I was a history major in college and I always found the struggles of the monarchy to be fascinating. In class you hit the highlights, but if the royalty in question didn't start or end a war or something equally dramatic, they were pretty much left out the conversation. While this book does cover Elizabeth Bartoldy and Vlad the Impaler, it also covers many royals you've never heard of. The book loses steam in the last few chapters which cover the modern era--the "dark history" read more like tabloid scandals. Still, it was well researched and well written. Some of the more salacious bits will make for great random trivia to inject into faltering dinner conversations!