Author: Rebecca Chance
ISBN: 978-1-47110-168-7
RRP: $24.99
Currently we have 10 copies of Killer Queens to giveaway and if you haven’t already I suggest you head over HERE to enter the competition because this book is well worth the read. I read the blurb when the competition began and thought the premise sounded intriguing so I made sure to begin this one at my earliest convenience.
Killer Queens focuses on royal families and their somewhat quirky desires, I wanted to call them intimate but there is not a lot of what I would call intimacy in most of these behaviours.
Royalty live their lives in the public eye, we all know this. Every glossy magazine, newspaper, TV channel, tabloid and internet news site will plaster royals on every available surface if they think they have a story. We have watched it time and time again, quite often it is not nice; it is not flattering and it is designed to move product more than educate the public. This is not something new, not something unusual and it is certainly not something we would find hard to believe because it does happen in our lives with such regularity.
Any time a young royal is out having fun and letting loose a little you see it everywhere so it wasn’t really surprising for me to read Killer Queens and discover just how much of what these royals got up to never made the papers. There were always people on the payroll that could make these sort of things go away.
Behind the palace doors things are far from what they seem and I must say that I REALLY wasn’t surprised to find out who was pulling the strings, in all cases.
There is so much emphasis put on carrying on the line, producing heirs and having the right person to inherit the throne. All of which is completely understandable, the royal hierarchy is important and there is that air of strength and virility when the perfect heirs are produced. It is not difficult to believe that love is not the most important aspect of a royal match but it is difficult to imagine the depths of deception people will get involved in to make what they think is the best match for their country.
We focus on three women, all at some point engaged to the throne. Belinda was a statuesque and gorgeous young lady who married Prince Oliver only to find out that things were far from how they seemed, in the end she faked her own death to escape. She was swept away and believed her marriage was based on love, it was while she was carrying her first child that she realised this was not the case. She was much loved by the world and devoted to her children, twenty years later she is still greatly missed as she lives incognito with her lover – another royal who has become rather reclusive since helping Princess Belinda flee. She believed she did what she had to do to survive but she has been plagued throughout the entire twenty years with yearnings for her children.
I have to say Belinda reminds me a lot of Princess Diana, and there was speculation at the time of her death about it being conspiracy…. but no, I think it’s more that she was beautiful and much loved across the world, she was much younger than her husband, and the depression and it could even be as simple as the fact that Oliver too was Prince of Wales so both Buckingham and Kensington Palaces were part of the story.
Chloe is not of royal or aristocratic heritage, she is from a regular family and meets Prince Hugo by chance in a coffee shop. The two develop a friendship and then a relationship and after a long courtship they get engaged. Chloe does not fare well with the paprazzi – not helped by the caustic and spiteful rumour mongering of Hugo’s younger sister. Chloe is not a royal, nor an aristocrat, she was not brought up in the same circles and so is always a little on the outside. (This too is seeming very familiar… the English royal family of Killer Queens is reminding me quite distinctly of the current English Royal family.)
The match between Hugo and Chloe is very much a relationship built on love and respect. The two are partners already and plan to continue to develop their partnership. This is not a royal match made to create the most desirable heirs, this is a couple who are madly in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together. They are both quite responsible, respectable and much more sedate than their wild and largely uncontrolled peers. Chloe feels the pressure of the paparazzi, the insecurity of being a ‘commoner’ surrounded by royals. What Chloe has that the rest seem to be lacking is a loving family and a happy childhood.
Lori, is a tall, blonde, beautiful American competing in the Olympics. She is a fresh faced American girl who catches the eye of the King of Herzoslovakia. A whirl-wind romance sweeps her off her feet and within mere months of her medal win at the Olympics she is draped with more precious metals and jewels than she ever would have dreamed. Lori too is much younger than her fiancee and being from America and far from royal circles she doesn’t have the insider information that the royals all over Europe seem to share.
Killer Queens follows the journey of these three strong and resilient women as they discover that some people will go to extreme lengths to keep the royal secrets a secret, carry on their line and still enjoy their little debaucheries. Little is not actually how I would describe any of their debaucheries really, even the most vanilla of our royals have some quirky behaviours they would prefer remained away from the public eye.
This book has it all, steamy scenes for every inclination, suspense, romance and a look inside the palaces of Europe – not to mention Buckingham and Kensington Palaces. Well written, intriguing, engrossing and a right royal romp.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!