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Title: A Princess for Christmas
Author: Jenny Holiday
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Trope(s): Royals
At this point in time, Jenny Holiday is one of the authors at the top of my auto buy list. I love everything she has done recently, so I was super stoked to find out she is writing not one, not two, but three holiday books. These are basically Hallmark movies in book form with sexy times, which I am. here. for.
Marie is the princess of a small (made up) European country. When she travels to New York to deliver a speech at the UN, she finds herself stranded and in need of a quick ride. Enter Leo, a taxi driver, who is tempted to drive right by the pretty woman in a poofy dress–until his little sister demands he stop and pick up the princess. And it turns out, she’s a real princess! Marie ends up hiring Leo to be her driver while she is in town, a job he doesn’t particularly want, but for an amount of cash he badly needs to be able to give his little sister a good Christmas. And since they lost their parents at Christmas a couple of years prior, they need a little holiday cheer. Marie and Leo manage to become friends during her short stay, and since Marie lost her own mother at Christmas, they are especially connected. Marie ends up inviting Leo and his sister to come home with her for Christmas, and so the blue collar family from the Bronx find themselves staying in an actual palace. Marie and Leo grow closer the more time they spend together, ultimately deciding to take advantage of their chemistry and have a short fling for as long as it lasts. But we all know how that goes, and a fling is never enough. Still, can a princess and a taxi driver find a way to make it work? (Of course they can!)
This book was nothing but a delight from start to finish. Marie and Leo were both charming and loveable, while also dealing with real pain and tough real life situations. We got to enjoy the Christmas season in both New York and a European palace, which really, what more could you need? It has all the best parts of a holiday romance–ice skating and hot chocolate and snowball fights–while also having sizzling chemistry and steamy love scenes. I am already looking forward to next year and adding the next book to my holiday romance collection. Truly, if you find yourself tuning into Hallmark and Lifetime 24/7 during the holidays, then this is the book for you!
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars