It all starts with an Alucian wedding, a happily ever after for the oldest royal son. Society, and royal parents, demand that it’s time for the second son, the extra, to perform his duty and find a bride as well!
Lady Caroline Hawke’s friend Eliza found true love. Now all she needs is to get Prince Leopold to notice her, after all she is quite the catch. Unfortunately Prince Leo isn’t interested. In fact he is appalled by Caroline’s inability to hold her tongue or conform to societal norms.
At first, neither Caroline nor Leo have many redeeming qualities other than physical beauty. Caroline is selfish, shallow and self-absorbed. Likewise Leo is snobbish and a total rake.
What I loved about this book was how Julia London was able to create a backdrop of family obligations and societal expectations, and then shift that by blending in a mystery of missing girls to set the stage for Caroline and Leo to redeem themselves. It began as a spark of annoyance and disdain between two unlikable characters and then evolved into a compelling, romantic, and often humorous dance between a prince and a lady. I loved it!
A Royal Kiss & Tell is the second of three books in Julia London’s A Royal Wedding series. The series focuses on the charming lives of three young ladies, sisters Eliza and Hollis, and dear friend Caroline. You could skip to book 2 but doing so would cause you to miss out on a lot of the back story! This was another entertaining tale and I cannot wait to read Hollis’ story.
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Charming Hate-to-Love That Shows Character Growth
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020
A Royal Kiss & Tell is the second book in Julia London’s A Royal Wedding series. I did not read the previous book, The Princess Plan, and while it didn’t affect my enjoyment of a Royal Kiss & Tell, I would definitely recommend reading the series in order. There was a little bit of back story that I was missing, but the exposition filled in most of the blanks.A Royal Kiss & Tell is the story of Lady Caroline, the best friend of Eliza from book 1, and Prince Leopold of Alucia, the younger brother of Sebastian from book 1.Lady Caroline is the younger sister of a baron, Lord Beckett Hawke, and he’s raised her since they’re parents died when he was 14 and she was 8. She’s beautiful, definitely spoiled by her brother, and loves to be the center of attention, but she’s also very kind and loves to design, create and alter her own gowns.Leo is the typical “spare heir.” He lacks purpose and spends most of his time drinking and partying and most of the time he lives in London away from his parents that barely notice him. Now that his brother is married, the only value Leo has (according to his parents) is his ability to marry and provide them with a political alliance.The story begins at the royal wedding of Eliza and Sebastian in Alucia, a fictional European country. As long-time family friends of Eliza, Lady Caroline and her brother are present for all of the wedding festivities. When Caroline and Leo meet again, it is very much a Pride & Prejudice situation, except while Leo is Darcy, Caroline is more of a Lydia. Leo finds Caroline to be too loud, too impertinent, too silly – and “beautifully annoying.” While Caroline thinks Leo is an arrogant jerk, especially since he acts like he doesn’t know her. During his time in England, he and Caroline apparently met at a house party, but since he was probably drunk, he doesn’t remember, much to the offense of Caroline who believes she is very memorable. After the wedding, they both head back to England. Caroline to return home, and Leo so he can get his belongings and tie up other loose ends before heading home and announcing his engagement to a neighboring country’s heiress. They keep crossing each other paths (Beck and Leo have become besties), so what started as loathing, turns to tolerance and clever banter and ultimately friendship.Over the course of the book, the characters go through a lot of personal growth. That being said, I was slow to like either of them. Seeing Leo through Caroline’s eyes, he was unforgivably rude, and Leo’s perception of Caroline showed her as immature and oblivious to appropriate behavior in social situations. In trying to jab back at each, they just looked foolish themselves. But, as I said, they did grow and their perceptions of each other changed. Obnoxious and silly to Leo initially, he now saw Caro as unique and charming, and as the reader, I began to see that, too. Leo you ultimately love because you know that he’s just a lost second who is looking for some way to provide some sort of value to his country, and when he finds that, his facade of arrogance falls away. “You are the woman who has made me wake up to life and understand it’s worth living.” Swoon. In the end, when they’ve finally grown up, I just love them together.Other than my slow acceptance of the main characters, my only criticism is that overall this is a very light-hearted, low-angst story, but Julia London introduces a very heavy and very real-world subplot (see content warning/spoiler below). This is such a dark and sinister subject that it felt a little glossed over amongst the more light-hearted romance. The resolution of this conflict also happens completely off the page, and we are told not shown the outcome. One direct example, Eliza’s sister, Hollis, owns a gossip/fashion newspaper, and each chapter begins with a snippet from a recent edition. As a set up to her book, A Princess by Christmas, she begins to become interested in revealing more serious and important social issues. This is mentioned in the book as Hollis says, “I mean to expose this corruption.” But then the next article we see merely says, “Disturbing rumors ... at the highest reaches of British government continue to swirl, and we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears open to bring you more news of it.” I wanted a touch more on the subject in general, but also think a darker, grittier romance would have better supported this social issue subplot.Overall, I really enjoyed A Royal Kiss & Tell. It was quick read that left me forgoing sleep so I could read to the end. Leo & Caro’s growth throughout their story won me over and had me rooting for them. I’m definitely looking forward to A Princess by Christmas!Spoiler / Content Warning:----------Characters discuss human-trafficking and sex slavery, specifics are not graphically detailed on the page.
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020
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An Enchanting royal love story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 31, 2020
