Prince Harry by Penny Junor

2/5 Stars

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review**

The authoritative biography of Prince Harry by noted royal family biographer Penny Junor, author of Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King and The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor. Prince Harry, one of the most popular members of the British royal family, has had a colorful life. After losing his mother at 12 years old, he spent his teenage years making questionable choices under intense international media scrutiny, becoming known for his mischevious grin, shock of red hair, and the occassional not-so-royal indiscretion. As he's grown, he has distinguished himself through military service, flying helicopters for the RAF. He served in Afghanistan and continues to devote himself to his military career. He also follows in his mother's footsteps with charity work--he is the founder of Sentebale, a charity to help orphans in Lesotho, and works with many other charitable organziations to help young people in society and to conserve natural resources. As he reaches his thirtieth birthday, Prince Harry is proving himself a prince of the people. 

With unprecedented access to the most important figures in his life, Penny Junor is able get the truth about who this mercurial and fascinating royal son really is. A modern biography of a modern prince, this book offers an insider's look at the life of the man who is fourth in line to Britain's throne.

So, I couldn't stomach this book.  I live in the USA, where the royal family is interesting, but I am not as die hard obsessed with them as people from England might be, that being said, I grew up with Prince William and Prince Harry pretty much.  I'm not insanely older than them.  I watched them grow up.  So yeah, I was curious.  This is the first autobiography of any member of the royal family I have ever desired to read, or actually read.  I never followed Princess Diana religiously, I remember clearly the night she died, what I was doing when I found out, but I didn't follow the tabloids, or anything.

Almost from the very start of this book, it was glaringly obvious that the author of this book is anti-diana, and pro-Charles.  Every other chapter almost was something negative to say.  That was a huge pet peeve of mine almost from the start.  If you are going to write a biography about Prince Harry, why can't you do it in a respectful manner "Diana had her problems, Charles had his problems" but leave it at that.  don't be all "she would scream and carry on and charles the poor man had no idea how to handle her unstable mood swings, so he would just walk away" you know, if Prince Harry ever decided to read this book, reading about how Diana and all her "many lovers" and "crazy moodswings" and "bulimia, because those who know that if you suffer from bulimia you are nuts in the head" (not in that many words but basically) the author repeated the bulimia thing, making it sound like if you are a person with bulimia you are prone to crazy and wild moodswings.  I suffered from bulimia, I'm the most quietest person you'll ever know, and I was ruled out at having bipolar or anything like that.. but the author portrays it as this evil awful crazy person thing and diana should have been in a white coat in a hospital somewhere, while poor poor charles, he just had no idea what to do, he was so busy doting on his two sons! PUHLEASE.

Authors, if you are going to write a biography, please please, keep it neutral mkay? cause the actual person you are writing about?  THOSE WERE HIS PARENTS.

A lot of it was just on and on and on details that made it really hard to stay interested.  A whole chapter mostly dedicated to a garden Prince Charles kept, or types of airplanes, things like that, overdetails.  Boring.

Beyond that, I wasn't impressed, there were some moments where I fell in love with Harry as a person, he was human, but I just didn't enjoy this book at all, the balance was really off.  If you're a Prince Charles sympathizer you may enjoy this book more, those who adored Princess Diane, just a warning..the author isn't nice at all.  And if you're like me, neutral to all of it, cause frankly my dear, I don't give a darned..then you'll be disappointed at the un-neutral views.