Growing up, born in the early 90’s, my absolute favorite book were The Royal Diaries series from Scholastic. These books were a spinoff from the Dear America books (which I also read). They followed the middle age/teenage years of historically important royal women. To be honest, my obsession with monarchies and my interest in history (and my history degree) can be firmly traced from this series. I distinctly remember my mom buying the Marie Antoinette book for me at one of the Scholastic bookfairs when I was 11 years old. I then proceeded to take out as many of the books as I could find at my local library and read them over and over. Because I was limited to the library, there were two books I didn’t get to read.

Last year, I embarked on a book buying mission to get all The Royal Diaries books and succeeded. One of my goals for 2023 is to read them all and do a series of Tiktoks about my journey. But I realized my Tiktoks will just be ramblings if I don’t write my thoughts down first. So, in addition to my usual romance reviews, I’m also going to be doing reviews of The Royal Diaries books on this blog. While an odd combination, I figure these who remember reading these books growing up are certainly old enough to read romance.

This will be my master post of reviews and as I publish a new one, I’ll add the links to this post.

In addition to reading the books, I’m also going to do a bit of historical research about the women in the stories. I’ll hopefully be able to recommend a companion book or article for each story. I plan to go in chronological order of the royal women.

The Books:

• Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B.C. by Kristiana Gregory (1999)
• Lady of Ch’iao Kuo: Warrior of the South, Southern China, 531 A.D. by Laurence Yep (2001)
• Sŏndŏk: Princess of the Moon and Stars, Korea, 595 A.D. by Sheri Holman (2002)
• Lady of Palenque: Flower of Bacal, Mesoamerica, A.D. 749 by Anna Kirwan (2004)
• Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine, France, 1136 by Kristiana Gregory (2002)
• Isabel: Jewel of Castilla, Spain, 1466 by Carolyn Meyer (2000)
• Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 by Edwidge Danticat (2005)
• Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544 by Kathryn Lasky
• Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country, France, 1553 by Kathryn Lasky (2002)
• Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 by Patricia McKissack (2000)
• Jahanara: Princess of Princesses, India, 1627 by Kathryn Lasky (2002)
• Kristina: The Girl King, Sweden, 1638 by Carolyn Meyer (2003)
• Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets, Massachusetts-Rhode Island, 1653 by Patricia Clark Smith (2003)
• Catherine: The Great Journey, Russia, 1743 by Kristiana Gregory (2005)
• Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles, Austria-France 1769 by Kathryn Lasky (2000)
• Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia, England, 1829 by Anna Kirwan (2001)
• Elisabeth: The Princess Bride, Austria-Hungary, 1853 by Barry Denenberg (2003)
• Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven, Japan, 1858 by Kathryn Lasky (2004)
• Kaiulani: The People’s Princess, Hawaii, 1889 by Ellen Emerson White (2001)
• Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914 by Carolyn Meyer (2000)

Published by SomewhereLostInBooks

I’m Melisa! I’m an avid reader. I love romance novels and decided, hey, why not write about what I love and hate about the genre. And my favorite books. And when I get to meet authors. And all round why romance novels are awesome. Expect a lot of fan-girling, laughter, and some tears. View all posts by SomewhereLostInBooks