Amy Wilde is a garden designer who specializes in small high-rise spaces in London. She loves bringing bits of wilderness to the big city, and is happy to be single and hardworking--until she meets Leo, who is both incredibly handsome and thoughtful. Suddenly, she can't focus on her work. Amy goes out with Leo, and finds herself falling for him in a big way. But then her flatmate Jo reveals the truth: Leo is Leopold Wolfsburg, Prince of Nirona.
Amy is flustered; she grew up in a small Yorkshire town, and doesn't know how to deal with the sudden spotlight. Finding photos of herself in magazines and on gossip sites is surreal. But Leo's love makes it all worthwhile, until a sudden change in the Nironian succession puts Leo in line to inherit the throne. Can Amy deal with the increasing media glare and Leo's royal family? Or will the call of her common life and gardening dreams prove to be greater than her love for Leo?
Hester Browne's The Runaway Princess is a fun, frothy book that explores love in many facets: Amy and Leo's sweet love, her snarky but fantastic friendship with Jo and her complicated relationship with her family. Browne manages to make all of these relationships completely believable, and downright funny sometimes, in spite of the farfetched fairytale plot. Amy's anguished internal monologue as she tries to find her own happily-ever-after will keep the reader chuckling.
I really liked The Runaway Princess a lot, and definitely want to read more of Hester Browne's books. It had a number of standard chick lit tropes, but it was witty and surprising too. I'd eyeballed The Little Lady Agency
before, but finally got around to trying this one when I was sent it for review. Rating: 4 out of 5
Should I recommend this to my grandma? Sure!
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Have you read Hester Browne?
What's your favorite modern day fairytale?
