RED-HOT AND ROYAL

Author: Susanna Carr ISBN: 9780451223999 6/2008 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: NAL/Signet

Notify the royal guards: Three lucky women are about to break through the gates, take on the palace, and turn on the princes. Kylee, Lauren, and Shayla are modern-day ordinary women who would never meet the requirements for fabled princesses. Damsels in distress? Definitely not. Fairest in the land? They wish. Pure as snow? Not even close. Now, these women are about to get to know the wild side of royalty—and inspire princes to cast the crown aside and bare it all. Their encounters are royally erotic—and the happily ever after they reach is not exactly the fairytale ending you'd expect. It's much, much hotter. One thing's for sure—these princes never had it so good.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The blurb above gets it mostly right, but leaves out some pertinent facts that a reader might want to know before picking up RED-HOT AND ROYAL. Firstly, what this blurb doesn't mention is that Susanna Carr's latest anthology is actually three storylines integrated into one. By having the three novellas integrated, Carr works to keep the reader engaged in all three storylines simultaneously, which also helps the reader to remember the book as a whole rather than three separate stories. I've found in other anthologies, often times, only one or two of the stories will be to my liking, and the others I will usually skip. Here, because of the format, it wasn't that easy to skip ahead if you found yourself not caring about a particular couple, which I think in the long run, worked to Carr's favor as there were some plot details that may cause close readers to pause, at times.

Secondly, the blurb doesn't accurately portray the focus of the book. Despite the half-dressed woman on the cover, RED-HOT AND ROYAL is about the men. There are two brothers who are princes, and their best friend is also a prince of a far off land. They all end up in America and each find a girl with whom to frolic and detour. Along the way, however, all three couples find themselves falling head-on into love, when for most that was the last thing on their minds.

Overall, RED-HOT AND ROYAL didn't appeal to me—at times, the plots seemed overly contrived with vaguely cheesy dialogue and I'm not sure I believed in the 'happy-ever-after' for any of the couples. However, I can see how others would enjoy it. It was a fun story, perfect for an hour or two on the beach, with a cold drink nearby for when the scenes start to steam up! Susanna Carr's previous books all can be categorized as 'light and frothy' and this is no different. Fans of that type of book—and who couldn't use some light and frothy in their lives every now and then?—are sure to enjoy!

Jilian Vallade