Review: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

by Chriss Cornish published: May 8, 2010 No Comments

H is for Her Royal Spyness

This Book Is About

My ridiculously long name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie. Thirty-fourth in line for the throne, I am, as they say, flat broke. When my brother, Binky, Duke of Glen Garry and Rannoch, cut off my meager allowance, I bolted from Scotland – and my engagement to Fishface (I mean, Prince Siegfried)- for London, where I have:

built a fire in the hearth -entirely on my own, thank you very much

fallen for an absolutely unsuitable Irish peer

made a few quid housekeeping incognita, and

been summoned by the Queen herself to spy on her playboy son

Less than thrilled with this last bit, I’m wondering what to do when an arrogant Frenchman -who was trying to swipe our family estate! – winds up dead in my bathtub. Now, my new job is to clear my very long family name…

My Thoughts On This Book

Her Royal Spyness is a fun read, something of a happy cross between manor fiction and murder mystery.

I’ve had this book on my to-check-out radar for some time. I was at the library the other day with my sister and this book just happened to be there when we were going through those rotating towers of paperbacks.

I would totally buy Her Royal Spyness to re-read.

Georgi, the main character, is 34^th in line for the English throne, her great-grandmother having been Queen Victoria’s least attractive daughter. The family fortune has been squandered by her father and Georgi and her half-brother, the current Duke, find themselves land-poor and living with extreme frugality in their ancestral Scottish castle (where tradition requires all the windows to be left open at all times).

While hanging out in the tartan-wallpapered bathroom for lack of anything better to do, Georgi overhears her brother planning to invite a boring, and exiled, Romanian prince to a house party in the hopes he’ll offer to marry her. She makes a swift retreat, with no servants or money, to the family’s London house and quickly finds that she has no idea how to do basic things like light a fire, locate a boiler, or make tea.

In addition to discovering how to do all those tasks maids have taken care of for her all her life, Georgi will also have to get a job. But a member of the royal family simply can’t waltz into Harrods and apply, so what is one to do?

I love the dichotomy of the character; that she’s mature and intelligent but naive and innocent. It really makes for an interesting narrator.

She’s also clumsy, which is an amusing and unsual trait for an author to give their noble-class character.

The tone of Her Royal Spyness is good humored and light, and the pacing is great. I enjoy the author’s writing style and stayed up late reading the book; I didn’t want to stop to do petty things like eat or sleep.