Princes have pomp and glory–not crushes on commoners Nothing gets the tongues of London’s high society wagging like a good scandal. And when the personal secretary of the visiting Prince Sebastian of Alucia is found murdered, it’s all anyone can talk about, including Eliza Tricklebank. Her unapologetic gossip gazette has benefited from an anonymous tip about the crime, prompting Sebastian to … Sebastian to take an interest in playing detective–and an even greater interest in Eliza.
With a trade deal on the line and mounting pressure to secure a noble bride, there’s nothing more salacious than a prince dallying with a commoner. Sebastian finds Eliza’s contrary manner as frustrating as it is seductive, but they’ll have to work together if they’re going to catch the culprit. And when things heat up behind closed doors, it’s the prince who’ll have to decide what comes first–his country or his heart.
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The Princess Plan (A Royal Wedding, #1) by Julia London…Julia London never ceases to amaze me..I was drawn into this story and did not want to leave…Thanks to Julia, the publisher and #NetGalley for letting me preview this book. Prince Sebastian of Alucia (needs to make a trade deal with England and find a suitable wife) Eliza Trickleback ( on the shelf…helps her blind father a judge and her sister Hollis write the Gossip Gazette) There are other characters Caroline and her brother, Poppy, the dogs and cats and many more….there is a murder, a evil plan, deceit, laughs, tears, some scheming (good and bad) love and steam all leading to a very Fairytale HEA. I am hoping some of the others in this book will get their own story… Fingers crossed.
I want to be Eliza when I grow up! She is fresh, vibrant, carefree and so full of life. It took very little time for me to absolutely adore her. I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to maintain it throughout the story but not only did she do so, her character developed to the place that I felt a complete connection to her. She is real. She is engaging. She is the girl we often see ourselves as.
But Eliza wouldn’t have been quite so amazing had she not had Sebastian’s very formal persona as her backdrop. Without a lot of fun in his life, having been raised to be king, he is constantly watched, constantly wooed for one reason or another, both politically and otherwise. With two objectives at hand, he is pressed to move to achieve them until the little spitfire that is Eliza stumbles her way into his life.
I loved the way Eliza treated Sebastian. While she was thrilled to meet a prince, once it’s said and done, she’s moving on. I would have loved for Sebastian to have reacted more to meeting her the first time, rather than take the steps he did which diminished him in my eyes. However, once we get past all that unsavoriness, his reactions and thoughts regarding her had me smiling, laughing, and then cheering him on.
’And yet she was different from the many attractive women he’d met in his life. At first, he’d not understood why, but then, upon reflection, it had become clear to him – she didn’t look at him with starry hope swimming in her eyes. She knew who he was, and yet, she didn’t look at him with any particular reverence. None.
It was oddly disconcerting.’
This has a good bit of relationship angst. After all, we have a prince who must marry someone of consequence and a heroine who does not meet the criteria. Usually, with this trope, I can pretty quickly figure out a way the couple will make it work and often it’s contrived. Not so here. What an interesting way to make it all work out…and I never saw it coming.
The main plot moving along with this budding romance is a murder mystery. It was enough to keep me engaged but I have to confess I was disappointed that the resolution of it all took place off page. I wanted some action and excitement to wrap it all up.
And holy heck! Once this couple are really a couple, at least emotionally, this is nothing short of beautiful. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a hero that was able to verbally express himself in such a way. Pure perfection in every word.
’”All my life, I’ve believed that joy like this was not possible for me. If nothing else, Eliza, if nothing else, you have showed me what love is. Do you understand what a gift that is? I would never have known love had it not been for you.”
Eliza smiled. She framed his face with her hand and leaned down to kiss him tenderly. “Neither of us will ever be the same, then, will we?”
Oh Eliza. He could not possibly express how profoundly he had been changed.’
So, while this had a few things I wasn’t one hundred percent happy with, it left me with a happy beat in my heart, and a smile on my face. But the biggest clue that I loved it…I wanted more.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review*
This is my first read from Julia London and I really enjoyed her writing style. The flow is pleasant and easy to read. This book is a romantic Cinderella story weaved with a mystery murder. Eliza Stricklebank was a spinster who took care of her blind father, a high court justice. After being deceived by her former lover with public humiliation, she was heartbroken and determined to live her life freely and true to herself, an intelligent, lively, and carefree woman.
