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My Thoughts
Before I start with my review, I’d like to send apologies to everyone. I had scheduled this post a few days ago meaning to write my review last night but I had to see Iron Man 3 last night and I completely forgot! LOL
This is the first book of The Royal Trilogy that I have read. I have Princess in Love, the second book of the series, on my TBR list but I haven’t gotten around to reading it. However, I may have to change that and start reading it. Before anyone reads further, I’d like to give you a fair warning: this review contains spoilers.
THE STORY
This story is about the rake prince, Nicholas while on a trip to Paris. He is drugged and kidnapped by a lovely young woman, Veronique during a masquerade, who is under Lord D’Entremont’s bidding in exchange for the deed to her family home that was lost due to her father’s gambling. [spoiler]Once the Prince is held captive at the estate of Lord D’Entremont, he starts to smooth talk and seduce Veronique into letting him go. Veronique, on the other hand, tries not to fall for the handsome Prince but she ends up fantasizing about him. She finally plans to break him out of his prison with the help of her sister Gabrielle, but before they do, Lord D’Entremont arrives and asks to speak to the Prince. What happens next was something that I did not expect at all. As it turns out, D’Entremont is Nicholas’ father and he is in fact, a bastard. Apparently, D’Entremont is dying and wanted to meet Nicholas so that he can tell him in person that he is leaving his properties to him. Nicholas obtains love letters between his mother and the aging lord and is certain of its truth. Pierre, D’Entremont’s bastard nephew, who has served the lord for years only gets a property in Paris. Nicholas ends up marrying Veronique and they return to Petersbourg. Nicholas finally lets the country know about his illegitimacy and they return to D’Entremont’s estate where they have their HEA.[/spoiler]
MY THOUGHTS
I thought the start of the story was very interesting. I liked Veronique’s spunk and I actually started to fall for prince charming, Nicholas! I loved the part where they were talking on either side of the door. Unfortunately, once the big secret was revealed, the story turned out to be very convenient and predictable. While Nicholas saved Veronique and her family, he didn’t really show her his love. I thought their love turned out to be pretty superficial.
When they returned to Petersbourg, Veronique martyred herself out and was not even angry at Nicholas at all, even when Nicholas didn’t come home at night and when he openly admitted that he was tempted by an ex! I did like the part where Nicholas was a bit tempted by the females. I thought that was pretty realistic.
The villain Pierre, was pretty tame. His motives for exposing Nicholas’ secret to the press was not very believable. It would have been better had he been really evil and had kidnapped Veronique with Nicholas rescuing her. He did end up rescuing her but the impact was not as great as I hoped it would be.
The last part of the story fell a little flat for me. I will be reading Princess in Love and I hope that one would be better.
Fantastic review!