Sex with Kings: Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge

Historical Smut is always the best

At time I too felt that this book was disjointed, however, that doesnt mean it wasnt a good read. I truly enjoyed this book, its fun to get into the nitty gritty of things at times. I've used Herman's books as well as Farquhar's books to occasionally break up my more serious reading. You will learn a lot reading these books, but its fluffier than some other books. I look forward to reading her book about the female pope!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Its fluffy fun

This book is The Star of history books... which is perfect for me! I think too often people try to be overly academic in the history writing and research; history should not always be glorified they had their drama everyday as us. This book is great for relaxed and enjoyable reading. Its incredibly entertaining. At times it seems disjointed in its presentation, however, its not so bad as to detract from the book or her great deal of research. I look forward to reading more of her books!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sex with Kings: Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge

Okay! I have finished this book and loved it. I highly recommend it if you are interrested in the behind the sceens life of the royalites. I'm going to pick up Sex with a Queen as soon as I leave work!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sex with Kings: Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge

I have not even finished this book yet and realy love it. It is very informative and entertaining. I read a lot of historical fiction on the monarchs and just about every story includes one mistress or another. This book takes you deeper into the functionality of the mistress and how she got to her status and/or may have lost it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A very entertaining book!

Entertaining and well researched. A guilty pleasure you won´t want to put down.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Royal Bedrooms

An intimate glimpse into the boudoirs of some of the kings throughout history, Sex with Kings investigates their liaisons outside the marriage bed. There were lots of meaningful and trivial facts, but the subject matter was well-researched and in most cases, intriguing. It was easy to feel sympathy for the kings, the queens and the mistresses, as accepted practices throughout the years were not optimal for the fairy tale love I'd read about in storybooks of my youth. Definitely worth the romp, if you enjoy royal history!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

eBook Review: Extremely well-formatted, but full page pictures missing

Because B&N doesn't support line breaks in reviews, my lengthy review for the (5-star) content of this book can be found elsewhere online. This review will focus on the formatting of the eBook at time of writing (03/30/2011). This eBook is extremely well-formatted - I never noticed any errors in the text nor in the table of contents links. However, the paperback copy of this book has several full page color pictures of the kings and their mistresses, whereas in the eBook format the pictures have apparently been left out entirely, which was disappointing. Otherwise, this is an extremely well-formatted eBook with no major flaws.

Great Beach Read

I really enjoyed this book! It was sometimes difficult to follow because Herman jumps around in each chapter to different monarchs and mistresses, but I'm not sure there would be a better way to organize her points. I thought it was well researched and Herman's writing style keeps you engaged, and of course the subject matter does too! Perfect for your beach vacation or a lazy weekend afternoon!

Fun Historical Non-Fiction

I really like the perspective of this book, since women in history are so rarely written about or even remembered. She covers all aspects of these women's lives: the good, the bad, the politics, the sex, the social aspect, the scandal, everything.

cute

I got a kick out of this book, and not just from the eyebrows raised when people saw it in my bookshelves. It is a fast, easy read that details the life and times of some of the women behind 'great' men. I found it incredibly eye opening, especially from a standpoint of fiscal (ir)responsibility. I found the book to be a tad redundant in some places...the same mistress and her story was mentioned multiple times with no new information. But, overall, I recommend this book to people who enjoy somewhat obscure niches of history.

Fun, but lacking

I found this book to be a fun little ditty. The relatively short chapters make it good light reading. The intriguing title made me want to read, but I was greatly disappointed. I agree with a previous reviewer when she stated that more in depth research could have made this a better book. I also found the book to be repetitive in many places, restating facts (ex. pompadour was a sickly women)in practically every chapter. Additonally this book lacked organization, which made it harder to read. One was constantly jumping around from country to country and over many different time spans. The chapter headings are clearly not enough to make this mess organized. Overall this was a fun book, but nothing I would recall a year from now.

Delightful and Insightful!

Who says history has to be a dry, dusty trudge through a desert of dead factoids? Ms. Herman's witty, eloquently written tour of the naughty girls of history proves that the past was a living thing wrought by lusty human beings with needs and desires that directed the course of events. If, like me, you have always been curious about the sex lives of the great monarchs and their mistresses, SEX WITH KINGS will enthrall you from first page to last. You will encounter the most powerful women in Europe; women whose sexual liasons with kings brought them to the forefront of political life and enmeshed them in the machinations of state. Fascinating and meticulously researched, this magnificently illustrated and arranged volume is compulsively readable--impossible to put down! I have purchased several copies to give to my friends. Written with great flair, intelligence and humor, SEX WITH KINGS is for everyone who enjoys a good book.

Looking for more

I thought the author could have done more. what drives a powerful man to adultery? What sexually satifed these powerful men? What about some dirty little bedroom secrets of the most powerful men of there time? As readers we were only given the most mundane of sexs acts ' one dirty little Frenchmen with a toe fetish' there has to be more. I also could have used a little more of the authors personal views her voice not unlike an automated phone answering machine 'just the facts mam'. I removed the dust jacket so as not to look like a perv reading somthing with the word SEX in four inch red letters. This is probly a good coversation starter at the local starbucks but with out the depth this subject could have the book left me looking for more.

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