Back Cover:
Prince Phillip had sworn to do his royal duty. Someday he'd take a suitable bride—in the traditional loveless "arrangement"—and father an heir to the throne. But then he unexpectedly became king. And when he met Hannah Renault, the virtual stranger who was his intended bride, all his plans to keep her at arm's length were suddenly forgotten.
Spoiler Warning: All my reviews contain spoilers.
My Review:
Their marriage was arranged 8 years ago when the heroine was 16. Ever since she's lived the life of a Queen-in-training, never even been kissed it seems. Very hypocritical that she hasn't touched anyone else, while she knows that he hasn't been living the life of a monk. She doesn't expect him to have saved himself, but she feels really disillusioned and upset to meet one of his lovers. This is a huge peeve for me, it just is not fair to the heroine. She lived 8 years like this, it's not fair for the hero to not give up anything (i.e. his freedom) until the very last moment when they marry.
Is fidelity so finite that you can say "it starts when you're married" instead of when you first commit to marrying a person? Arranged marriages just don't make sense to me. I know the hero was reluctant and liked his freedom and didn't expect even an arranged marriage to last, but jeez, how unfair is it for him to let his heroine cool on ice for years having absolutely no life of her own and locked away in chastity until he absolutely must marry her once he's crowned? That's the kind of plotline that just ticks me off. Other than the major ick of the heroine living the life of a nun while the hero patters around living a normal life without a care in the world, the books was good.
My Rating: 2/5 stars, a good book, but I'm majorly icked out over the poor heroine.
I see that this one did not
I see that this one did not work for you. I don't like knowing that she was forced to live a nun like life while he made her wait. Hum? I hope the rest of the story had something for you to like about it.
Margie :)
Yeah, Margie there was
Yeah, Margie there was stuff that I enjoyed in this book. As a whole it was an entertaining read. I would have said more positives about the book, except I'm doing rush reviews right now... I have 20 books to catch up on. So I'm basically just tidying up the comments I jotted down as I read each of these 20 books.
There was stuff to enjoy in this book...
But the H/h were NOT EQUALS and that is a personal pet peeve of mine in reading books. I just feel sad seeing a sheltered virgin get lumped with a hero who has/had a sex life that just makes her feel disillusioned and insecure. It's not fair to the heroine.
By comparison, I just read Michelle Celmer's other book in the "Royal Seductions" series... "The Illegitimate Prince's Baby" and that book was very good, the H/h were perfectly matched, equals, both had experience and both had realistic and similar expectations about their relationship.