Sebastian Chartier is the Crown Prince of Alucia, who was in London for the trade agreement between the two countries. He also had a mission to make an English lady his wife to strengthen his political power. As a Crown Prince, he had many restrictions in his personal life, including choosing a wife for love and passion, thus he never thought to have fallen in love with someone.
The murder of his personal secretary, his only trusted friend, has brought him closer to Eliza. Throughout the murder investigation, he realized she was different from every other person he has encountered, she was brutally honest with him, treated him as an equal, and went out of her way to help him solve the mystery. He went from despising her to being intrigued by her. Their romance developed fast, while each knew it could not last forever due to their backgrounds. But Sebastian had his own way to solve all the problems…
A 5-star read, it kept me curious and reading through toward the end to find out the culprit. One little thing that made my experience not wholly was that Sebastian was engaging in a sexual tryst with a married woman in the beginning. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable read throughout the rest of the book.
not long enough
First, the advanced reader copy I downloaded had formatting problems with the first 2 chapters being repeated 3 times. It was tempting not to even bother to read this book, but I did continue reading. I would hope that any and all glitches will be fixed by publication. In addition, the opening chapter about Eliza Tricklebank’s father was not necessary in my opinion. All that info could have easily been teased out during the story. It felt like an info dump which is never a good thing to keep a reader engaged.
I found the story between Eliza and Prince Sebastian to be almost comical and not really romantic. For them to even have any interactions beyond the first ball seemed far-fetched, but with the murder of Sebastian’s private secretary, Sebastian kept seeking Eliza’s help. Evidently he felt she was the only one who would honestly express her opinions to him. I had figured out who the murderer was early on, but there was a bit of a twist at the end that was a little surprising. While this book was not my favorite, I will definitely pick up the next book in the series as I enjoy Ms. London’s books.
I voluntarily read the advanced reader copy and all opinions are my own.
I requested an ARC via NetGalley/Harlequin and this is my honest review.
Being a huge Julia London fan, I really wanted to love this book. It is the first in a new series, and held tons of promise – I just don’t think it delivered enough.
The Tricklebank sisters – and their friend Lady Caroline – are delightful. They’re independent thinkers who refuse to go along with society norms, and long for more than their supposed lot in life – ie home & family. These ladies, and their associated side characters, are the highlight of the book for me.
On the other hand are the Alucian delegation. I did not find Sebastian to be very likable, and his character arc felt almost forced. By comparison, I felt is brother, Leopold, was much more interesting, and I hope there’s a story for him in this series.
The plot was pretty typical, although I thought Eliza and Sebastian fell into bed a bit soon. The love scenes felt a little lacking as a result – there just wasn’t enough of a build up to make their finally coming together seem steamy or inevitable.
Overall, this is a solid start to the series, and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.
This was a middle of the road read for me. I liked it but didn’t love it and I originally thought the plot had a lot of potential but unfortunately it wasn’t ever fully realized. I was enthused by the concept ideas of prince and commoner, being torn between duty and desire and a story filled with mystery and romance but the actual storyline was mediocre at best. An initial spark when you are first introduced to these characters and them to each other quickly fizzles with every new interaction or action they take. In the end you are just left slowly plodding through a read that is burdened by truly unlikable characters that make an unenjoyable couple and a storyline that demands you suspend reality. So for me, not awful but not great either.
I think The Princess Plan is going to be one of those books that is either a complete hit or a complete miss for most people with few riding the fence. However, I ended up riding that fence almost from the beginning. The story is well-written, and it certainly had promise. I was expecting a kind of Cinderella story, and I suppose in some ways it is. The characters are interesting enough, particularly Eliza. I really liked this quirky character. She’s full of life and her acceptance of spinsterhood has given her a snark most women of the time wouldn’t have had. I did have a little trouble with Sebastian. In fact, I didn’t care much for him at all in the beginning, but that’s not necessarily a deal-breaker. In fact, a flawed character with redeeming qualities can be quite fun. I did enjoy Eliza putting the prince in his place, not that I believe such behavior would’ve been acceptable in historical England.
As far as setting, the important thing for me with historical fiction is whether or not it feels genuine. Well, sometimes yes, and sometimes no. But the story is fantastical, so that’s to be expected. I was a bit disappointed that the prince is from a fictional land rather than a place England would’ve negotiated with in the time period. That said, Sebastian’s home country wasn’t really the focus here. The focus was on the romance between the prince and the spinster. Which brings us to what brought them together in the first place. They do have a couple of initial meetings, but the author uses the murder of Sebastian’s personal secretary to give this pair some common ground. So, we have murder, political intrigue, and romance being the primary goal. I do think solving a murder was a pretty clever idea for a plot device to bring these two together, which is why the predictability of the murderer didn’t bother me. It wasn’t really about that, it was all about Sebastian doing some much needed growing up as he came to terms with who and what he wanted, and what he may have to give up to get it.
