Royal Blue

A Novel

by Christina Oxenberg

This debut novel from the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and the sister of "Dynasty" star Catherine Oxenberg tells the story of a young aristocrat trying to make it on her own. Maria Moses had it hard growing up as the daughter of dispossessed Yugoslavian royalty. Her mother was inattentive, and as a convenience, sent Maria to live in a psychiatric hospital for the majority of her youth. Now 18 and living in New York on a small allowance, Maria can neither type nor spell, and her wealthy friends are getting tired of taking care of her. Enter Tino Brooks, a con man and Maria's parents' worst enemy. Tino sweeps Maria off of her feet, and in the process steals away the Scottish castle that was to be her inheritance.

Editions of Royal Blue

ISBN

9780684800936

Binding/Format

Hardcover

Publisher

Simon & Schuster

Date

1997

Price

$1.00

Used, Good

Publisher Notes

Maria Moses has always felt alike an outsider in her family. Her mother, a princess from a deposed royal European family, is absorbed in herself and her social life. Her older sister, Miranda, busy with the seduction of older men and the trappings of luxury, alternately ignores and despises her. And her well-intentioned father is too busy playing tennis to notice his younger daughter's growing dislocation.

Media Reviews

"Cynics will want to knock it, considering the pedigree it comes from, but that will be tough because [the novel]'s version of a bad and privileged childhood is funny, fetching, and full of gorgeous writing with a deep, tugging undercurrent of melancholy. Its intimate rendering of wealth without cliché is a triumph--imagine Evelyn Waugh rewriting 'Eloise'. For a first novel, what's most remarkable is that there's not a bum sentence in the entire thing."