Deadly Royals

Here are reviews on two of the books I finished earlier in the month. I'm still working on a few others!

Doomed Queens: Royal Women Who Met Bad Ends, From Cleopatra to Princess Di by Kris Waldherr

This book was an impulse buy while at HalfPrice Books. A non-fiction book, it gives a synopsis of the lives of queens from the earliest recorded histories to the present day. Each woman has a sad story to share. Death is abound in this short book – beheadings, poisonings, murder, suicide, executions…few lives were spared in exile or the convent.

The stories were interesting. I read about many royal women that I had never heard of before, or had only heard of in brief references to their male counterparts. The more recent eras were not nearly as represented as was the ancient and medieval times. The short chapters and biographies made for an easy book to put down and come back to later without missing a thing.

While I liked the book, I’m glad that it wasn’t an expensive one. If you are interested in that sort of thing, check it out from the library or borrow it from a friend.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

In this sequel to Wicked Lovely, the story follows Aislinn’s friend Leslie. Her father an alcoholic with a gambling addiction, her mother having abandoned the family and her older brother a drug dealing addict, Leslie lives in a constant fear and fight for survival. She longs to get a tattoo as a way to show control of something in her life. When she chooses an intricate tattoo from a special book, she unknowingly chooses to intertwine her life with that of the King of the Fae’s Dark Court. Will Leslie survive the ink exchange?

I liked this book better than I remember liking Wicked Lovely, which I read nearly two years ago. The characters – even some of the minor ones – are well developed. The storyline is intriguing. I enjoyed this book enough that I bought Wicked Lovely (in paperback) and gave it to my mom, telling her to read it first.

Hrm…there’s now a third in the series (Fragile Eternity). Time to place it on hold.