Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier |  | Author: J. Randy Taraborrelli
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 3231
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 632
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 944.9490099
ASIN: B000FA671G
Publication Date: April 1, 2003
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
She was an Oscar-winning Hollywood actress; he the scion of Europe's longest reigning monarchy. The marriage of movie star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier Grimaldi of Monaco (a romance ironically spawned by a chance, MGM publicity-driven photo op) was one of the 20th century's most enchanting fables come to life. Yet, in veteran Hollywood biographer J. Randy Taraborelli's retelling, (the first comprehensive chronicle of the royal couple's romance and quarter-century reign) their day-to-day struggle with romantic inertia and a legacy of familial dysfunction cast their fairy tale existence in a bittersweet light long before the 1982 automobile accident that took Grace's life. Taraborelli's struggle to walk the fine line between the respectful biography he intends and the salacious, tell-all exposes he decries makes for occasionally awkward passages. However, the author eventually succeeds in giving his royal subjects--and the ongoing conflicts with their respective families--a familiar, all-too-human scale. --Jerry McCulley
Product Description
Grace Kelly was swept away when the handsome Prince Rainier, a man she barely knew, asked for her hand in marriage.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
Book July 27, 2010
A. Rosilind Lynch (Florida)
I got the book, "Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale Of Princess Grace
and Prince Rainier." I really liked and enjoyed the book.
 Arrived as promised and ahead of schedule! May 25, 2010
Allen S. Whitmer (Parkville, MO, US)
Arrived as promised and ahead of schedule! Enjoyed the read about Princess Grace, appeared to put her in a "real" light.
Good but not fabulous January 28, 2009
Megan Koker (Camby, IN USA)
There are many reviews for this book. I'm a new Grace Kelly fan and this is the first book that I've read about her. Although it was good, it left me wanting so much more.
There are many excerpts from previous books and authors (which I noted, and am now looking for those books to read). I would start with other books and end with this one. Others who knew her (Gwen Robyns and Robert Lacey) interest me more, as they actually knew her, and this book compiles those books and interviews with others into a new book. Good book, very addictive.
Great biography! February 12, 2008
barbra 34210 (Florida,USA)
You can't go wrong with a biography by J.Randy Taraborrelli! Again very well researched and again you get hooked after the first sentences.For all who want to know more about the actress Grace Patricia Kelly who became the Princess of Monaco and her life with her husband and family behind palace walls,I highly recommend this book.
 Too Much Whitewashing of Rainier July 30, 2007
A lover of history and literature (Southern California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Taraborrelli was clearly fascinated by his primary subject, Grace, but it appears it was Prince Rainier whom he truly fell in love with.
He never once mentions Rainier's notorious infidelities, which began as soon as Grace married him, and continued until she died. According to Wendy Leigh's new book "True Grace", she strayed too, but her affairs started off as quid pro quo for Rainier's constant mistresses (and continued from isolation and loneliness).
This omission is profoundly prejudicial to Grace because it makes it look like she was just too shallow to give up her attachment to her movie career and thus made herself morbidly unhappy with her new life in Monaco. In fact, she did struggle with that loss, but her greatest heartbreak in Monaco was that she married a philandering, obnoxious, overbearing, insensitive and dismissive popinjay of a prince.
Taraborrelli should have waited for Rainier's death to write Grace's biography. Maybe then he wouldn't have been so tempted to whitewash Rainier into the caring, tender, appreciative and supportive husband he most certainly was not.
Shame on you Randy.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
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