Ever a Princess

Author: Rebecca Hagan Lee
Published: February 2002 (Berkley)
Category: Historical Romance
Series: Marquess of Templeton Heirs #2

Oooh. Definitely my least favorite Lee and logically the least favorite of this trilogy.

Basically, the princess of some ficitional European country must flee her home when her parents are murdered by her cousin. Her evil cousin can't take the throne without recovering the signet ring which means he has to recover her body. If they can't find her, they have to mourn for a year and then he must marry a female of royal blood. Unfortunately, the princess is the last one.

So Princess Georgiana flees with a few trusted staffmembers to a hunting lodge in Scotland and pretend to be the staff. They figure that the owner will never show up, but of course he does. He's Adam McKendrick of Nevada, and happened to win the lodge in a card game. Through the shortest of accidental meetings throughout their daily routines, the two somehow fall in love.

I got annoyed by the way he called her "George," because when words of love are being spoken, hearing this guy professing his love to George doesn't sound right in a non-homosexual romance. And then you're sitting there for a while wondering who's the heir to the Marquess of Templeton, and it turns out it's the princess all along! Lee tries to throw you off because Adam carries a locket as well, which was left by his father. His parents' marriage was annulled because Adam's mother didn't want to leave America for England.

I found the romance a bit lacking in this installment of the trilogy. I'm not sure if the whole foreign royal intrigue element was overreaching and the book wasn't long enough to do it justice though. Maybe if the book were one of those 400 page monstrosities, it would've been better.