A Royal Kiss and Tell by Julia LondonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received an ARC of this. book.
This book was a disappointment. The heroine was unlikeable, had no rooting value, and confusing. I just could not get a handle on her. At the beginning of the book I thought maybe she was slightly air-headed or naive, to be so clueless of how to go about in society (even though the author seemed to hit the reader over the head with all the mentions of how much our heroine went about in society). Then I thought perhaps the heroine was supposed to be reminiscent of Cher in the movie Clueless, but Caroline had none of the sincere sweetness of Cher. Our hero Leo didn't like her, and I kept waiting for him to give her the severe dressing-down she deserved, so she could realize the error of her ways. I got very impatient waiting for it. The reader was finally given a clue to the reasons behind Caroline's unpleasant behavior half-way through the book. I began to feel better toward her, and wished this insight had been provided at the start of the book. But at the end of the paragraph the author revealed that Caroline was rich enough to continue to play her "games" with people and had no intention of stopping. So I went right back to disliking Caroline.
The pacing of this book was very strange, as well. The "mystery" in the plot seemed tacked on. If it had been given more attention it would have helped. The author also moved back and forth in time, and important plot points were mentioned in flashbacks when they should have been described in "real time."
I was just very frustrated with the whole book. I would say it could have been much better, but Caroline was such a confusing all-over-the-place character with no real through-line that I believe the only way to make this book better would be to have a completely different heroine.
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