess, in case you\u2019ve forgotten). We see how deeply her feelings run, and, although we can\u2019t be sure, we think his are in the same vein. The book abruptly ends, leaving us readers wondering where they will go next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite my dislike of Georgie\u2019s \u201cdon\u2019t judge me\u201d attitude, I will certainly be reading the next book, and you should give the first, and then this one, a try! The title of this novel by Rhys Bowen is great foreshadowing for the plot – is the Royal Pain Her Highness, the queen of England and Georgie\u2019s relative? Or is it the Bavarian princess the queen has tasked Georgie with entertaining? Or, is simply being royal a pain, as Georgie isn\u2019t allowed to work forContinue reading “A Royal Pain – Rhys Bowen”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,63,157,165,184,236,275,287,328,333,349,451],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-buckingham-palace","tag-historical-fiction","tag-historical-mystery","tag-instagram","tag-london","tag-murder","tag-mystery","tag-queen","tag-reading","tag-romance","tag-windsor","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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