The Princess Spy by Larry Loftis

Genre: Biography, True Crime

Format: Print/Paperback

Pages: 384

Start Date: July 15th, 2023

End Date: July 19th, 2023 

Overall: ★★

Character Development: ★ 

Ending: ★★ 

Recommend: No 

🚨 Contains Spoilers, Continue at Your Own Risk 🚨

     Obviously by my rating I didn’t enjoy reading this book. I really had to push myself to keep going and finish it; mostly because I knew if I stopped I would never pick it up again. To the book’s defense, I was under the impression that it was a historical fiction, in which I was really missing the fiction part of it. Even now knowing the true genre of the book, I wouldn’t change my ratings. I felt that the book itself really needed some editing. I found there to be punctuation issues which was confusing, plus the author repeats himself verbatim several times. For example, he mentions a hypothesis that Pierre was a traitor and serial murderer…. The specific sentence was mentioned at least two times, if not three. Why? The author includes pictures of photographs and documents which was cool, but given this is my first biography maybe that’s common within this genre. 

     I will give credit where credit is due, the prologue had me HOOKED! Before I even started this book I was excited to read it, but the prologue just added fuel to my desire. Unfortunately, it stopped there. The beginning was horribly slow and just dragged on and on…. The prologue excerpt was really the only exciting part of the book, and it’s fed to you before you even begin. I did enjoy the epilogue, which gives accounts of what really happened to each of the main characters, but that also brings up another issue….. there were A LOT of people mentioned in this book. Combine that with all these foreign diplomatic names, I was confused. Again, maybe it’s attributed to the fact that I don’t read this genre. Hey, at least I can say I branched out of my comfort zone…..

     If you could change one thing about the book, what would it be? As I mentioned above, it really could’ve used some more editing. Besides that, I wish the author gave a little more excitement about Aline’s story. From what the author tells us about Aline’s books, she had a habit of embellishing the facts. I’m not talking about embellishment, but just seems that there could’ve been a more exciting style of writing. Maybe I’m looking for something that doesn’t exist within this genre. I do feel like the author tries to give us some backstory, for example, the process of spies or downed fighter pilots obtaining guides and crossing the Pyrenees to safety, yet it almost seemed useless with how the author wrote about it. Like the author went down this rabbit hole of a side tangent, then circles back to the story at play. Seemed confusing and like there was a better way to get the background information across.

     What was something the author did well within the book? Even though I am on the fence on whether or not I actually liked all the citations and evidence from Aline’s life, it was interesting that the author provided that to his reader. The last 100 pages, or so, is devoted to citing the author’s research and sources he used for this story.

     Was there something that was lacking in the book? If so, what? The one thing I wish was included was what happened to Casilda. She was so much of Aline’s life during her time in Spain, plus courted Aline’s husband prior to their relationship, then just nothing. Maybe it wasn’t documented, maybe there isn’t a story to tell, but seemed like a missed opportunity given how she was portrayed in the beginning of the book.

     I guess I just felt like I was built up for this exciting spy story, for the story to never get exciting. The most interesting part about the book was the ending and epilogue. Now, don’t come at me for not appreciating history. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. My feelings are just that of disappointment, I guess. Is that my fault, though? Possibly. My husband poked fun at me for not being THRILLED by a history book. Here is my reason: there is a quote on the cover of the book by The Wall Street Journal that says, “[A] real-life espionage thriller…..fast-paced, edgy, and highly engaging”. So, from the start, I, as a reader, am set up to expect an exciting adventure. This book missed the mark for me.