A Royal Pain (Her Royal Spyness)

2nd in the series, but somehow I missed reading it! Have loved All R. B's books, the series and the novels. She has good editors, so no (or so few it doesn't matter) punctuation, spelling or grammar errors to grind your teeth over and she uses wonderful word pictures. While the history in this isn't as accurate as in many of her other books, in this series, it isn't meant to be as it creates the plot for the heroine to follow. However, the British & royal feelings towards Wallis Simpson are very accurate, her rudeness towards people she felt beneath her and other royals, her domination, contempt & other actions towards Edward are well documented. He was truly enthralled by and absolutely loved her - the feelings were not reciprocated, but Edward never wavered in his feelings for her. Recommend Highly! Enjoy!

This was the calm before the storm. Communism was on the rise. Communists were fighting Nazis in Germany, there was trouble developing in Spain, and in England there were Communists fighting Blackshirts. Unemployment was high among the common people, and the upper crust still partied (although sometimes on credit). The Queen continues to use the services of a Royal cousin, Lady Georgiana Rannoch (34th in line for the throne, but poor as a church mouse - her father having squandered the family fortune). A continuation of the previous novel

This is the second in the A Royal Spyness Mystery series, and it's just as fun and entertaining as the first. Lady Georgiana is a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria and thirty fourth in line to the throne, but almost totally broke, so to afford the wardrobe and lifestyle expected of a royal she periodically hires herself out as a maid--incognito, of course. This time around her life is complicated by Queen Mary's request that Georgie host a young and beautiful but hard to handle Bavarian princess who the Queen hopes will draw her son's attention away from that married American, Wallace Simpson.

Currently servant-less, Georgie has to enlist her non-royal, retired police officer grandfather to act as her butler, which turns out to be handy when several people in the vicinity of the boy-crazy princess start dying. It's a precarious time for Europe. The Great Depression is still making life difficult, Hitler is rising to power in Germany, and black shirt fascists are clashing with communists in Britain. The Queen is afraid the unexplained deaths and the investigation the police are beginning to launch could lead to an international incident, possibly war, so she wants Georgie to do some sleuthing and figure out who is behind it all before the police call in the princess for questioning.

There's wild parties, royal functions, invitations to country estates, and excursions to a communist bookstore in a dicey part of London. Georgie's bold friend Belinda and her dashing but inscrutable love interest Darcy are back, and Georgie's actress mother modeled on The Bolter pops in from time to time with some trenchant observations.

I have read (and reread) all of the "Her Royal Spyness" series, and have enjoyed them all. I love the time period when the books take place, partly because things are changing in the world. Britain is trying to come to terms with the end of its imperialistic rule of much of the world and the end of the attendant wealth it enjoyed. The rigid class system is changing as well, and the role of women in society, too. Lady Georgiana is trapped between her station and her poverty. She is penniless, and yet a royal and not allowed to earn a living. As a mere woman, all she is currently allowed and trained to do is marry well. We sympathize with her efforts to make more of herself than society dictates.

Don't get me wrong, though. These books are cozies, and though Georgie's situation and the times are difficult, the books are blithe and full of humor and endearing characters. They are very fun books to read, and each time I read a new one, I anxiously await the arrival of all of the funny and delightful characters. They often appear by chance and coincidence, but rather than coming off as a cheesy gimmick, the surprise appearance of each character is a fun plot staple. I find myself wondering with anticipation when each of these well-developed and entertaining characters will appear: her good-hearted but vague and helpless brother Binky; his snippy sourpuss wife Fig; Georgie's breezy, bright-young-thing friend Belinda; her self-absorbed famous actress mother; her kindly Cockney grandfather, and the charming and mysterious love interest Darcy O'Mara. Another favorite character added in Royal Blood is Queenie, the hapless yet spunky and irresistible lady's maid-in-training.

Besides these recurring characters, we meet the British royal family and other famous people of the time throughout the series, including Noel Coward, Coco Chanel, and the abrasive, ambitious and widely-disliked Wallis Simpson. Though fictionalized, of course, they are believable and entertaining. Even minor characters are colorful and full of tongue in cheek humor as the books gently poke fun at nonsensical social traditions and hypocritical people.

Georgie herself is the good-natured glue that holds the series together, and I really enjoy watching her as she grows into a capable and even formidable young woman who is stronger and smarter than she ever imagined.

Lady Georgiana Rannoch's credentials are quite impressive: Cousin to the King, 34th in line to the throne...and part-time cleaning lady. Like many members of the aristocracy in pre-WWII England, Georgie is flat broke and trying to make it on her own in London, so she takes the occasional discreet cleaning job to make ends meet.

When a beautiful young German princess pays an official visit, the Queen asks Georgie to play hostess/chaperone. The Queen would like nothing better than to distract the Prince of Wales from his relationship with that "awful Simpson person" and hopes that Georgie can help to make sure that the two cross paths. Unfortunately for Georgie, her budget does not lend itself to entertaining of any kind - never mind a princess and her traveling companions! But one doesn't say "no" to the Queen, and with a little subterfuge and some help from her grandfather, Georgie manages to pull it off.

But something is odd about the young princess and soon enough the two young women are involved with two untimely deaths, and Georgie finds herself in the middle of a bit of political intrigue...and murder.

I don't know whether it was the excellent movie, The King's Speech, or all the hoopla over this year's royal wedding, but I really had the urge to read something set in this time period involving the royal family. I had read the first in this series (

I love the wit and wisdom in this series. Amidst all the laugh-inducing lines and scenes, Bowen gives her readers a real sense of England in the 1930s. I'm not just talking about the Queen trying to steer her son away from the horrifyingly unsuitable American divorcée either. The cars, the clothes, the attitudes, the lingering effects of World War I, Communism, the rise of the Nazi Party... it's all here, wrapped up in a romp of a book (and series) that Bowen has to love writing.

Readers also get a glimpse into the life of the royals from meals to telephones to acquiring antiques. Georgie is such a fun main character. She's been brought up, not to be useful, but to be "thirty-fourth in line to the throne." Nevertheless she's twenty-two and wants her independence from the drafty ancestral castle in Scotland, so she's learning how to cope in London on very little money. She may have been raised to be ornamental, but she's got a good head on her shoulders and thinks on her feet-- which is a good thing because between her own proclivities and those of the Queen, she finds herself in some amazing situations.

Georgie's not the only character who shines. Her glamorous actress mother who left that castle years ago for a procession of handsome and wealthy men slinks through her scenes oozing sex appeal and style. Her retired policeman grandfather is a treat as is his next-door neighbor Mrs. Hetty Huggins, a woman who never met an H she couldn't drop. And then there's that incredibly handsome (and penniless) Darcy O'Mara who makes Georgie's heart flutter and always seems to be around when he's needed most. Although I don't care much for romance in my mysteries, I have to admit that I like keeping an eye on this relationship.

If you're in the mood to have fun, Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness series is the one for you!

While there isn’t much authentic British flavor to the book, and it seems much more American and rather modern in tone and language, the mystery part was fairly good. It wasn’t too difficult to figure it out early on, but the author handled the mystery & plot in an interesting and reasonably plausible way, at least. At the start, I hadn’t expected to like it, nor thought I’d finish it, but I’d found it to be a pleasantly light read, and will likely read another in the series. A lot of people might find it fun as bedtime reading.