Despite a few dry areas, I really did enjoy this book. It reads like a fiction historical novel more so than a biography. I found the descriptions of the time period and the descriptions of how lives were lived during that time period to be interesting and informative. Allene Tew was definitely a fascinating woman and kept her head above water in creative ways. She didn't always make wise decisions, but she looked out for herself and made something of herself. Sometimes at the expense of others. However, she worked hard to survive so many tragedies in her life and was indeed a remarkable life. I thought the author handled her well and I gleaned an understanding of life in that era of growth and revolution while reading about Allene Tew's life.

Historical, true story, written as a novel. LOVED IT! I love autobiographies and biographies. I usually pick from a list of individuals I have heard of, but Allene was new to me. I was not sure how I would like this. I am so glad I requested a copy. Thank you NetGalley!

"An American Princess. The Many Lives of Allene Tew" by Annejet van der Zijl is a beautifully written, fascinating biography of Allene Tew, who had such an adventurous life that it is hard to believe it really happened. She married five very different men, including millionaires, a prince Heinrich Reuss the Thirty-Third and a Russian count Kotzebue. She travelled a lot in her lifetime, she changed countries and continents, bought and sold houses. She divorced husbands, faced horrible personal tragedies and ostracism. Her bravery and ambition took her from Jamestown, New York to mansions of American high society and royal palaces in Europe. Her life story is shown on the canvas of the ever-changing American society and the eventful history of America and Europe.

Allene came from a family of pioneers and self-made successful entrepreneurs. She was a beautiful girl with blue eyes and blond hair that easily caught men attention. What is more, she was smart, ambitious and wanted to experience life at its best. She lived in the Gilded Age, time of unprecedented expansion and optimism in America, when anyone could become a millionaire, or at least it seemed so. In that time women had limited ways of changing their fates and having an eventful, fulfilling existence. The one way to achieved it was of course a marriage to a man of means. Young and beautiful Allene eloped with a young, handsome millionaire against his family wishes. In few years she conquered the high society of Pittsburgh and her husband’s family. She had enough spunk for ten women! Nothing was impossible for her. As she wrote in one of her letters: “If one has the will and persistence, one CAN do things.”

But her character shined the brightest at the time of tragedy and crisis. She was brave enough to get divorced when husbands disappointed her and made her life miserable. She had enough courage to risk her heart again and again. She held her head high when tragedies struck and she lost loved ones. She was a positive force in lives of many people. She changed their life for the better and got things done. Honestly, I would love to have a friend or an aunt like her. Not only because she was resourceful and was a powerful force to recon with, but because of her positive outlook on life and people. Despite pain and disappointment she keep on enjoying her life and loving people.

What I adore most about Allene is that she never lost her spunk. Even when the financial crisis changed millionaires into paupers she was able to hold her own and emerge after a few years victorious. She didn’t care about other people opinions and judgment in society, when her happiness and future were at stake. I also adore the fact that she managed to marry her true love and that she was happy with him till death separated them. When other people would only see disappointment, devastation and hopelessness she was able to see friends and chances for a positive change.

Overall, Allene Tew was a charming, strong-willed and courageous real-life Cinderella. If you want to read a story about a real-life Cinderella, you have to read this book.

I received "An American Princess" from the publisher via NetGalley. I would like to thank the author and the publisher for providing me with the advance reader copy of the book.

"An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew" by Annejet van der Zijl was definitely not what I was expecting. From the description I was expecting a fiction book about the life of a historical person. This book however is definitely a non-fiction history style read. The story seems to be about events which surrounded Allene Tew and not really about who she WAS. The book felt very chronological and interesting but did not engage me in a story. At times I just wanted to know about Allene and not all about the history of society at that time. However, to its advantage, the author does go into very in-depth descriptions and really gets to the heart and motivation behind peoples actions during this time in history.

I also really LOVE the cover.

NetGalley has this book marked as "General Fiction (Adult)" genre but Goodreads has it classified under "History", "Non-Fiction" and "Biography". I think my judgement of this book was marred by my expectation of it being a fiction novel.

I do want to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for giving me a chance to read this book.

I could not believe that this was a biography! It was so well written and Allene led quite the life! I love reading biographies about little known people, as I find that I go into them without any preconceptions.

I have to admit that Alleen Tew truly had an incredible and very dramatic life. At certain points, I could not believe how unfortunate she was, despite being financially very fortunate. Her story could make a good costume drama with all the glamour of the turn of the century, and all of the pain of loss at failed marriages, the Spanish flu and World War I. To think that a simple girl from America could live such a colorful life, get married to all the rich men and then advance to become part of a royal family? It's pretty unbelievable.

However, despite the story itself seeming as if fictional, it was told in quite a boring way. Perhaps it's me or that I expected it to be a bit more fictionalized, or the fact that I hadn't actually heard anything about Alleen even existing before I started reading this book, but I struggled reading this. If you are interested in Alleen's history though and already know something about her, you will probably find this a lot more interesting than I did.

I thank the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange to an honest review. It does not affect my opinion.

I had never heard of Allene Tew before reading this book. This was highly enjoyable. I read it quickly. I would recommend it.

Good book - read it quickly, interesting character I had never heard about before! Interesting to see the far reaching impact of Aliene - and the impact of her single life years and years later.