Saturday, April 21, 2012

Book Review: A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen

Title: A Royal Pain (A Royal Spyness Mystery)
Author: Rhys Bowen
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Audible for iPhone
Books I've read this year: 59

First of all, you may have noticed something different about the heading of my reviews. I've decided to switch from 1-10/10 system to a *-**** system. I'm a grade grubber, and the number out of ten system makes me feel like I'm failing someone when I give them anything less than a six, and I think it's artificially inflating some of my ratings. So I've decided to switch over to the system used by Goodreads and basically everyone else. One star means it was awful. Two means it was ok. Three means it was good. Four means it was very good. And five means it was amazing and life changing and all that good stuff. So a three-star book is a good book. And A Royal Pain was a solid three for me.

In the second Royal Spyness Mystery, Lady Georgie is still in London in the spring of 1933, still trying to make a living cleaning houses without letting the Queen find out, still looking for a suitable wealthy man to marry, and still getting herself into lots of trouble. A Royal Pain opens with the Queen asking Georgie to house a visiting Bavarian princess, Honey, in hopes that her errant son David will fall in love with Honey and leave that detestable Wallis Simpson alone. However, as soon as Honey arrives, people start turning up dead. First there's an accident at a party, then they stumble over a body in a bookshop, then Honey's guardian dies of a heart attack. The Queen gives Georgie the added responsibility of trying to find out if the deaths are suspicious or related, all while entertaining the boy-crazy princess.

I feel a little bit guilty for liking the Royal Spyness mysteries. They are very light and fun, and also a little predictable. They don't feel like real life, at least not like mine, which I think is part of the allure. They're perfect to listen to while cleaning the house or doing laundry-- Georgie has such an engaging voice (I don't mean that literally, although the reading is fine, I just think she expresses herself in an interesting way). I'll probably keep downloading these books for when I need a break from the heavier stuff.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

SO I started reading this series after your first review (Her Royal Spyness) and while I loved this book, I admit there was a scene in it that caught me a little off-guard. Made me laugh, but also kind of made me want to puke a little :/ I actually read somewhat sexy stuff sometimes, too. I'm debating in my head whether or not to give the series to Mom for mother's day, with a slight disclaimer about that scene (BTW... no other scenes like it in the rest of the series, which I have yes already consumed like little debbie snack cakes.) By the way this is Sarah Dunster. I forgot that google posts my blog-name, nosurfgirl.

Shelah said...

My mom has been reading them, fwiw. In fact, I just texted her to tell her that I bought #3 with my Audible credits and she could listen to it. But then again, my heathen reading ways may have rubbed off on her.

Unknown said...

Sounds like a plan, then :) Glad I'm not the only heathen on this planet.