Title: Sex with Kings Author: Eleanor Herman Publisher: Harper Collins Publish Date: 2004 Pages: 287 Genres:: History, Non-Fiction, Pop culture Reviewer: SexHerald Staff

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The first law of attraction is that power is seductive, which is why back in the day there was a tendency for pretty young things to throw themselves at the king. Of course, there were fringe benefits that went along with keeping royal company: money, a personal realm of influence and hobnobbing with the beau monde. The catch is that in order to catapult to the top of the royal harem, it took more than beauty to secure the king's often wandering eye: One part sex kitten and two parts opportunist, the royal mistress was the product of a hard fought battle of wits and manipulation.

Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings documents the gossipy underworld of court intrigue, at the center of which revolved around the "it" girl of the day: the official royal mistress. The royal court was like the perilous minefield of bitchiness and backstabbing where etiquette and decorum masked a theatre of social climbing. The author portrays the European aristocracy in almost Hollywoodian terms. Mistresses were the patron of the arts and purveyors of culture, setting the fashions and standards of taste and behavior.

They were starlets whose favor would make or break an artist, who unofficially presided over the kingdom's glittering cultural life and whose personal life was at the tip of nearly everyone's tongue.

Of course being the royal mistress was not all about beautiful dresses and glittering balls. They lived to serve the king catering to his every whim. Mistresses were expected to at all times be cheerful, charming, seductive and willing to accompany the king wherever he wanted to go. Even when deathly ill, these beauty professionals were known to powder over their pallor and rouge their complexion to entertain the king. In order to maintain the status as the maitrise el titre, they knew they had to step up to the plate or someone else will.

The royal mistresses were generally a plucky bunch with a mind to back up the sex appeal. The top mistresses, like the famed Frenchwoman Madame de Pompadour who presided over Versailles for 19 years, kept her position by offering more than merely sex. She was a great conversationalist and a charming individual. Others, like the slightly plump and cheerful Nell Gwynn, baffled royal onlookers because she was not classically attractive; however, she was endowed with a raucous and naughty sense of humor, which was a welcome change from the stiffly regimented royal life.

Peppered with anecdotes, Herman endows her writing with verve and a passion for the subject. In the author commentary, she talks further about her inspiration for writing the book and her love of Baroque culture. This is history seen through the eyes of a woman who has waded through the pop culture pool of Hollywood Instyle and People. Sex with Kings is a fun period romp that explores the naughtier side of history and reminds us that the guilty pleasure of celebrity worship is part of a rich and storied tradition.