The history of five of Queen Victoria's granddaughters. Alexandra, the shy and proud queen of Russia; Marie, the dramatic and empathic queen of Romania; Victoria Eugenie, who introduced hemophilia into the heirs of Spain; Maud, the bourgeoisie queen of Norway; and Sophie, who was so maligned as the sister to the hated Kaiser Wilhelm II that she lost her throne in Greece. The book doesn't have much focus, nor does it have a thesis; it's merely a collection of biographies that wouldn't stand alone on their own. Frustratingly, Gelardi switches from one queen to the next in a matter of paragraphs, making it hard to get a feel for each of their personalities. Still, Gelardi has a clear grasp of history and uses quotes from the queens' correspondence to good effect. I came away with a slightly better understanding of each queen and a much better feel for European history after WWI. ( )

Ms Gelardi has presented us with a huge amount of information from a very specific point of view that of the state of european monarchy in five country: Romania, Spain, Greece, Norway and Russia highlighting the lives of five granddaughters of Queen Victoria who became queen consorts. It is not an academic study, however her sources include a huge amount of personal correspondance which merits the author a creditable effort. The approach is chronological and fucuses mostly on the personal circumstances of the protagonists. On a more negative note, I found confusing the varied references to the same person, for example Queen Victoria Eugénie was known to close family members as Ena, however the author chose to refer to her several ways sometimes within the same paragraph. Given that some names were popular among the offsprings of Queen Victoria (for example, Victoria, Beatrice, Alexandra, Albert), I had to backtrack several times to understand the family relationships. A more complete genealogical tree would also have been useful. Despite this issue, I recommend the book. ( )

Born to Rule is a biography of the select five granddaughters of Queen Victoria who became royal consorts during the early to mid-twentieth century amidst some of the tumultuous years before, during and after WWI. The five granddaughters it focuses on are Marie of Romania, Sophie of Greece, Alexandra (Alix) of Russia, Maud of Norway and Victoria Eugenie (Ena) of Spain. Instead of begin told as five separate biographies it is told chronologically and the women's lives are told jointly.

I have to admit that my knowledge of this time period and these women was very shaky prior to reading this book. Honestly the only woman I knew a little about is Alix of Russia who goes on to marry Nicholas II and they become the last of the Romanov Dynasty. So I found this book to be highly informative and interesting. It is filled with a lot of excellent detail about the time period and these women. Also, information included is the last years of Queen Victoria's reign.

This book does an excellent job at pointing out the similarities and differences between these women and their lives. Some of them including Sophie of Greece, Alix of Russia and Ena of Spain have very tragic and sad stories and these women who loved their adopted countries so much were never really accepted as part of the culture. We all know the fate of the Romanov's but Ena of Spain and Sophie of Greece also died in exile, without ever really being allowed to live in the countries they helped govern for so many years. Of the five women the only one who is truly admired in her country for the work she did was Maud of Norway who compared to the other women lead an almost fairly normal existence devoid of some of the scandals that rocked the other women. I enjoyed reading about all the women but the author focus a lot of Marie of Romania whose fiery and outgoing personality lead her into some trouble in her life and also helped her to become a very important figure in Romania's politics during the time she ruled.

The only problem I had with this book was that there was a few typos and grammatical errors and probably could have used a better editor but I found that it did not take away from the story of these women and I still found that the pace moved well through time. I also would have loved to have more information about Maud of Norway who unfortunately did not get as much attention as some of the other women. Besides these few things, I thought the book read really well and though I am not considered by an means be an expert on this time period I thought it provided a good look at some of the granddaughters of Queen Victoria who when on to lead marry into royal families. ( )

This book follows the intertwining lives and the political environment of the five of Queen Victoria's granddaughters who were reigning consorts: Marie of Romania whose affairs scandalised Europe, Maude who hated Norway and wanted to live in England, Alexandra who was killed along with her family in the Russian revolution and the luckier Sophie of Greece and Victoria Eugenie of Spain both of whom were exiled from the lands they ruled due to political unrest. I had always known how interrelated (and inbred) the European royal families were, however reading this book gave fresh insight into the family quarrels that were inherently political. Even with the best known of these women, Alexandra, Gelardi was able to reveal her life and her motivations beyond the standard reading. (Why is it, I wonder, that no-one writing about the Russian Revolution ever thinks to mention that Nicolas and Alexandra were a love match and courted for years? Ah, of course, that's an unimportant 'feminine' detail, why would we need to know that?) In any case, this book is filled with similarly well researched and documented facts about these women and how their lives impacted European history. Well worth the read. ( )

If it wasn't for the fact that this book was very entertaining to read and I finished it in no time, I'd say that this was someone's doctoral dissertation. How long did it take this author to collect such a massive amount of research? It's mindblowing! With so much research, Gelardi weaves intertwining tales of 5 first cousins, descents of Queen Victoria, and women who became reigning Queens throughout Europe by using the very words of the women themselves. There were times I felt like I was reading these women's diaries, their identities just leapt right off the page. I look forward to other books in the future by Julia Gelardi.