I think that this one suffered a bit by being the third biography of the daughters of George III that I have read. This was well-trodden territory for me. I felt like Curzon's chattier style also did not suit me. It's frustrating because these princesses were clearly interesting and passionate women who had ambitions, goals and personal desires, all of which they had to set aside due to their royal status. It feels sad that no writer so far seems to have been able to make them come alive on the page and I did not really feel that they did so here either. This was a shame but not necessarily the fault of Catherine Curzon - the six daughters of George III seem to have simply faded from history into oblivion.

If you're a fan of historical fiction, this book is not to be missed. Fans of Margaret George and similar authors will delight in this book's conversational and easy style. It is filled to the brim with tidbits and facts but is told as if you were sitting in a coffee shop with an old friend sharing stories. The book is long but seems to fly by. I had put this off until I had time to really absorb myself into it, but now I'm regretting letting it go for so long. Pick it up!

Thank you, Netgalley, for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 4 stars

Favorite Quote: "The life of Princess Amelia was agonizingly short and for one who lived with such determination, at the end of her life, she simply faded away."

Summary: The six princess daughters of King George III and Queen Charlotte all shared a longing for escape. A mad father and a domineering mother kept the six princesses from achieving their potential as the most eligible daughters in the world. Lives lived in isolation dashed with dashing equerries, clandestine marriage, and rumors of a scandalous pregnancy. A tale of princesses trying to be seen as women in their own right.

Review: What made this historical biography easy to connect to and get invested in was Curon’s casual, almost chatty, way of presenting history. This biography read like a gossip conversation, and this lent itself to the content very well. I did struggle to remember who was who when referenced, but this could be an impairment on my part due to being a beginner in European history. Curzon really made it easy to empathize with the princesses and see them as actual humans. What I admired most was the clear care with which Curzon regarded the woman and girls she was writing about. A fascinating glimpse into these mysterious and elusive Royals. I hope to read more from Curzon!

This novel tells the story of the sis princesses of George III. While I like the author’s writing style, I found the subject to be very boring. None of these princesses interested me, and I prefer the author’s Queens of Georgian Britain over this novel. Still, I recommend this for fans of Matthew Dennison, Alison Weir, and Melanie Clegg!

Interesting look at the lives of the daughters of George III. It was well-researched and the writing was easy to digest and entertaining. Learned a lot from this book.

Any royal history reader will love this book. Thoroughly researched with lots of interesting the bits I can't wait to read more from the author.

Other that knowing that King George III was the ruling monarch when the US gained their independence, I had very little knowledge about King George, Queen Charlotte, or their (very very large) brood of children before reading this book. This book goes into detail of King George III's six daughters: Charlotte, Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia. It starts with their births and follows each of them until they pass away. It's very informative and gives a lot of insight into what it was like as the child of a ruling monarch during that time.

This book provides an in-depth look at each of George III’s six daughters’ lives. Well researched this book was quite the intriguing read. The author supports her narrative with fascinating tidbits and quotes which makes it all the more interesting and adds a personal touch. A short, quick flowing read this is a great informative read for history lovers.

This book provides an in-depth look at each of George III’s six daughters’ lives. Each daughter is examined in turn, a choice that sometimes feels awkward, as we don't get to know much about their relationship with each other.. As is to be expected with royal biographies, this book is full of scandals and rumours, despite the cloistered nature of the daughters’ lives. The six daughters were born in two distinct groups of three, separated by a number of years. It is refreshing to have a book about the daughters, whom has often been overlooked. This is not a scholarly book - but for everybody with an interest in the history of the British monarchy.

***I was granted ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

It has become more common to look at the lives of the women who were part of the European royalty than in the past. This book, The Daughters of George III: Sisters and Princess by Catherine Curzon looks at the lives of the six daughters of George III of Great England and his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz: Charlotte, Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia. The author first tells the reader about their parents and what their childhood routine would have looked like. Then the next six parts are dedicated to the lives of one of the princesses. Curzon does a great job of bringing the personality of each princess to life. You get a good portrait of young women trying to live their own lives while their father goes mad and their overbearing mother tries to keep them under her wing even into adulthood. I wished we could have gotten more details of their lives in this book but this serves as a survey of their lives. I'd recommend this book to those interested in European royalty and history.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

Interesting, almost juicy account of the lives of George III’s daughters. Well-researched and put together by a biographer who is obviously very invested in her subject. I enjoyed reading this book, but I’d have liked a bit more of an objective approach. The author supports her narrative with fascinating tidbits and quotes, which is very helpful in showing us that these royal personages of a time long past were human too, and that’s wonderful. However, she doesn’t always give the source of her information, and what also bothered me a little is that we are reading the author’s interpretation of events, feelings and motivations of the people discussed, presented as fact and not as the subjective conclusions of a modern day perspective.

Very interesting book with a lot of insight into Georges daughters. I read this over a few weeks as I wanted to really take in what I was reading in chunks and it was very enjoyable, I love history and all it has to tell me and teach me and so this was a breath of fresh air!

This book was a great introduction to the lives of the daughters of George III, all of whom played lesser roles in making history than the sons, particularly the three eldest, did. I appreciate that Curzon worked to distinguish the sisters from one another, highlighting their different personalities and life choices. However, I also didn’t feel like there was much here to engage or enlighten me, because of the fact that the princesses were largely bound by tradition. It would have been interesting to observe more in terms of the daughters in relations to their parents, which is touched on but not the focus, Queen Charlotte, who Curzon seems to enjoy writing about more.
However, while I did not enjoy it a ton personally, from a historical standpoint, I have few complaints, and feel that it would be suited to the historian audience more.

