The Royal Treatment by MaryJanice Davidson

Not my cup of tea

1 star

In an alternate world, the King of Alaska is determined to see his oldest son and heir, David, married and settled. While he is out on a fishing excursion he meets American chef Christina Crabbe and decides that she is perfect princess material so takes her home to the palace to meet David.

David doesn’t really care who he marries so long as he can continue his work with his beloved penguins but he can’t help but be charmed by the unusual, feisty commoner, Christina. Soon the pair are engaged but it will take a lot of work to turn Christina into the perfect princess.

I really liked the premise for this book of an alternate world where Alaska became an independent country rather than part of the USA and had its own quirky, eccentric royal family. Unfortunately for me, the actual book didn’t live up to my expectations.

The worst thing about the book was the heroine, Christina. She was supposed to be feisty but I just didn’t find her likeable at all. She was cocky, sarcastic and ridiculously foul-mouthed yet everyone around her seemed to think she was the best thing since sliced bread. I just didn’t get it. The other characters were slightly better but we didn’t go deep enough to really like any of them.

Because of the lack of depth, the romance also fell flat and the sex scenes were such a disappointment with not a bit of chemistry between the characters.

This is probably a personal thing but I didn’t even crack a smile while reading and there was no humour at all in the book, in my opinion.

Overall, I really didn’t like this book. Having said that, it was my first book by Mary Janice Davidson so perhaps fans of hers might enjoy this more than I did. Only 1 star.