This story is a modern-day fairy tale of the type “prince meets pauper”, except George, the pauper, is not awaiting rescue nor destitute, and Alex, the prince, is not a knight in shining armor but instead has a few things to learn about “life in the real world”. Since I was born and grew up in the Netherlands, I was particularly tickled by the fact that the prince in this story is from my birth country. While that is not reflected on the cover (which for some obscure-to-me reason shows London instead of Amsterdam), most of the other family and location details were close enough that I was able to recognize some parallels. Most of my enjoyment of this story by far, though, came from the complex and delightfully quirky characters of George, who is hardworking and determined to be a successful design engineer, and Alex, who is a postgraduate architecture student fifth in line to the throne. Their trials and tribulations as they go from one-night stand to being interested in a relationship were interesting, sometimes funny, and entirely plausible.

George may come from “the rough part of town”, but he has worked hard to get a good education and a good job. His first encounter with Alex in a Manchester club is explosive, and they tear up the sheets, but George does not expect to ever see Alex again. Heck, they didn’t even exchange phone numbers. But then he runs into Alex again at a charity event he attends for his boss, and the sparks are still there. George is tempted, but doesn’t believe it will work. Their backgrounds are different, life as a celebrity is NOT what he wants, and one of Alex’s exes stirs up enough trouble to make anyone want to run for the hills. And yet…

Alex has not had much luck with relationships, not that he has been looking. He is fascinated by George and he is out, so at first he sees no issues with pursuing a relationship. Not all of his friends seem to think the same thing, and Alex has to figure out how to make this work because he is determined it WILL work. But he makes a few mistakes, well-meaning though he may be, and needs to learn how to see things from George’s point of view as well as his own.

If you like modern fairy tales and real-life princes, if you enjoy reading about men from opposite sides of the track deciding they want a life together, and if you’re looking for a read that is hot, touching, and likely to leave you with a smile once you finish the book, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )