This book provides an interesting hook to tell 900 years of European aristocratic history. Adultery with queens was far more sensational than the routine indiscretions of kings. It came in several different forms, from powerful ruling queens who openly took several lovers at a time to consorts who were beheaded for one (falsified) indiscretion. Over all, a worthy peek into a side of history that you don't often learn in high school. Eleanor Herman has a knack for catchy and imaginative depiction More...

Oh, there's just something about dirty laundry, especially when it's royal.

It's more of the same from Eleanor Herman, page after page of secret liasons and torrid affairs rampaging throughout European courts. It's a nice dip for the gossip in all of us.

However, if you read Sex With Kings, you'll probably recognize many of the anecdotes and instances cited--apparently as the king was screwing around, the queen didn't waste time either. Good for her.

Lots of courts were filled with intrigue and plo More...

Throughout history, queens have taken lovers, and their actions have often changed the course of history. This book details some of the most famous and influential cases of adultery and love affairs throughout history.

This was an absolutely fascinating book, well-written and with an engrossing subject matter. The author never gets bogged down with too many details, but still manages to convey the desperation of many of these unfortunate queens. The short vignettes allows the author to cover many More...

My lil' sis gave me this one. It's basically about various queens love affairs. The chapter on Marie Antoinette and Fersen, which was sufficiently romantic for my sensibilities, having been raised on BeruBara.

I have learned though, that while it may have been good to be the King (and even that's really debatable: The last King I read about was pretty much tortured into insanity by his tutors in their attempts to make him a 'real man') it was not good to be the Queen. Married off in your early te More...

The title sounds quite tawdry, but the book itself is far from a Harlequin Romance. It takes a look at what life was like for a queen, from Medieval Times through Queen Victoria’s reign. Most marriages were for political gain, where a daughter was bartered off to a husband that was disinterested, cruel, insane or homosexual. And a queen consort couldn’t necessarily distract herself from a loveless marriage through the opulence of court life - - castles were often cold, dark and rodent infested a More...

Having been utterly enchanted by Sex with Kings, Herman’s first book, I could not wait to read the sequel Sex with the Queen. I was not disappointed. Just as cram packed with royal gossip as its predecessor, this book was witty and interesting and I could not put it down.
Much criticism was placed on Herman for the structure of Sex with Kings, with many remarking that they didn’t like the way she had divided her chapters into themes and she should instead have spoken about each mistress individua More...

The subject matter for this is already interesting, at least it is to me. Eleanor Herman steps into the role of royalty and has a manner of speaking in her writing as if she was there, which really aides in keeping the reader's attention. There are times when you could think you're reading a sexy romance novel; which you'll find yourself laughing considering that it's history you're engaged in rather than the imagination of a sex-starved middle-aged novelist living more for her cheese-infested More...

My new hero is Marguerite-Louise of France, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The Duchess found herself made to Cosimo de Medici in 1661. She didn't like him; it's easy to understand way. He was that Cosimo de Medici after all. They both had affairs. After the death of her father-in-law, Marguerite demanded to be allowed back to France where she could have fun. She finally was, and then put into a convent. She went out and partied anyway. The king got a new prioress who said no, no. Marguerite said yeah More...

I hemmed and hawed over Eleanor Herman's "Sex with Kings", mainly because I really couldn't say much about historical accuracy without doing a ton of research. Or so I thought. Simply googling one of the queens featured in "Sex with the Queen" proved my suspicions of Herman's shoddy research and fact-bending correct. Then I looked at her bibliography, a detail I forgot in my last review, and... well.

The two stars here are, again, for Herman's nice prose and good selection. I definitely want to w More...

Sex with the Queen was an intriquing collection of historical facts and drama, told in a quick, witty and attention-grabbing dialogue.
The author spends just enough time (in a very few cases, just a bit too much time) on each queen or princess and their background, marriage, spouse and eventual lover(s). The writing is informative, but not dry, and with a good base explaination of what a marriage was made of in the days of arranged, political matches. These women were often married off to mad, di More...

A very fun, quick book about a number of historical women (not just queens either) who have had affairs whilst being wed. This is a great compilation of those who want to get into historical women or those who need to find some new "characters" to learn about (like myself, this book in fact lead me to research Queen Marie of Romania among others).

It was insanely fun to read about how Anne Boleyn never did cheat on Henry VIII but her cousin Katherine Howard did and they both lost their heads. Ho More...

"Sex with the Queen" is meant to be racy "airing of dirty laundry" read. Unfortunately the author seems to have foregone with an editor- the script lacks any sort of coherency, jumping from one era to another; one country to another.

I had expected a witty anecdotal book- it starts humorously enough, recounting the story about a King who had to be carried all the way to his bedchamber to consummate his marriage. I enjoyed reading about some of the misadventures of the lesser known kings & qu More...

This book was a seriously entertaining look at the love lives of queens, princesses, and other royal ladies. When marriages were arranged with politics and power in mind, most royal brides had no chance of falling in love with their betrothed. Indeed, many of their husbands might be insane, deformed, or retarded from such close guarding of the family bloodline, not to mention gay or involved with a mistress (or several) of their own. What's a girl to do? Must she live without love and only have More...

This book was one of the best non-fiction books I have read in a while. "Most European queens were raised to be chaste, demure and obedient, in the image of the Virgin Mary. They generally married young, knew nothing of sex or pregnancy, and were expected to spawn lots of kids. But some of these queens weren't content to just sit and embroider -- they ran straight into the arms of hot courtiers."-E.A. Solinas

This is actually a DNF for me :(
The format drove be crazy - everything seemed to be a "summary" - I kept waiting for the actual book to begin, but it never did.
There is, of course, a scarcity of information when it comes to the affairs of queens. Unlike Kings, Queens were expected to be virtuous, so their affairs were well hidden. Still, a good number of these accounts seem to be supposition of the time - an unreliable source in my opinion! Perhaps without using these stories Herman didn't have More...

I think I have found a new favorite book. In the follow-up book to Sex with Kings, we get a whirlwind tale through 900 years of European royalty, all told through the eyes of the queen’s bedroom. From Eleanor of Aquitaine to Princess Diana, from England to France to Germany to Russia, we go into the secret lives of some of the most famous women in history.
This book isn’t only about the love lives of queens (though it’s hard to think otherwise with the huge red SEX on the cover and a bare butt). More...

Stars: 4.5

Overall: This book was a a fun and crazy read. I couldn't believe some of the things Queens and princesses were put through. At certain points of the book i had to put it down because i was getting frustrated and mad at some of these past kings for there cruelty and mistreatment. Plus what i noticed a lot was that the family was the one really setting this up and if they actually took the time to look into some of these kings and princes and cared for their daughters maybe things could More...

This book felt like it was missing something. I'm not sure why, really. Maybe it's because, despite the assertion that we're dealing with "beloved" and "infamous" queens, the unfortunate fact is that very few women really made a lasting impact in the historical record, which means we know them less well than we know their respective kings — if we've heard of them at all —, so it's not quite as much fun to read about their private lives. Or maybe it's more that, unlike kings, who could conduct th More...

A history of European queens and their lovers, this is a very worthy companion to Herman's other book, Sex with Kings, a history of European kings and their mistresses. It was engagingly written, well-researched and full of titillating details. Even people who normally don't go for history will enjoy this. I highly recommend!

Most of this book is definitely written much better in comparison with its mate, "Sex With Kings." However, the entire thing read like it had foregone an editor -- from chapter lengths to paragraphs to (seriously) incomplete sentences, at times several on one page, this book was wrought with technical issues, or, most likely, just bad writing. I am sorry to say that. Bad writing can make or break a non-fiction book, and in this case, it completely broke it. I couldn't even tell what I was readin More...

Fascinating read. An inside look at what it was truly like to be queen in a monarchy.

Humorous, witty, chock full o' facts, it's a racy, sexy book filled with gossip of the best (and fact checked!) kind.

I love her writing style with lush descriptions and plenty of footnotes.

I accidentally bought this book twice, and out of principle i read it again.

the stories revolve around histories of queens and their lovers. Some come out happy ending while the majority have to watch their lovers killed, hang, disemboweled and many others inventive ways of killing someone.

the strongest stories are of course the already well researched and well known such as wives of Henry VIII and Catherine the great. I found Sophia Dorothea most endearing while i don't think the story of Que More...

A bit salacious but extremely readable study of royal affairs from the distaff perspective

Another good read, but not as much fun. That's because queen's were often treated horribly. My blood pressure rose frequently while reading this book. I wanted to behead a few kings and ministers. Sex with the queen was generally not a recipe for a long life.

If you want to know all of Europe's Royalty's affairs and dirty secrets and don't want a lot of substance, this book would be perfect for you. Overall, it's light and entertaining but the writing left a lot to be desired in terms of content, writing style, and history.

Herman's writing style is very forced - she poses a lot of needlessly over-the-top hypothetical questions/scenarios ("imagine [insert princess/duchess/queen here]'s last moments was on her lover...") that drew me out of the book b More...

After Th Other Boelyn Girl, I was craving some more historical raunch! This is non-fiction, and reminds me of my old AP Euro Hist teacher who delighted in telling Catholic school HS girls scandalous sex tales of renaissance clergy & royals.

So disappointing. This book just tried to hard to be over the top and interesting. I question the veracity of the "facts" of the sex lives of queens. It is a bombardment of "facts" and unbelieveable stories. It felt sensationalized and written in a way to try to grab the readers attention. Rather than interject her own form of humor to get the readers attention and entertainment (a la Mary Roach) the author, rather, sensationalizes the stories that she likely knows cannot be true. I was especial More...

I've been wanting to read this book for ages. It did not disappoint. Witty and very cleverly written, it's a joy to read. Funny at times, thought-provoking and heartbreaking at others.
You can't help but feel for some of these queens and be happy for them when they find love and admiration - mostly away from their husbands. Though, there were a couple who did not win any favours with me. It's a credit to Herman that she was able to write heartbroken princess just as well as manipulative harpy hah More...

Before reading this book I had already read Eleanor Herman's 'Sex with Kings'. In regards to that book I complained that it was lacking in a chronological sense. That was definetely not a problem with this book. The composition was chronological and built on case-studies. The case-studies, though, made the book a little less general. In stead of some general observations conserning why, how, and when queens have sx with others than their king, this book focused on specific stories and their circ More...

Fascinating look into the lives of European princesses and queens forced into loveless marriages.