The Daughters of George III caught my eye because learning about royal women who have been overlooked by history is something that interests me as both a historian myself and as a reader. I thought this book would would illuminate the lives and the world of the daughters of George III, and it did, in part, but this book fell woefully short of my expectations.
What I liked: Obviously, the author knows her subject matter very well. This book is based on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, which helps in terms of its accuracy. The author did bring to light some interesting tidbits of royal history and covered the major events of the lives of these pricesses.
What I had an issue with can primarily be found in the author's writing style and the way she structured the book. Let me start with structure: there are 6 sections of the book covering each of the princesses. Curzon breezes through major life events of the sisters, but in separating things like this this book is left without a sense of coherency. Indeed, the book felt rushed. There was no explanation of historical context, the background of the British monarchy at the time, nor was the narrative weaved together to show how these princesses honestly got on with each other. The author's writing style is also very basic. She tries to write this book like she's having a conversation with the reader, but my word, this did not work for me. I didn't need the author's little comments here and there, and the writing came off as something more akin to a wikipedia post or a undergraduate paper. The prose was not refined, the quotes were randomly placed and not explained, and this just led me to not enjoy the book. This subject matter deserved a more professional and refined treatment. Good historians know how to weave a narrative from the facts that is seamless yet scholarly. So this book was not a winner for me and I was profoundly disappointed by it.

I know very little about the children of George III (except the Prince Regent) so I found this book an interesting and enjoyable introduction to his 15 children. This books focuses on his daughters but we do learn about their relationships with their brothers. Despite being princesses, the six women did not have the happiest of lives. Not only did they have their father's deteriorating mental illness to deal with but also with a demanding and, often, manipulative mother who restricted their freedom. This is a well researched book and very useful for anyone interested in the Georgian period.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I was drawn to this as I am a history fan and this and the subjects were ones I had no knowledge of

I knew George III had lots of children but had no knowledge of most of them - this was illuminating and sad in equal measure.

If you are interested in history this is a great one

Sad lives, for the most part. So complicated. I had no idea King George the 3rd had so many children. But what a clan.The princes were real pieces of work. And so many health issues among all of the children. Just sad. it was a very informative book and those interested in the Royals will enjoy it.

The many children of George III and Queen Charlotte certainly deserve a closer look. Going through the daughters one by one was a bit tricky though because the relationships between the siblings would have been what may have brought them to life for the reader. Rushing through the illnesses, marriage prospects and rumoured scandals of each one separately was not what I had hoped to find.
The chatty, almost gossipy writing style didn't serve the purpose to be taken seriously as a historical book at all, but it was a quick and easy read. Unfortunately it did not manage to make the daughters of George III any more interesting.

3 stars

“Had they been born in a different time it might all have been very different, but what ifs aren't our currency here.”

Curzon’s book provides an in-depth look at each of George III’s six daughters’ lives in turn. She begins with a description of their births and childhood before moving into an examination of each daughter in turn. As is to be expected with royal biographies, this book is full of scandals and rumours, despite the cloistered nature of the daughters’ lives. The six daughters were born in two distinct groups of three, separated by a number of years. The fact that all six of them survived into adulthood is not unsurprising, as they were all born in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

George III’s daughters lived as simple a childhood as can be expected in a palace. Notably, the children ate simple meals and spent their days studying or with their parents. The daughters received a separate education from the sons. They were preparing for life as a royal wife. Unfortunately, most of them would never actually become wives, which would have been their only way of leaving their childhood home and discovering the outside world as princesses in this time period. Initially, Queen Charlotte maintained that the eldest of the daughters--Royal--had to be the first to marry. As George III descended into insanity, Queen Charlotte kept her daughters closer and closer. Their talents and young lives were wasted. Those who married did so in their forties. None of them had any legitimate children. It wasn’t until Queen Charlotte’s death that the remaining two unmarried daughters were finally allowed some freedom.

Curzon paints a detailed picture of the effects of George III’s insanity on his family, which disproportionately landed on his daughters. She shows how all six talented young women were prevented from blossoming and discovering the world outside of their mother’s protection. While none of the daughters were given the chance to have children of their own, those who were able to marry in their later years did find some happiness, being able to make a home for themselves in other locations.

With biographies of multiple people, the author can either choose to examine all subjects together in chronological order or examine each individually. While I think it is preferable to separate the book when there are six subjects, this could have been improved. There were very little references to the relative ages of the six sisters. It would have been nice to have some reminders of what was happening with the daughters the reader had already read about at the same time. The descriptions of each sister’s lives were completely separate, almost as if they existed as separate books and not separate chapters. The book felt very disjointed for this reason, and could have been clearer had there been some reminders of the differences in age between the daughters past the very first chapter. Aside from this, the book was clearly very well researched and was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword History for the free copy in exchange for the honest review.

*Many thanks to Catherine Curzon, Pen & Sword and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
This was not my first book on the six princess, however, I still enjoyed reading about their their lives. Ms Curzon adapts a chatty style for telling the tales and not a scholarly language, which means that this non-fiction reads smoothly and is written in a way accessible to all readers. Moreover, this book can be treated as an introduction to the family life of George, Charlotte and their children, and is a good starting point for further studies should any of the characters become particulalry interesting.
I especially appreciated the focus on the tight-knit family relations between the parents and their multiple offspring and among the sisters. It is interesting that despite royal blood their were brought up like average children, which was rather unorthodox in that period, on the other hand, Queen Charlotte was selfish, especially when her daughters grew up, and was unwilling to allow them 'leave home' and start their own lives.