In the end, there were things I liked about this one and things I didn’t. The story does have some lags, and I didn’t care for the lengthy descriptions for each new character. I prefer to get to know a character as the story progresses, more organically throughout the book I suppose. Some parts went on a bit more than I felt necessary, and there were others that I wanted more of. Nevertheless, the romance is fun, and I did like this pair together. So, did I love it? Not really. But I did like it, and it was worth the read.
Not very interesting characters and read like a historical YA to me. Please pass along my note (check yes or no, do you like me). What originally drew me to the story was the murder. I thought it would be a nice murder mystery/romance but that is not really what I got. I also thought the romance was lacking. I have read several of Ms. London’s books and some I loved and some I did not. This one is in the middle but more toward the did not books. I hate that because the books of her that I loved I really loved and laughed at them.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
London’s high society loves nothing more than a scandal. And when the personal secretary of the visiting Prince Sebastian of Alucia is found murdered, it’s all anyone can talk about, including Eliza Tricklebank. Her unapologetic gossip gazette has benefited from an anonymous tip off about the crime, forcing Sebastian to ask for her help in his quest to find his friend’s killer.
I had mixed feelings about this book & feel like I’m sitting on the fence. It got off to a great start & I loved Sebastian & Eliza’s first meeting in a servants’ corridor & then Sebastian stepping on her foot, I adored her ordering him out of her house & at that point felt I was in for a very entertaining read with lots of banter between the pair, I also felt there was a great chemistry building but after that it went a bit flat. The murder mystery held my interest throughout & I enjoyed that part of the book. I felt the chemistry between the pair didn’t develop & I had difficulty buying into their love for each other. So a mixed read for me.
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
Miss Eliza Tricklebank may be a spinster but she’s content with her life caring for her blind father, a court justice, and helping her sister with the ladies’ gazette she publishes. But when a foreign prince visits London and Eliza has the opportunity to attend a royal masquerade ball, she jumps at the chance. When the personal secretary, and close friend, of Prince Sebastian turns up murdered the next morning, Eliza and her father wind up in possession of an anonymous tip, which she and her sister surreptitiously publish in the gazette.
Prince Sebastian is under pressure to secure trade agreements for his country and find a noble English bride, but he finds himself quite taken with the outspoken publisher of the gazette. Sebastian is intrigued by the fact that Eliza is not the least bit cowed by him and comes to value her advice and counsel about the murder he’s determined to solve. When his friendship with Eliza begins to heat into something more serious, Sebastian must decide if he will continue to forsake his heart for the sake of his country.
Warning! Spoilers ahead. This book has some issues for me. Firstly, the hero has a love scene, albeit off page, with another lady at the beginning of the book, and seeing the hero or heroine with someone else just doesn’t typically work for me.
Secondly, the plot was rather slow, especially the mystery part, and the culprit seemed obvious and like the characters should’ve realized this sooner if they were as intelligent as we’re lead to believe they are. Also, the solution of making Eliza a lady by creating her father as a baron doesn’t work because it would’ve made Eliza a mere miss. I can normally overlook issues with forms of address, though it is a pet peeve of mine, but this was a glaring issue in the plot. This also contributed to making the book feel more modern than historical; if there weren’t references to Queen Victoria and carriage transport, it could’ve almost been a contemporary.
Overall, I did enjoy the story and found the declarations of love to be quite romantic, though I didn’t much care for the main characters and despite the rather slow pacing.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Eliza Trickleback is a confirmed spinster and she is okay with it. She has her friend, the care of father, and helping her widowed sister with her gossip pages to keep her busy. Prince Sebastian is in London to negotiate a trade agreement for his country and find a suitable bride. Finding a young lady ranks absolute last in what he wants to do but he has his duty. The two meet at a masquerade ball and again later after a murder clue ends up in Eliza’s sister’s gossip pages. From there they become friends and conspirators.
