Fly Girl’s Review

Julia London is one of my “go to” authors when I want a good historical romance that entertains and is quick to read. This book was just as expected from her. Leopold and Carolina make a cute couple and really make eachother better. Without each other, the prince is uptight, a rake, and disinterested while Caroline is presumptuous, an airhead and full of herself. When together, they try to solve problems, become aware of societal issues, and are genuine. This is both for good and bad. Sometimes it gets them both in trouble and other times it makes situations better. But whatever the results, it brings them closer together and more understanding of one another. So I would say that is pretty much the making of a good modern relationship.

The scenery and dresses are amazing in this book. Lady Caroline begins to show she is a talented dress designer that all the ton want wear, so there are lots of beautiful dress descriptions. Also the Alucian wedding in the beginning is well done. Almost as if I could feel the rose petals on my hand from the parade. The humor portion of the story is really the gossip pages in her sister’s newspaper. She unwittingly gets her man ostracized from society then discovers she really must fix it. To hilariously prose her sister’s paper depicts him as a complete inept rake that everyone believes is cavorting with servants. In the end Caroline does figure out how to fix it. While doing that though, she ostracizes herself. Julia wraps the story up quickly with a little country scenery and self discovery by Caroline and Leopold. All in all, you get your HEA even if done a little quickly.

To my rating. Normally, I love historical romances, but this one I think was a bit over the top with etiquette and how Lady Caroline was treated even though she was super outspoken, unmarried, and unconventional in her decorum. In truth she would have been ostracized and not the “Belle of the Ball.” The Prince on the other hand would not have been ostracized as the story depicts, because of his Royal standing. I’m actually super surprised by Julia’s portrayal of the time period in this one. Her writing is usually very authentic to the period and this one just pushed the envelope too much for me. For this one I’m giving only a 3.5 of 5 because even though we may want a modern fairy tale in a historical, it doesn’t happen that way.