Guest Review: The Runaway Princess – Hester Browne

If Amy Wilde’s new boyfriend, Leo, treats her like a queen, that’s because he’s secretly a prince himself: Leopold William Victor Wolfsburg of Nirona, the ninth most eligible royal bachelor in the world. Amy soon discovers that dating an heir to a throne has many charms—intimate alfresco dinners, glittering galas, and, for a girl who lives in jeans and wellies, a dazzling new wardrobe with tiaras to match. But there are also drawbacks: imagine the anxiety of meeting your boyfriend’s parents multiplied by a factor of “riding in a private jet,” “staying in a castle,” and “discussing the line of succession over lunch.” Not to mention the sudden press interest in your very un-royal family. When an unexpected turn of events pushes Leo closer to the throne, the Wolfsburgs decide to step up Amy’s transformation from down-to-earth gardener to perfectly polished princess-in-waiting. Amy would do anything for Leo, but is finding her Prince Charming worth the price of losing herself?

Series:
Release Date:  October 2, 2012
Publisher:  Gallery Books
Source:  Edelweiss
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Reviewer’s Thoughts:

I’m a big Hester Browne fan girl and stalk her books like the paparazzi stalk Justin Beiber. Yeah, it’s that bad.  Anyway, it would be an understatement to say I was looking forward to reading The Runaway Princess and even with my overblown expectations it did not disappoint.  However, the summary is a bit misleading.  I picked up this book expecting a story about a pauper to princess transformation but that does not really happen until well over halfway through. Instead, Browne spends a good amount of time building her characters.  We get to know Amy, her roommate Jo, her business partner Ted, their quirky neighbors and of course Leo, the prince in disguise.  Most importantly, Amy and Leo meet within the first chapter and they rush right into love and it’s pretty awesome.

There were a few weak points, the most apparent is Leo.  He’s a main character and starts out well. Then about halfway through the book Browne throws in a plot twist that changes his personality. After building him up as such an attentive, romantic lead when he changes, although it adds tension to the story, it is not quite believable.  Fortunately, the romance itself drives the story and Browne does a really good job of drawing you into it; that it makes up for Leo’s brief personality detour.  The weak points make the story more realistic and I love that Amy and Leo do not have a perfect romance and instead face some ups and downs.

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