I read this book as quicky as I could, from the moment I got it. I have read several of Rebecca Chance’s previous novels and I was hoping this would be as good as the others and I wasn’t disappointed! The novel centres on three women – Belinda who was married to a King and faked her own death, Lori who marries King of Herzoslovakia and Chloe who is engaged to Prince Toby. Each woman has her own problems to deal with.
Belinda is holed up in paradise with her lover after discovering her husbands infidelity, with another man! After discovering this secret she had to escape several attempts on her life! Now her son is about to marry and she wants to be part of it!
Then there is athletic Lori who is watched by the King and courted in a whirlwind romance, she readily accepts his proposal thinking it is a love match made in Heaven, events and her Mother in Law to be, the dowager take over controlling her every move. Even an attempt to escape is thwarted and the marriage takes place, the truth of the matter is only recognised by Belinda who can see the same things happening to Lori as happened to her- movements dictated, picked to be good breeding stock and drugs used to ensure what the dowager wants the dowager gets! On honeymoon Lori realises the sad truth and is lucky to have her bodyguard Akilla to fall into.
Then there is Chloe, relentlessly bullied by the press and more upmarket set. She tried hard to fit in but seen as a social climber and ridiculed my many she comes into her own as the wedding approaches. She proves with the help of her best friend to be media savvy, picking British designers and sorting out messes others have got themselves into. Hers is the only real love match.
The women find themselves thrown together as Belinda determines to save Lori from a loveless marriage where she is just breeding stock, and at the same time returns to London to see her children. At turns amusing, with enough sex to keep most happy without it intruding into the narrative, and showing us real women even when elevated into the realms of royalty this is perfect summer reading!
