Mariah Stone, $2.99, ISBN 978-1393447573
Historical Romance, 2018
According to the note in the copyright page, Mariah Stone’s Her Christmas Prince was previously published as The Russian Prince’s Bride. I’m not sure if this had been revised or expanded in any way, as this is my first brush with this story.
Anyway, Lady Helen Courtney is this close to having her Christmas prince, and it’s a real prince. Okay, the author explains that a prince in Russia is equivalent to a duke in England, so it’s not like she’s going to be marrying into royalty. However, Lilly, as our heroine is called, has had a crush on Alex Lipov since forever, and she’s going to marry him when she reaches St Petersburg ooh…
Meanwhile, in the prologue of the story, he’s telling his brother Roman that he’d like to shag as many women as possible before he’s shackled to some woman he’s been betrothed to since he was 15. Ouch. Still, this scene takes place 11 years prior, so when the heroine arrives at St Petersburg, surely his prince would have straightened his act out and be waiting for him with…
Oh wait, her intended is MIA at Lipov Palace. His brother is there instead, and… and… no, it can’t be! She can’t be having feelings for Roman, surely?
I don’t know what the big deal is. If I could snag the older brother, the one that will inherit everything and doesn’t look like a rolling giant turd, I’d be over the moon.
Then again, I’d also have serious doubts about being known as Princess Lipov, but then again, I’m picky and we all know romance heroines aren’t so long as the guy is hot.
As for Roman, he’s also conflicted, even when his brother stole his mistress and Helen isn’t pug ugly, so oh, oh, he wants to grind away at her rump but his guilt is grinding away his conscience just as insistently.
What are two purportedly honorable people would do? Spend pages after pages agonizing about how they are trapped in the betrothal arrangement and it will be impossible to break it… until it’s time to finally break it, and then it’s a no big deal and it’s broken, now bring on the happy ending.
Sigh, I’m sure there is a way to make such a plot a compelling page-turner, but this one isn’t the way. The characters spend way more time insisting that they are lawful stupid virtuous and honorable, instead of doing anything or communicating with one another to show me that they actually have something worth whining over for so long.
Indeed, the romance boils down to abrupt kisses that takes me aback as much as it did these two characters, as for the most part, this story is more of a talk-heavy traditional regency type, with emphasis on talk. Sure, talk is fine, but here, the characters talk a lot but they don’t evince any believable chemistry or emotion to suggest that they are indeed falling in love. That is, unless love here is a competition to see who can whine the most, and if that were the case, they are both winners while I’ll be getting drunk in the losers podium.
Her Christmas Prince isn’t a badly written story by a long shot, but it’s not a particularly interesting read. I want passion, but I don’t discern any here. The characters whine a lot but their problem gets solved way too easily for the amount of pouting and posturing they do, thus coming off as drama queens.
They bore me, the two of them, so it’s only fair I lob back two oogies at them.
