Divine Lola: A True Story of Scandal and Celebrity Paperback – September 1, 2021

A clever Irish girl leaves India and her British soldier behind,changes her name and passes herself off as a Spanish heiress of noble birth--a dancer by profession. Not a drop of Spanish blood, not a bit of talent as a dancer, volatile, at times violent, but beautiful, charming and seductive, Lola Montez forges a path in life that takes her throughout Europe, into Asia and across the ocean to the US. She has many lovers, most incredible of all the King of Bavaria and lives in palaces and small cabins in the wilds of mid 19th Century California. So famous,that though she died at least 40 years before the birth of my parents they knew of her story and told me of her career, though not the details of her personal life when I was a girl in the '50's! Her lifestyle caught up with her when she was only in her '40's and she died in NYC living in modest means since she'd given all the wealth she had away. Her last request? Let Ludvig of Bavaria know she'd died and always loved him. A fascinating story of a woman well before her time

An interesting history of a woman who lived an unusual life. The writing was well done and engaging. The protagonist was difficult to feel for at times, but the author did a good job helping you through those parts. A good read.

I must humbly suggest that, if Divine Lola is ever offered, English version, in Kindle format, the publisher and author would find a translator with enough verve to write with charisma, and enough wit to turn an interesting phrase occasionally.The story itself is astounding, and reading how these events coincided with other historic events is very interesting.

In 1820, Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert was born into a remote corner of Northern Ireland to a fifteen year old mother and a British army officer. Her military family would travel to India where her father would die before he ever settled at his new post, and her mother would remarry another officer. India would leave a vivid impression on the young woman who was never really wanted by her mother, and was sent to Scotland at the age of ten to be raised by her stepfather’s parents.Elizabeth was never called anything but Lola, and even in Scotland she tended to be outspoken and more than a little wild. Even when she was sent to expensive private girl’s schools, Lola was more rambunctious. Yet Lola grew into a great beauty and her mother planned to marry her to a much older man. When a young soldier offers to marry Lola to save her from that fate, she elopes with him and ends up back in India.Lola had an unhappy marriage which she fled and reinvented herself as Lola Montez, a flamenco dancer with a vivid backstory. She would go on to have affairs with some of the most famous and richest men in the world, even though she wasn’t a spectacular dancer. Lola’s skill was her charm and ability to use her beauty to her best advantage.This is one of the best written biographies in that it flows well while still maintaining the factual accuracy of Lola’s very interesting life.

This book was well written, half the time I was reading about this woman I could not believe her audacity. She was ahead of her time by about 100 years! The book had me laughing out loud at some of her antics, but also at times very sad. Lola will take you through the whole spectrum of emotions. I highly recommend this book.

From start to finish this book had me relishing more. This woman Lola was an unbelievable person. How she survived is astonishing.

I was familiar with the story, and I appreciated the blow by blow narrative. The tone is slightly childish, and the dialogue is atrocious. It feels like being clubbed by Barney the purple dinosaur. Perhaps something was lost in translation? Nevertheless, constructing a believable life story from someone who created a new backstory for every occasion had to be a daunting task. I'm amazed that a globetrotter pre-internet didn't get away with more, but it's probably because Lola refused to compromise her experiences and relied on her notoriety to open new doors. Fascinating stuff to conservative mediocre people like myself.

Or awkward writing? With a book read in translation (This one w as first published in Spanish) it is hard to know. When I read that the author is a journalist and has several books to her credit, it seems impossible that she could have written with such a limited vocabulary, so much repetition of adjectives and whole phrases. On the other hand, the book suffers from verbosity. It is as though every smidgeon of research had to go into the book. Did we really need total reviews to get the gist?Although it was painful to read because of these faults, I wanted to know more about Lola Montez, whom I knew visited America's wild west during Gold Rush Days. I should have looked for the earlier biography used as a source for this book.

I disliked the way the author presented entire conversations that nobody but the players themselves could have been party to as though they were direct quotations.That said, it's an interesting read about an interesting woman. I'm not sorry that I bought it, but as a history book, you have to work at separating the few known facts presented from a lot of fiction.

This book is brilliant. So easy to read and the characters are given such life and depth that you feel that you really know them. Please bring more historical characters back to life in this way.

The story of ‘Lola Montez’ is fascinating. Perhaps starting with maternal rejection, she spent a wild life seeking fame, adulation and perhaps love. There was much more to the story than I knew, so this was an enjoyable read.

Lola had quite the life, short as it was. It was almost like she knew she wouldn't have long so she lived the hell out of it!

I really enjoyed this biography of a young woman who was such a colourful character, whose life never had a dull moment! She attracted lots of controversy at the time, not least for her love affair with King Ludwig and for the influence she had over him. I found the book to be interesting, well written and thoroughly researched, and will be looking to read other books by this Author in the future.