Once Upon a Prince

Title: ONCE UPON A PRINCE

Author: Rachel Hauck

Publisher: Zondervan

April 2013

ISBN: 978-0310315476

Genre: contemporary romance

A royal prince. An ordinary girl. An extraordinary royal wedding.

ONCE UPON A PRINCE, the first novel in the Royal Wedding series by best-selling author Rachel Hauck, treats you to a modern-day fairy tale.

Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess---just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn't going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.

The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simons Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family's tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel comes to Susanna's aid under the fabled Lover's Oak, he is blindsided by love.

Their lives are worlds apart. He's a royal prince. She's an ordinary girl. But everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel's coronation. It's the ultimate choice: His kingdom or her heart? God's will or their own? 

Ms. Hauck is a hit or miss author for me. I read book 2 Princess Ever After before I read ONCE UPON A PRINCE, and the books do stand alone. But then I downloaded March Bride by Ms. Hauck and discovered it is a continuation of ONCE UPON A PRINCE so I decided to read this first so I won’t be lost.

Okay, I liked the snarky heroine in ONCE UPON A PRINCE. I loved her sarcasm and the way she dumped on the prince when she first met him. However, she was a true drama queen. That got a bit old. Nate was a true hero, and of course, a British accent is absolutely wonderful with a hero. He was willing to listen to her rant, and even got down on his knees to change her tire, within moments after meeting. Not too many men would listen to the rant of a drama queen woman they don’t know if they had the option of walking away. He did, and that earned my respect. He also listened to her lecture and rants most of the way through the book.

The ending of the story was incredibly sweet. I did like this one much better than Princess Ever After. 352 pages. $14.99.