From the Publisher:

Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.

Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. And what women they were! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales.

But for all its grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed, unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. Hundreds of beautiful women vied to unseat theroyal mistress. Many would suffer the slings and arrows of negative public opinion, some met with tragic ends and were pensioned off to make room for younger women. But the royal mistress often had the last laugh, as she lived well and richly off the fruits of her "sins."

With diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe.

I finished this book in autumn of '07 but obviously forgot to journal. This was an entertaining and insightful look at 500 years of royal mistresses. The only "issue" I remember having with the book was that it was not told chronologically, making it occasionally difficult to remember who the various mistresses are when they are mentioned sporadically, depending on the focus of each chapter. Then again, the scope of the book is so vast that the author would have written umpteen biographies in order to tell each mistress's story chronologically. Having said that, the reader does get a very clear picture of each woman and her situation.

I'm setting up a bookray for this one.

A Few Guidelines:
*Please journal when you receive the book and again when you send it to the next participant.
*Please keep the book no longer than 4 to 6 weeks before sending it to the next participant on the list.
*The last person on the list should release the book in some Bookcrossing manner--wild release, continuing the bookray, RABCK, etc.
*By the way, depending on your e-mail filters, I've found that e-mails with this book title as the subject line occasionally go into the bulk or spam folder. Keep this in mind when contacting participants.

6/12/08: Sent to guinaveve today.

UPDATE:
11/12/08: Thanks to perryfran, who has offered a new copy of the book, this stalled ray will continue. If you have any questions, I refer you to perryfran, who will finish overseeing the ray. For more information, here is the link to the new copy of the book:
Sex with Kings, second copy

Participants:
guinaveve (US)
collectorkerri (US)
nicolesinger (US)
sarahjanemc (US) STALLED
Kiri (US)
CollegeLady (US)
Llednyl (US/Canada)
darkpunkangel (Int'l)
Wandering-B (Int'l)
madnad (Europe)

I received this today and am looking forward to reading it. I am going to finish up my current read tonight or tomorrow and then start this. I will go ahead and PM the next participant so that I have the address when I am ready to move this along.
Thanks for sharing it!

Despite the attention getting title, the book is not titillating, but very informative and interesting. I hadn't realized how central to the royal court the mistresses were. I would be intrigued to read more about the individual women mentioned throughout the book.
The prose did get flowery in a few places for brief paragraphs which didn't really go along with the factual based style of the rest of the book. This was fortunately limited and easily overlooked.
I look forward to the journal entries that will follow mine on this ring and hope that others find the book as interesting as I did. Thanks for sharing it humberts-doll. I will be mailing it off to the next participant after the weekend.

RELEASE NOTES:

If you are the finder of this book, welcome to the site. Please make a journal entry so that I know it has been picked up and found. To do so is free and you can do it anonymously. You can read the book or not, keep it, pass it on to someone else you think might enjoy it, or leave it in a public place like I did.

Received while I was on vacation. Will read and send on ASAP.

What a fascinating look at a topic I never even thought about but found really interesting. I learned an awful lot about European royalty that I had not known before.

Sent on to nicolesinger yesterday.

It's here! I'll try to get it read and turned around as quickly as I can.

Argh. I've made it all the way to p. 68, and while I'm liking it better than I was at the beginning, I'm really not into it. I've got another bookring coming and a bunch of books I picked up recently, PLUS a pile of library books due in a week... I think if I try to push through I'm going to have the book a long time, so I'm going to send it on.

The flowery prose irritates me, and the author's habit of attributing thoughts and emotions where there's no evidence for them (including to the reader, and I *hate* being told what I think, especially when I don't) really gets under my skin. I also feel that the author has a superficial knowledge of people's thoughts and attitudes during the earlier historical periods and tends to couch things in an overly modern perspective.

I did find the incidents and anecdotes supported from primary sources interesting and fun, and I'm given to understand that the sequel, Sex With Queens, is a lot better (and treats each affair individually instead of jumping around).

Thanks for sharing it with me! I've PMed sarahjanemc for her address.

EDIT: Mailed first class from the Morehead City Post Office yesterday, 8/27/08.