Mexico in the past 150 – 200 years. What exactly is the story? Maximilian was Emperor of Mexico; brother to the Kaiser of Austria of the House of Hapsburg; backed by the French. Between 1865 and 1867 he ruled Mexico. The Mexican people did not like this and they rebelled. Maximilian was arrested, tried, and executed by firing squad. Is that all? Is that the whole story? I never thought of it until finding this book.

C.M. Mayo, in The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, expands the well-known, little story of Maximilian and we find there is a personal, human connection to the United States. Alice Green, a Washington D.C. socialite, married Don Angelo de Iturbide, son of the last Mexican emperor; a leader of Mexico who was executed in the same manner of Maximilian only by the European invaders. Not long after the marriage, Don Angelo and Alice returned to Mexico City where a son was born: Agustin. This child was soon to be “adopted” by Maximilian and his wife Charlotte, to be raised as the heir-presumptive of the Mexican Empire.

This book tells the Maximilian story by intertwining the experiences of many involved – through the eyes of Maximilian and Charlotte, the eyes of the European court they brought to Mexico with them, the eyes of Alice and Don Angelo, the eyes of extended family, friends, enemies, political, and religious officials. By intertwining the experiences of these various people, Ms Mayo relates this previously unknown story of Mexico with the more familiar stories, thus giving the ready familiar guideposts to connect the new information to.

The book is descriptive, realistically portraying daily life in Mexico during this period of time. Sights, sounds, smells, and tastes are described so as to bring the reader into the country itself and experience the world as the characters in the book must have experienced it. The reader is given another side to the story of Maximilian. Showing that perhaps he was not an ambitious man attempting to take a country for himself but a man who was fairly forced into a situation due to his position of European Royalty.

Happily, the reader is allowed to come to their own conclusions after following the intertwining stories. Happily, she plans to continue this story in a book telling the story of Agustin’s life after he is returned to his Mother and Father. I am looking forward to reading it as my curiosity of Mexican history has been whetted. Hopefully I will be able to find more readings of this time period so I can feel a bit more comfortable with understandings of a country on this side of the world. We American’s are raised learning about Europe, perhaps we should invest at least a bit of time learning about our own continents. ( )

I found The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire tough going. This was mainly because most of the characters were so unlikeable. When I think about this I have to chalk it up to the author's good writing skills in portraying the characters in such way that every time I closed the book I'd shudder, thinking "Ick! What awful people!" I also learned quite a bit about a period in Mexican history I was completely unfamiliar with, so I found that interesting.

But perhaps because I did read it over a long period of time, refreshing myself with books with more pleasant characters in between, I found the book disjointed, it jumped from character to character and I had difficulty keeping the wealth of characters straight.

I appreciated the opportunity to read this ARC, but this wouldn't be a book I'd recommend or read again.

Well documented historical fiction about Mexico and an episode that spanned only a few years - a rather odd tale of Maxmillian from europe brought by conservatives in Mexico to that country to rule. The bones of the story have been well described already by the numerous reviews here. The author has done her research and written an intriguing tale from many perspectives. At times a little difficult to follow, and quite lengthy, but very interesting. ( )

This is an interesting story, based on fact, of the rule of Maximilian in Mexico, and the attempt to use a young boy as his heir. I think fans of historical novels will enjoy it for the novelty of its location and time. My interest in it flagged after about a third of the book, but I am not a fan of historical novels. ( )

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire tells the story of Prince Agustin de Iturbide y Green, a boy with an American mother and Mexican father who became the heir of Maximilian von Habsburg, the Emperor of Mexico.

I found it a struggle to get through the book, and ending up skimming the second half to get through it as quickly as possible. I wouldn't have bothered finishing the book if it hadn't been an Early Reviewer book. The writing just was not engaging, and the characters were not interesting or likeable. Not nearly as good as it could've been, given the subject matter. ( )