I bought Princess Ever After at B&N with a giftcard I got for my birthday. I read the first book in the Royal Wedding series sometime last year, and loved it! I actually liked this one, the second in the series, even better, though, because I loved how the MC, Reggie, pieced together her family history – it was so cool, even though the country, Hessenberg, is made up. My verdict?

Five stars!

Title: Princess Ever After

Author: Rachel Hauck

Genre: Christian Fiction

Length: 360 pages

Publisher: Zondervan

Source: I bought it!

Blurb: 

Regina Beswick was born to be a princess. But she’s content to be a small-town girl, running a classic auto restoration shop, unaware a secret destiny awaits her. One that will leap from the pages of her grandmother’s hand-painted book of fairytales. Tanner Burkhardt is the stoic Minister of Culture for the Grand Duchy of Hessenberg. When he is tasked to retrieve the long-lost princess, he must overcome his fear of failure in order to secure his nation’s future—and his own. Yet lurking in the political shadows is a fierce opponent with sinister plans to abolish the throne forever. Overwhelmed with opposition, Regina must decide if she’s destined to restore old cars or an ancient nation. Together—with a little divine intervention—Regina and Tanner discover the truth of her heritage and the healing power of true love.

I’ll admit, this is absolutely a cliche. But who cares? I have a weakness for a cheesy romance.

Alright, so first thing’s first. Reactions. Whaaat? Reactions? Why, whatever do you mean, Emily? I mean that sometimes the way characters react to things in a book are so unrealistic. But in Princess Ever After? Totally realistic. Regina finds out she’s a long-lost princess of a country she knows little to nothing about and she doesn’t even believe it at first.

She laughed “The king of Brighton wrote me a letter?” – Page 48

When she finally does realize it’s all true, she freaks. She does what anyone would do – she runs off, she questions God, she blusters and basically just flips out. 

I also loved the speed of things – it was very well written! From beginning to end, nothing went too fast or too slow for me. With a lot of love triangle type books, the relationship of the characters either goes way too fast or way too slow. Again, Princess Ever After felt very real. As Reggie fell in love with Tanner, the minister of culture, I felt as though it went at a steady, but natural pace – which was super awesome!

Another thing I loved is how Rachel Hauck brought all of the settings to life. Regina may be a princess, but she’s grown up in Tallahassee, Florida, all her life – she says “ya’ll” frequently and refers to country music several times. And when she flies to Brighton – the country she’s supposed to restore – the way Reggie falls in love with her ancestor’s home country is so subtle but definite. It’s so beautiful how she connects with the kingdom and people.

So as I first began typing this up, I originally gave the book four stars. But as I kept thinking up all the things I loved about this book, I realized it really didn’t have any flaws and I really loved everything about it. I totally reccommend you to go and read it! It was AMAZING!

Overall GIF Reaction:

So what do you think? Sound like a book you’d want to read?