Hello everyone!
As promised in my previous book blog post from last week, this December I'm going to be doing a series of Christmas-related reviews!
Yeah, 'tis the season, alright!
The link to the previous blog, talking about Darcy Burke's novella Where the Heart Is, can be found at the bottom of this post, but today's post couldn't be more different from the previous one because of the chosen book!
Okay, yes, it's still a novella, but it's also different because it's about a royal family as opposed to the Archers of Ribbon Ridge.
Suffice to say, no holiday could ever be complete without some sort of cheer from one palace or another, whether they be fictional or real life, and to be quite honest I've loved this series for quite some time now so I'm excited to share it with you!
Off we go, then, into the review of Royal of Valleria: A Royal Holiday!
Allow me to briefly recap what we know about the royals thus far:
Valleria is a monarchy as old as the Roman empire and located between Italy and France, small, but perfectly self-sufficient, and is ruled over by its current monarch, whose side is graced by his beloved queen, and together they have nine children who have all, to some degree or other, devoted their lives to their country and its people.
I know, right? NINE kids??
But hey, it makes for good reading AND a whole book series!
Since this holiday novella is number five in a row, I'll briefly recap what's happened in the previous books just so nobody gets lost anywhere, as well as mentioning the characters:
Book one is all about the crown prince and heir to the throne Alexander who has been in love with his twin sister's chief-of-staff Rebecca for years, but he finally confesses his love and they start their whirlwind romance against the backdrop of scheming and Rebecca getting kidnapped because a distant cousin wants to be king.
With the fall-out from this security failure, we move into book two which centers around Alexander's brother Marcello, who is responsible for security all around. He gets caught into a web of lies but does in fact find love in English Lady Grace, who has had a bad previous marriage (bad as in abusive) but is Catharine's best friend (Catharine being Alexander's twin sister) and so she has ties to the family already, making it easier for poor Marcello.
As we learn that there was a woman who burned Marcello pretty badly back in the day, we also figure that Arianna, fifth in line for the Vallerian throne, was likewise taken in by a scoundrel and has since devoted her life to being the proper princess. Which is why she agrees to an arranged marriage with the prince, but actually falls in love with the prince's brother, Finn, and nearly gets herself killed because the older brother is a bit on the insane side. Whoops.
Having said that, we move to another son, Prince Nate, who is responsible for Valleria's finances and gets accused of stealing money from the crown while simultaneously falling in love with the palace's head baker, Charlotte. Again, however, the distant cousin pops back up and finally gets locked up for good, but not before both Nate and Charlotte suffer gunshot wounds.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where we find the Vallerian royals by Christmas time.
Whew!
But anyway.
The novella begins with the previously-mentioned couples all enjoying the start of the holiday season - all except Arianna, that is, who's having issues with morning sickness, but hey, she's pregnant, so that's reason to celebrate!
Of course, things aren't going to go smoothly, as Alex and Rebecca are interrupted, with the Prince promising to arrest whoever's bothering him that morning (although he would have some difficulty putting his father behind bars). Daddy-o is livid because a gossip magazine just printed an article about Alex and his mistress, but the pictures turn out to be of Alex and Rebecca.
And then, King Gabriel drops a bombshell, which is that someone had actually stepped forward as the woman in the picture, and it's a woman Alex did share a bed with, a long time ago.
Can we say oops?
Especially since, back in the day, the girl was savvy enough to make a video of her and the prince in, ah, shall we say a compromising situation, and now she's threatening to expose it all, the problem being that the upcoming Holiday Ball doubles as Rebecca and Alex's engagement party.
Can we say double oops?
Anyway, the royal family stick their heads together because not only are there rumours about Alex swirling around, they also have rumours about secret passegways in the palace (true) and questions about why Grace was taken to the family bunker during a crisis in the previous month, since apparently, silly people are silly and can't figure out Marcello and Grace are an item.
The girls decide to go and do some Christmas shopping to provide a united front for the paparazzi, which is actually pretty smart come to think of it.
Double smart since the girls then decide they'll pretend Rebecca might be pregnant.
Meanwhile, in Brazenbourg, Arianna and Finn are discussing how their upcoming wedding should happen, as, traditionally, the royals in the country would get hitched just with their close family around in a small church before having a big to-do for the rest of the countryside. As news breaks about Alex and the scandal though, Finn gives Valleria a call and suggests he might have an idea.
Sneaky, sneaky Finn.
Anyway, back in Valleria, Catharine confides that she's going to the ball with a lesser member of the British royal family, since her mother has issued a silly edict about her being either engaged or almost married by the time Alex's wedding rolls around (don't ask me, I still don't get it).
So with baby clothes shopping going on, I was distracted enough to need my head back in the game when the guys came into the story once more (it's kind of funny, really, how drawn into it you can get), but we don't learn anything more about Finn's plan yet.
We just figure out who the photographer is who took photos of Alex and Rebecca, and that there could be trouble since he always slips away through the legal cracks.
First though, they need to deal with the scheming woman, who's brought to the palace by Marcello to a controlled environment where Alex and Rebecca both meet her. And let me say, it's actually quite magical watching their united front against that woman, who I won't even name. I was super thrilled that the author didn't have Rebecca go into a snit about it.
They deal with the woman perfectly, and then Alex addresses the press and revokes their right to enter palace grounds since there's been so much scandal and gossip going about.
Good man. And with that, bring along the party!
Where there's lots of dancing, Nate tells Charlie he's taking her to Australia and New Zealand, she tells him they're getting matching tattoos, and Grace and Marcello get engaged.
Yes, another engagement!
But the best part of the whole novella was Catharine getting touchy-feely with her bodyguard, Edward, in the ladies' room.
Not going to lie, I looked forward to their book most of the whole lot so far.
The novella ends with the revelation of Finn's plan: bringing the whole Vallerian royal family to Brazenbourg on Christmas morning, so they can witness his marriage to Arianna.
This was a sweet, emotional, and just slightly action-packed novella that concluded some of the stories we'd been reading through the previous books, or set them on different, new paths. The writing style isn't complicated and you can read through each book fairly quickly, really, which is probably why I enjoy them so much, they're so easy to get through!
Now, if only I can get my hands on the book about the wedding of the century, I'll be content!
xx
*image not mine
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