Bronte Talbott is a typical American career woman looking for
love in New York. She
enjoys the royal gossip rags, fashion, and her job in advertising. When she meets a man that she calls
Mr. Texas at a friend’s party, she falls hard and fast for his drawl, his
energy, and his lavish attention. His “I love you” to her results in a cross-country
move to Chicago, where Mr. Texas turns out to be Mr. Wrong. Bronte, having learned that love does
not conquer all, doubts her own decision making ability with men and desires to
be savvier the next time she meets a man. She builds emotional walls three feet
high.
Enter Max Heyworth, a doctoral student at the University of
Chicago. The serious yet
fun man appeals to Bronte, and she demands total honesty. Max does not provide this honesty at
first, but when he does Bronte realizes she has real problems. Max is a duke, and any future with him
will be infinitely more complicated than Bronte thought it would.
The first third of this book was my favorite part. She learns quite a lesson from her
first stab at love with Mr. Texas. As
a reader, I knew that his lines and promises were untrue, and I just wanted to
scream at Bronte. “Run the
other way!” Bronte, with
her issues with her family, her work, and learning how to love was charming and
fun.
When the relationship with Mr. Texas ended and Bronte met Max, I
thought for sure that the story was on an enchanting trajectory. Max is pretty much the perfect
royal: handsome, smart,
thoughtful, and a little bit of a rebel. The beginning of their relationship
was great. But Bronte’s
issues came roaring into this relationship. She does not want Max to get angry
with her—even when she is being dumb. She
does not want to feel tied down—despite the feelings she has for Max. She does not want to disrupt her life
for a relationship that might not work. Frankly,
her issues, while understandable at first, became exhausting the more I
read. I found myself
wondering why Max wanted to be with her at all.
When both Max and Bronte end up in England, there was some fun
with Bronte meeting Max’s family. I enjoyed his brothers and sisters and wished
that there were more scenes with them. I
particularly enjoyed his younger brother, Devon, and his bohemian sister,
Abigail. Max’s frigid
mother was also a lot of fun. I
wish her thawing-out would have taken a bit longer. She had the potential to be a
scene-stealer.
The last third of the book involves Bronte trying to figure out
what her life will be like as Max’s wife, but Bronte completely exhausted me
with her emotional walls and issues. This
part of the book felt like I was slogging through quicksand. At one point, I nearly wished that Max
would leave her just so that she would stop talking.
While I think it is admirable of Mulry to make Bronte a
warts-and-all heroine, toward the end of A
Royal Pain I was tired of
hearing about her warts. I
just wanted my happy ending. I’m
glad Max had more patience with her problems than I did. Overall, A Royal Pain was a fun, steamy, and entertaining
read. I just needed the
heroine to get over herself a little more quickly than she did.
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Regina
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The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.
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