Hello everyone!
Back again with another Christmas-themed book, and this time I'm picking one that made me feel a whole lot happier than a ton of different same theme-inspired movies have so far.
Christmas at the Castle was free on Kobo for a limited time and I managed to snag it, luckily, so that I could read through it and decide for myself whether it's something I'd want to rehash again in the near future.
Turns out, it is!
See, romance books fall in different categories for me - the ones I absolutely love despite the cheesiness, ones I can't stand after I read them, and the third one is books I can't even bring myself to finish. Gotta love it when I have options, right?
Anyway, this was a fun, easy kind of read that didn't break my brain while I was at it, and so here we go with Melissa McClone's third book in her Ever After series, Christmas at the Castle!
As per usual with these blog posts, the links to all my previous Christmas-themed books can be found at the bottom of the page. And yes, I plan on returning to Serenity Woods for inspiration quite soon, this I promise you! But in the mean time, there's a ton of books out there by other authors and I keep falling in love with every new one!
The premise for Christmas at the Castle is this: regular American girl is best friends with a princess from a European monarchy (yet again), said princess is getting married and her American friend will be a bridesmaid. Said princess' older brother is suspicious of the commoner and thinks she's here to snag someone royal for herself. Prince eventually realizes he was all wrong about the American and they fall in love, but the Queen says hell to the no. Prince eventually convinces his mother he can't live without the American and she's the only one he'll consider marrying. Happily ever after!
It's a tried and tested trope, but honestly, in about three quarters of the books that I read with this kind of thing, I end up being surprised one way or the other. So, let's dig into this one, ok?
Kat Parsons is a vet in America, paying off her student loans, when she receives word that her best friend Princess Sophia of Alistonia is getting married, and wants her to be a bridesmaid. Sophia and Kat met years earlier while at summer camp together and hit it off almost immediately, which isn't what you'd be able to say about the princess' brother, Gill.
Gill is one of those nose-in-the-air aristocrats who you just love to hate but eventually you fall for them anyway. He wants his little sister to be happy, but he's decidedly NOT happy that she's invited Kat to the wedding.
Why? Simple reason: over the years, whenever Sophia wanted to rebel against her family or do something that might have been frowned upon, Kat was the one who took the blame (aka she was the one who "made" Sophia do it, according to what the royal family heard). The girls thought this was a simple enough lie - after all, Kat would hardly ever meet the royals, right?
Well, turns out that the impression she's left on them during the years isn't stellar at all, and Gill would like nothing more than to pack her right up and send her back to America, where she belongs, in his opinion.
But seeing as it IS his sister's wedding, and she's going to throw a hissy fit otherwise, he gives in (gracelessly) but secretly vows to keep a hard eye on Kat just to make sure she isn't some sort of social climber or gold digger.
Of course, readers know Kat is anything but that - she's a sincerely good friend to Sophia, and she's had a hard time of her own, with her parents basically dumping her with her grandparents so they could continue their research in Africa, where they eventually both died and are buried there. Kat wants nothing more than to pay off her loans, and at this moment to see Sophia happily married.
With the Queen Mother and the groom's mother, however, things are dicey, because they're trying to outdo one another in the planning, witout really considering Sophia much at all, judging by the ridiculous diet they put her on so she'd lose weight even though she doesn't need it.
Kat immediately puts her foot down, though not necessarily with the Queen - she's enraged with Gill for allowing things like that and, further on, for not knowing what's going on.
Gill does step up as older brother, really, but equally he's intrigued by this American vet who isn't turning out to be the kind of girl he imagined she would be, especially since, when the groom's brother arrives, and everyone seems to think he and Kat should (and would) hook up, Kat pretty much turns him down flat.
Little do they know she's starting to hold a candle for her own prince, but not because of any designs or anything. She's just falling for Gill.
It doesn't help that they start spending more and more time together when he realizes that he doesn't want her to fall for the groom's brother (and at which point there's a hilarious scene where the two guys are trying to outdo each other at a gallery, and Kat tells them to go see what they want to see while she'll take tea with the chauffeur). Plus, he has this cute dog Max who is a scene stealer whenever he appears, including at the point where he gets caught in a trap and Kat gets him out without additional injuries.
Might I also add that there are puppies involved later on because Max found himself a lady-love?
All in all, with the wedding craziness in the air, Kat and Gill's romance becomes a bit whirlwind because, for one thing, he's distrustful of Americans because his ex-girlfriend was genuinely not a nice person. Second, his bride needs to be approved by the Queen Mother, and third, Gill needs to get married sooner rather than later, because then the Queen will step down in his favour and he'll take the throne.
Sounds like a lot? It is!
At the very least, however, the wedding goes off without a hitch (eventually) and Sophia is married to the love of her life.
Where does this leave Kat and Gill though?
Well, Kat gets her Cinderella moment - Gill can't take his eyes off her in the bridesmaid dress, but unfortunately for them, the Queen has other plans. She shamelessly orchestrates an "accidental" spill all over the front of Kat's dress, forcing her to go get changed while Gill has to dance with the woman his mother is foisting on him. Thankfully, Kat has a really good maid who dresses her into something else, and she gets to dance with Gill at the end.
Unfortnuately, however, she's also a smart woman - and she knows the Queen doesn't like her. So she bargains a truce with her after showing her a video of the spill incident - Kat will leave as agreed, but she gets the two days with Gill she wants.
She does in fact leave, breaking both her own and Gill's heart, and Gill congratulates his mother on driving away the woman he loves. He also tells her he's not going to marry someone his mother thinks is perfect for him - he's a grown man, he can choose for himself.
Which is how, on New Year's Eve, he and Max pop up in Kat's clinic, where the prince proposes and she says yes.
The end!
Like I said, this was a fairly non-complicated read with enough fluff to last you through to Christmas, but also with a heroine who didn't lose her head once she fell in love and was actually pretty reasonable about everything. Honestly, pretty much everyone's reasons were more or less understandable in this book, probably part of the appeal it has for me (since I can't for the life of me stand it when characters start going into dramatic fits for no good reason). I haven't read the other books in this series but I may look them up in the future.
For now, however, one Christmas at the castle was quite enough.
xx
*image not mine
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