[.ca] The Royal Diaries: Elisabeth: The Princess Bride, ... (ISBN 0439266440)

Elisabeth, the Princess Bride:
Princess Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi, of Austria lives in finely built and decorated Possenhoffen Palace, whom Elisabeth lovingly calls Possi, with her parents, Mama and Poppy, and five brothers and sisters. Everyone all over Possenhoffen is in a rush because Elisabeth's mother and her older sister, Helene---Nene---are heading to the enormous palace home of the Emperor Franz. But Mama decides to take Elisabeth along, as a possible marriage proposal for Emperor Franz's cousin. But at the Emperor's palace, plans almost immediately change, and Franz makes a most unusual decision: He has decided that he will not marry Helene, but rather, he shall wed the beautiful Elisabeth. And now, instead of all the marriage preparations being thrown around Helene, Elisabeth gets the attention. Elisabeth also finds herself slowly falling in love with Emperor Franz. She cannot believe that in a few short months, she shall be crowned as Empress Elisabeth, and then all of Austria will love her as their Empress. Bridal showers, gifts, gowns, dresses, menus, furniture, carriages, horses, pets, flowers, jewelry, veils...anything you can imagine is being bought for the wedding. Elisabeth's diary ends on the day of the wedding. Barry Denenberg, who I can honestly say is definitely not one of my favorite historical fiction Scholastic authors, has done a slightly over average fulfillment of successfully narrating the story of a not necessarily important queen, but an interesting one nonetheless. My only qualms with the book that it was too short---the diary is only 93 pages! The characters never really seemed to fully develop, and Elisabeth liked to list things often, not something I would like for in a story about an Austrian princess. Not my favorite in the Royal Diaries, but still good. Recommended.

Not enough:
Author Barry Denenberg picked a fascinating woman from history for his contribution to the Royal Diaries series. In this book, though, he doesn't have enough. He doesn't go into enough detail to make this a fabulous read. He hints at a few things once or maybe twice, but then just forgets about it. There are so many more thing that he could have written more about, like her obsession with her figure, something we now realize was most likely anorexia, and her thirst for freedom. It does shed some light on Elisabeth's life, but really not enough.

Elisabeth: Her Royal Life Turned Upside Down:
Elisabeth Amelie Eugenie is the daughter of Duke Maximillian Joseph and his wife Princess Ludovica. Elisabeth lives a calm, carefree life in her castle of Possenhofen in Bavaria. She loves to horeback ride, write poetry, spend time with her Poppy and live a fun life without any happenings of royal life. Yet her mother wants to take her sister Helene, and Elisabeth herself to meet with Franz Josef I Emperor of Austria. Helene has been chosen as the intended wife and future empress of the giant empire. Yet when the royal party arrives, Franz Josef chooses Elisabeth instead! She only has a few moments left at her beloved country castle, and it seems too late before she realizes what she is leaving behind. At only 16 she is married and become Empress of Austria, which isn't a position she is good at being. She goes through so much, with her irritating mother-in-law, almost having anorexia, and the sudden suicide of her son. Elisabeth died at the hands of a murderer, an Italian anarchist. This book should have been longer, and this was a pretty sad book. This girl, only 16 is thrust out of her very non-royal fun life and now has to perform the duties of an empress, when she dreads every moment of it. I like this book a lot, but it one of the sad books in the Royal Diaries Series.

Dull and pointless:
Elizabeth never meant to catch the eye of Franz Joseph 1, emperor of all of Austria. He was meant as a bride for her sister, Helene, herself for his younger brother. Yet when Joseph passes over Helene and proposes to Elizabeth, she feels she has no choice to accept. This is the story of Elizabeth's life from days just before the proposal up until their wedding day, and the emotional journey of Elizabeth herself, destined to be Empress and rule beside the husband she never expected to have. Told through Elizabeth's eyes in the form of a journal, this book, in my opinion, was too short and utterly pointless. Half of the entries were Elizabeth writing that she had no time to write, and character's relations to each other were hard to work out. There wasn't enough description, and there were a lot of background references that weren't explained, leaving you in the dark to what was going on earlier in her life.

Definitely not the greatest of the Royal Diaries:
I've so far loved the Royal Diaries series, so I was excited to find this one in the public library. However, I was very disappointed. First of all, I found it really hard to get engrossed in this book. It took forever to figure out the relations between different people, and the situations that were happening. Unlike the other books, this wasn't a very good balance between the character's events and personal thoughts. There were just so many lists, and more unimportant details. A list of the contents of Elisabeth's trousseau took up almost two pages! Not only that, but basically the only interesting turn of events in the book was the beginning, when the Emperor Franz Joseph liked Elisabeth better than her sister, who was actually his fiancee. The rest of the book was completely details of the preparation for Elisabeth and the Emperor's wedding. The book ended with their wedding day. If you're interested in lists and boring details, go ahead and read this book. If you're not, but still want to check it out, read the Epilogue. It's the only really interesting part of the book. If you're not interested in either, just don't read this book.