Having never read Julia London before, I went into this with no expectations and while I think the story bones are good I just didn’t get a real connection between the leads. Eliza is 28 and has let a past bad affair steal her confidence and flair. She is resigned to never more in life that exactly what she already does. Sebastian is bored with all that royalty has to offer and drifting through his life. It is only the trade negotiations and then the murder of his best friend that breathes any life into him. The two have some chemistry between them but it is low simmering and more suited to their friendship than love conquers all romance.
The story primarily revolves around Eliza and Sebastian solving the murder by working with each other and them learning more about each other. The beginning of the story is fun and light-hearted, the middle drags a little with the ending wrapping up with some action of the murderer found and Sebastian’s machinations to gain Eliza as his own.
Overall, a decent romance that needed a dose of “more”.
Typically, I expect the historical romance that I read to be primarily grounded with accurate, or mostly accurate, historical facts. As a result, I seriously struggled with the fictional nation angle in this story. I enjoyed Eliza’s carefree enjoyment of the masquerade. I could imagine how dazzling the venue could be! And then came the rum punch. There was some serious second-hand embarrassment during the initial meeting between Eliza and Sebastian. I had a strong urge to slap the rum punch out of her hands. I had no problem suspending belief for the meet-cute, though there was a small part of me thinking “There is no way his security would allow some rando to roam about random passages.”
My highlight for the story though was the Judge and his knitting. It is no surprise to those of you that follow DCR to hear me say I have a weakness for loving, if gruff, parental figures and my adoration of the Judge was well earned. I loved his gruff love, his devotion to his daughters and of course his knitting hobby! As a fellow knitter, I’m always happy to see my hobby represented.
As much as I enjoyed some aspects of the story, I found myself frustrated with Eliza for much of the story. Her side of the chemistry seemed flat and her extreme waffling between miss-ish and worldly spinster was whiplash-inducing. It didn’t seem as though she was truly interested in Seb aside from his being a Prince and her reason for spinster life felt a little flimsy. Now, Sebastian’s side of the romance seemed to be fleshed out more, probably because he was a more complicated character, but overall the romance fell mostly flat.
Overall, I enjoyed London’s introduction to her new historical romance series. It did take me about half the book to settle in, but overall I enjoyed Sebastian’s story and Eliza had some positive things to add. What individual hasn’t occasionally daydreamed about meeting a royal and being swept off their feet, even if it is just for decadent food instead of romance! Definitely recommended for fans of London and rags-to-riches romance.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
A marvelous story by Julia Landon. Truly a fairytale with a prince a commoner and those who wish to do him harm. Eliza doesn’t care what society thinks of her anymore and lives her life to please herself. Sebastian is a Prince feeling the walls closing in from all his royal duties. The two make for some very refreshing characters. Eliza is smart and fun. She provides enormous entertainment through the book. She decides to call the Prince a friend as they try to solve a mystery. They fall in love but there are still impediments in their way. They show tenacity by solving the issue and achieving their goals.
This is truly a wonderful story that you should ensure you have ample time to read. Once you start you will be reluctant to put it down until the last. The exuberance of the human and animal characters will jump right from the pages and into your hearts. Well worth reading more than once.
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When I’m in the mood for historical romance, I turn to a few authors that I know can do it right, and Julia London is one of them. In The Princess Plan, she provides us with a royalty/commoner storyline that is organic, sweet, romantic and authentic. There is not a lot of drama or angst – just the burgeoning friendship and affection between two people that, at the time, would have been inappropriate partners for each other just because society says they aren’t the same class.
Sebastian in honest, has integrity, and truly takes the time to get to know Eliza even though he doesn’t think they can have a future together because he just can’t stand not getting to know her. He is thoughtful and caring of her feelings. And Eliza is headstrong and honest.
It was a good read – not overly dramatic and angsty – just a good slow-burn love story
A quick read that unfortunately wasn’t my favourite and I’ve struggled to finish.
There’s a love story between a Prince and a commoner that should grow while trying to solve a mystery.
For as much as i loved the female character, she’s funny and wise and lovely, i found the prince quite lacking in many parts.
They didn’t seem to complement each other as it usually happens in love stories and there are also a few words used that aren’t English/British for the time setting
I finally had the chance to read this book and I must say I was a bit disappointed in it, it really went on much too long and the whole story just dragged for me. I did love Eliza’s character, she was so perky and funny but I couldn’t warm up to Sebastian’s character. As for the murder mystery plot and Eliza helping Sebastian figure out who the murderer is, I also found that to drag on.
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.