Three Weeks with a Princess (Improper Princesses, #2)

by Vanessa Kelly

[Lynn]

3.5-4 Stars

Although the second book in the Improper Princesses series, this novel is a standalone and my first by this author.

As the daughter and granddaughter of two of London's most notorious courtesans, Lia Kincaid has spent most of her life sheltered away from the gossip courtesy of Arthur, Marquess of Lendale who allows them to reside in Bluebell Cottage on his Stonefell estate. However, even after all these years, their presence still causes distress and contempt to those that disapproved of his Lordship's relationship with her grandmother. When the Marquess dies without providing provision for either of them, a plan's hatched for Lia to take control of her future. Only the new Marquess, Jack Easton, her friend since childhood makes it his mission to thwart her attempts at every opportunity.

Jack Easton loved his time in the military courtesy of the commission his dear Uncle Arthur had bought for him. Now his Uncle is dead, he's back at Stonefell as his heir. Seeing his childhood friend again is a shock because now she's a beautiful young woman. Unsurprisingly, Jack develops feelings for Lia, who he's always viewed as a little sister. When he finds out she's planning to leave Stonefell to become a courtesan like her mother and grandmother, he's appalled at the scandalous idea. So hindering her plans becomes his mission to stop her outrageous idea because her future belongs at Stonefell...as his wife.

Lia and Jack are such a fun couple. Despite objections throughout their lives, they've managed to stay close even when Jack was away. The result is a wonderful, playful banter between two people that share a mutual respect and affection for each other. Their verbal exchanges are humorous as insults and terms of endearment share the same sentences.

Lia is reckless and naive as she set about trying to solve her predicament with badly thought through plans. She's totally oblivious to the consequences of her actions. With similar determination, Jack makes sure he's always there to pluck her out of unfortunate situations, just as he did when they were younger. However, I felt as though they were constantly going around in circles as the same issues never get fully resolved and were further complicated by unnecessary subplots which distracted from the main plot. They didn't add anything worthwhile to shenanigans apart from delaying the inevitable and introducing more minor characters to remember.

Overall, Three Weeks with a Princess is a light-hearted and frivolous historical romance. It's fun and I loved the aspect of not having protagonists from perfect families backgrounds. As this was my first novel by Ms Kelly, I'm curious to know more about Gillian, the heroine from My Fair Princess.

***arc generously received courtesy of the publisher Zebra via NetGalley***