
Series: Royally #2
on February 21st 2017
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 276
Goodreads

“I have an hour before I need to leave, so it’ll be tea and …Sense and Sensibility for a bit. It’s the perfect read. Just enough drama and angst to be interesting, but mostly light and entertaining, with the happiest ending. Colonel Brandon is my favorite–the ultimate book husband. He made good and upstanding look sexy as all get-out. Someday, I’ll meet a man just like him–romantic, steady, and reliable–and I don’t give a damn how silly that sounds. How immature or fanciful.
“Because I have a theory.
“If nightmares can come true, and sometimes they do…then so can our happiest dreams.”
FINAL DECISION: Intensely romantic, this book feels a little more like a fairy tale than real life, but that’s one reason it is so good. A shy librarian who falls in love with the future king of her country and tames the wild rake.
THE STORY: Prince Henry is having trouble adjusting to being the heir apparent after his brother abdicated his position as next in line for the throne of their country. Now, after a lifetime of fun and games, Henry is feeling the constant pressure to be perfect. Temporarily banished to a distant estate, Henry agrees to participate in a matchmaker reality show to find a wife (think The Bachelor). While beautiful women are all around him seeking fame and perhaps him, Henry is drawn to the sister of one of the contestants — Sarah Von Titebottum, a shy librarian who has agreed to accompany her sister to avoid having to give a presentation. Despite his participation in the show, Henry has no intension of finding the love of his life — but Sarah changes all that. But how can a man who has always been considered a shallow party animal and womanizer convince a woman looking for serious and responsible that he is man for her?
OPINION: Funny, romantic and sweet was not what I expected when I read the description of this book, but that is what I got. Henry is simply adorable. He’s a man who has placed in a position that he never expected to inhabit. Now he is struggling to figure out how to be himself as heir when everyone else seems to be trying to tell him who he should be. While his grandmother, the Queen, wants and expects Henry to be circumspect and proper, he instead decides to agree to a matchmaking reality show to find a bride. He doesn’t actually expect to find a bride — just relief from his boredom and internal fears of not measuring up. He doesn’t expect to find Sarah.
While the two had met before, this is the first time that he has spent any significant time with her. And he finds that she gives him the opportunity to be himself — a man — rather than a prince. Their interactions are funny and sweet and while Henry is challenging Sarah to come out of her shell, she is allowing him to be responsible and serious in his own unique way.
Sarah was a particularly interesting character. She has an air of innocence worthy of any potential bride of a prince, but she also has spunk and quirks that make her fun and modern. I genuinely liked her and I loved how she is willing to see the man and not the prince.
This story is willing to be blatantly romantic. There is a gauze of fairy tale over the entire story, but I thought that worked well for this story (which is different from the reality in the first book in the series). I loved the book and if I had one complaint it is that I would like to see more of this couple together and happy because they have work to do in the world.
WORTH MENTIONING: This book is told in alternating first person point of view.
CONNECTED BOOKS: ROYALLY MATCHED is the second book in the Royally series. While the romance is independent in this book, I think it is better to read the first book to understand more about Henry.
STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.